Homeless Center

The Multi-Service Homeless Center
on 525 Fifth Street was part of the San
Francisco’s Mayor’s Office of Community
Development’s plan to address
homelessness with the integration of diverse
services in one center.

Formerly a South of market warehouse,
the program contains a 24 hour drop in
center, social service agencies for
counseling, sleeping areas with bed
modules of foldable partitions and

underbed storage, commercial kitchen,
dining areas and office space.

Asian Neighborhood Design combined input
from homeless coalitions, neighbors, and
local businesses to create a well designed,
socially responsible, renovated building that
provides services to address one of the
nation’s foremost urban issue.
---------------------------------------
"In the early 1990s Asian Neighborhood
Design, a San Francisco nonprofit
architecture and development
organization, converted a San Francisco
warehouse into a homeless shelter.
For the dormitory area, the group
designed and constructed
(in its cabinet shop) an integrated, simple,
and flexible system of demountable
partitions and bed frames that had three
anticipated advantages:

(I) the devices could be manufactured
while the space was being renovated
and then easily assembled on-site;
(2) the arrangement of the beds
could be altered by the staff as
necessary; and (3) the system
could be used in many different
locations.....The flexibility afforded by
off site manufacture and the adaptability
of the system to different facilities have
proved the most successful elements
of the Asian Neighborhood Design
system..."

-- Designing for the Homeless
Architecture that Works

by Sam Davis

* Self-Organized - sleeping space could be reconfigured
by the users themselves

Owner/Client: S.F. Mayor's Office of Community Development
25 Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA
General Contractor: Nibbi Lowe
Description: Adaptive re-use innovation which includes a drop-in center, social service agencies for counseling, sleeping areas with bed modules of foldable partitions and underbed storage, commercial kitchen, dining areas, office space, with life-safety systems and seismic upgrades
Construction Cost: $3.9 million
Completion Date: October 1991


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		The Multi-Service Homeless Center on 525 Fifth Street was part of the San Francisco’s Mayor’s Office of Community Development’s plan to address homelessness with the integration of diverse services in one center. Formerly a South of market warehouse, the program contains a 24 hour drop in center, social service agencies for counseling, sleeping areas with bed modules of foldable partitions and underbed storage, commercial kitchen, dining areas and office space. Asian Neighborhood Design combined input from homeless coalitions, neighbors, and local businesses to create a well designed, socially responsible, renovated building that provides services to address one of the nation’s foremost urban issue. --------------------------------------- "In the early 1990s Asian Neighborhood Design, a San Francisco nonprofit architecture and development organization, converted a San Francisco warehouse into a homeless shelter. For the dormitory area, the group designed and constructed (in its cabinet shop) an integrated, simple, and flexible system of demountable partitions and bed frames that had three anticipated advantages: (I) the devices could be manufactured while the space was being renovated and then easily assembled on-site; (2) the arrangement of the beds could be altered by the staff as necessary; and (3) the system could be used in many different locations.....The flexibility afforded by off site manufacture and the adaptability of the system to different facilities have proved the most successful elements of the Asian Neighborhood Design system..." -- Designing for the Homeless Architecture that Works by Sam Davis


* Self-Organized - sleeping space could be reconfigured by the users themselves
Owner/Client: S.F. Mayor's Office of Community Development 25 Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA General Contractor: Nibbi Lowe Description: Adaptive re-use innovation which includes a drop-in center, social service agencies for counseling, sleeping areas with bed modules of foldable partitions and underbed storage, commercial kitchen, dining areas, office space, with life-safety systems and seismic upgrades Construction Cost: $3.9 million Completion Date: October 1991