Where is van ness

The design of the tree grates should be uniform throughout the length of the street. Shrubs or hedges growing to a maximum height of three feet should be planted in addition to or in lieu of ground cover within the median strip. Ground cover species could include Agapanthus africanus Lily of the Nile , Dwarf Lily of the Nile, as well as colorful Gazania, consistent with other plantings in the median along Van Ness.

Sidewalk and median strip paving materials should be concrete, light grey-tone in color, with a plain, brushed surface texture, except for a darker grey inch curbside trim which should add a richness in color and texture to the Avenue. Replace median pavements with grey tone interlocking paving blocks. The stone pavers should be of a complementary medium grey-tone color e.

Painting all the light poles along Van Ness Avenue a blue and gold color scheme, similar to that of the Civic Center light poles, would contribute to this special identity. If feasible, existing street light poles should be maintained and enhanced in order to contribute to the special identity of the Avenue. The angle and color of illumination on existing and new street lights should be designed to minimize glare to nearby residential uses. Lighting should not damage adjacent landscape plantings and should provide safe and attractive lighting for pedestrians.

New bus shelters or replacement shelters should be placed between the trees along the tree line of the sidewalk. Benches should be attached to the ground and located between the trees along the tree line of the sidewalk adjacent to bus stops. Newspaper racks should be clustered only at the intersections in the sidewalk space at the following locations along Van Ness Avenue and would not be allowed elsewhere.

Permitted signs should meet the following design criteria. Signs should not feature any flashing, blinking, fluctuating or otherwise animated light. Likewise, signs should not feature any moving parts. Wall signs shall not be less than 10 feet above grade and should not be higher than 45 feet above grade and should not be higher than the lowest residential window sill.

Projecting signs and general advertising signs should not be higher than 36 feet. Projecting signs shall in no case project more than 4 feet over the sidewalk. General advertisement signs should conform to State Outdoor Advertisement regulations requiring that no advertising display shall be placed within feet from another advertising display. The Van Ness Avenue right of way performs many functions. It is a primary state highway carrying heavy auto and truck traffic.

Appropriate measures are required to make certain this traffic flows smoothly. Measures must also be taken to assure that the sidewalk remains pleasant for the pedestrian and that the street will be as attractive a "front yard" for Van Ness Avenue residents as possible. Aggressively enforce no parking regulations in bus zones. Provide safe and comfortable waiting areas for patrons by using well-directed street lighting and bus shelters.

Pending such an extension, provide a safe, comfortable and attractive terminus to the line at Van Ness Avenue. Extension of the cable car, if financially feasible, would provide more efficient use of the Cable Car line as a transit system for residents as well as an attractive means of transporting visitors to special places of interest. This would create a loop rail transit line around the northeastern quadrant of the city. Although expensive to construct, a Van Ness subway would improve intercity and intra-regional transit service and would ease vehicular traffic flow above ground.

Prohibit new parking access from Van Ness Avenue. For development of lots with no direct access to an east-west street, allow of-site provision of required parking as set forth in Section c of the Planning Code. Make accessory parking spaces available to the general public for use as short-term day or evening parking whenever possible.

The use of these spaces for parking could be a highly desirable adaptive re-use of these buildings, a number of which are to be preserved under this Plan.

Access to the parking should be from the side streets, not Van Ness. Sidewalk space along Van Ness Avenue is shared by pedestrians, transit patrons, sidewalk elevators, light fixtures, MUNI power poles, traffic signals, news racks, benches and street trees, and moving vehicles entering or exiting an on-site parking area.

Design of sidewalk space associated with new development should reduce clutter and pedestrian obstacles. Existing sidewalk elevators should be removed as quickly as possible and they should be prohibited in new developments. The number of news racks should be kept to a minimum to improve the free flow of pedestrian activity. In addition to providing parking access for new developments fronting on Van Ness, the east-west minor streets should provide safe and attractive pathways for pedestrian travel.

Major residential entrances should be designed very graciously and should front major east-west streets. Commercial entrances should be featured along Van Ness Avenue. Whenever possible, access to on-site freight loading spaces should be provided from minor or collector streets rather than from major thoroughfares. In instances where commercial uses front on Van Ness Avenue without convenient access to an off-street freight loading facility, priority should be given to allocating existing curb space on nearby east-west collector streets to truck loading zones.

No parking rules for bus zones should be strictly enforced. Existing housing is an important source of affordable housing and rental housing, both of which are important resources to retain. The demolition and conversion of existing housing units would therefore require Conditional Use authorization from the Planning Commission. In its evaluation of the Conditional Use application, the Commission would take into consideration the objectives of this Plan regarding the preservation of existing housing, the Residence Element of the Master Plan, and all applicable Citywide controls regarding the demolition of existing housing units.

MAP 4 - Significant Buildings. Collectively, these buildings contribute to a rich and attractive architectural environment for Van Ness Avenue. They should be preserved and complemented by new development. In the course of the economic evolution of the Avenue, it is likely that many of these significant buildings will be converted to other uses.

In particular, the function of the street as the auto show room for the city has changed in the recent past and is likely to change even more in the future, with many of the auto agencies relocating.

Preservation and adaptive re-use of these rather specialized structures, a number of which are significantly smaller than the allowable zoning envelope of the site, will require flexibility and imagination.

Van Ness Avenue is endowed with a number of architecturally rich and attractive buildings which impart upon the Avenue a special character and identity. Thirty-three buildings have been identified as deserving special consideration. Although these buildings often share some common classical architectural features, each building is unique in its style and context. Alteration of these historically and architecturally significant buildings should be carefully reviewed for conformity with the building-specific guidelines described.

