Perkins&Will reuses 3.9 million sf of San Francisco’s building space

Perkins&Will’s San Francisco studio has reused 3.9 million sf of the city’s existing building space, the firm has announced. As a result, the studio has saved an estimated 109,000 metric tons of carbon emissions—equivalent to 280 million miles driven by an average gas-powered car.

According to Perkins&Will, adaptive reuse projects save about 39% of total global warming potential compared to new construction.

In a recently published report (download the PDF report), the studio outlines reuse methodologies. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” according to the report. “Reuse strategies are inherently flexible and can be tailored to each project’s context, goals, and constraints.”

Here are five reuse strategies described in the studio’s report:

1. Light intervention (renovation): improving, updating, or restoring an existing building within its existing envelope, which can enhance performance and extend the useful life.
2. Envelope performance (reclad): optimizing energy efficiency and user-friendliness with strategies such as high-performance curtain walls, window glazing, and daylighting.
3. Systems compliance and energy (upgrade): repairing and making a building usable again while allowing for some modern updates and alterations.
4. Major intervention (addition): adding a new extension to an existing, underutilized structure so it can serve new purposes.
5. Change of use, program, and market (adaptive reuse): maintaining an existing building’s character while repurposing it for a distinctly different use.

Here are three of Perkins&Will’s reuse projects:

UC Law SF, 100 McAllister
In its 100-year history, the building served several purposes—including hotel, church, government building, and student housing. After adaptive reuse, the 276,000-sf tower will meet current seismic standards and get 280 new beds for UC Law by 2028.

Building 12 at Pier 70
Building 12 was one of only a few historic structures retained on San Francisco’s Pier 70, which was among the country’s most productive shipyards during World War II. The 2022 renovation of the 230,000-sf building created a community gathering and event space, and lifted the structure 10 feet to adapt to the rising sea level.

Ratio: Innovation Campus
In Emeryville, Calif., multiple structures built over the last century, including a wood truss warehouse from the 1940s, were converted into a 240,916-sf life science campus with labs and new amenities, completed in 2022.