Demolition should be discouraged unless it is clearly established that the building has been rendered unsafe and unoccupiable and infeasible for rehabilitation due to fire, earthquake, or similar circumstances, or that substantial and irretrievable physical deterioration has occurred.

It would be appropriate to give these buildings special recognition and protection by designating these buildings as local landmarks. The special features of these buildings and guidelines for their potential adaptive re-use or alteration are described in Appendix A. In order to give a strong economic incentive to preservation of those architecturally significant buildings along the Avenue which are classified as city landmarks, the conversion of uses in these buildings should be considered for exemption from the mandatory provision of on-site housing.

Similarly, the conversion of uses in these buildings to office space should be exempted from the provisions of this Plan limiting the amount of office space allowed. These exemptions are designed to make retention and conversion of buildings classified as city landmarks as economically attractive as their demoition and subsequent construction of a mixed-use project conforming to the requirements of this plan. There is another group of buildings, listed in Appendix B, which are not of sufficient importance to justify their designation as landmarks.

Nevertheless these buildings, referred to as contributory buildings, nevertheless, possess architectural qualities which are in harmony with the prevailing characteristics of the more significant landmark quality buildings. These buildings contribute to the character of the street and should be retained if possible. Designs should harmonize with those buildings by continuing compositional features such as horizontal lines i. While the use of color, materials and detailing should not draw unnecessary attention and create conflict with significant and contributory buildings, choices for stylistic treatment are to be left flexible.

A pleasant two-story structure on a small site, distinguished by the lightness and proportions of its ground level arcade and second level windows, the quality of its decorative details, and the large glass areas of its exterior walls. Its appearance could be much improved by consistent treatment in the ground floor arched openings on both streets as well as with a more sympathetic color scheme.

The amount of solid wall surface is minimal in this building with only light-weight columns separating the arched ground floor openings, a condition which also prevails in the second story windows. The site size would not seem to permit a vertical addition with the kind of setbacks which would be necessary to maintain the architectural integrity and character of this building.

It would be inappropriate to place anything of any weight above the almost tracery-like facades. The chamfered corners at Eddy and Larch Streets reflect the angle of the slanted bay windows in the apartment buildings and the windows here and in are multi-paned.

Unless the Larch Street level is used for parking, it might be necessary, if used commercially, to modify the windows on Van Ness somewhat as the existing windows on Van Ness do not permit visibility into the interior.

Thearchitectural treatment of this building is decisively two-part. In the Ellis Street facade, infill glazing between columns is an apparent recent alteration as its counterpart on Olive appears to be the original multi-paned industrial sash.

This building is a designated City Landmark and any alterations would require a Certificate of Appropriateness. A rare and outstanding example of a Moderne auto showroom. The building, with its curving corners, powerful horizontal articulation in its sweeping upper-level solid and glass bands, and eccentric piers and pylons, appears to float above a glass base.

Evidence suggests that this is the last of auto showrooms expressly built for that purpose on Van Ness. Its construction date was only 10 or 11 years after that of its neighbor, no.

Alterations or additions should not be made to the Van Ness facade or the first two bays to the west. All significant interior features should be preserved intact.

Its base, particularly the entrance, is monumental in scale and execution. The six upper floors, while bearing an excellent relationship to the base, take on architectural significance only when viewed with the base.

The interior fulfills the expectations gleaned from viewing the exterior. Monumentality is achieved and expressed in variations of the California architectural theme of the Spanish revival, also expressed by the cub bears atop columns on the Van Ness facade. No alterations to the exterior should occur above the ground floor. However, the sign band at the first floor level should be removed and replaced with a cornice or some other architectural feature which would be more sympathetic to the building.

Minor alterations to the ground floor are encouraged in order to bring it into closer conformity with its original state and as well as more sympathetic to the upper floors, and which would provide uses and window treatment which are more attractive to the pedestrian.

Reconstructed following severe fire damage, this classically inspired building bears a closer affinity to Civic Center buildings than to its automobile showroom and hotel neighbors. Over a rusticated ground floor facade, the upper two floors are treated as a single unit containing three two-story arched openings flanked by narrow pavilions at either end.

There should be no exterior alterations except those which might bring the uppermost part of the facade back to its probable original state of being capped by a cornice or parapet. Presently a theater and formerly a fraternal lodge, this building is designed in the manner of an Italian palazzo which architectural treatment is also given the adjacent building to the east.

There should be no alterations to the architectural detailing of the facades except as may be necessary at ground level for its continued viability as a commercial structure and to enhance its interaction with the pedstrian.

A rare architectural style seldom seen in San Francisco, this Secessionist facade provides a high note of interest on Van Ness Avenue. The architectural features along the Van Ness facade and approximately three bays along Sutter Street should be preserved. This is a fine restrained Classical Revival auto showroom with a rusticated base and Corinthian pilasters.

The bay and pilaster width relate to the width of the street, with the Van Ness facade having a larger scale than the Bush facade. These two buildings, not quite twins, were constructed in no. Gradually, however, the buildings assumed other automotive-oriented uses until today, after interior reconstruction and alterations, they are used for offices and the sale of various merchandise. Both are three stories over basement and intended to be temple-like in their eclecticism in which they preceded their automobile counterparts by a couple of decades.

Architectural embellishments and their arrangement on both facades are similar and in many instances identical. The lower two stories of each are divided, into three parts in no. Each center section contains a typanum above the second floor and an arched entry at ground level. The uppermost portion of the facade of appears to have had some of its ornamentation removed. This is a seven story post-fire apartment building. Its facade is richly articulated by bay windows, intact sixth story and roof cornices, and an ornamental fire escape.

Because of its corner location and two architecturally treated facades, it would be difficult to alter or add to without significantly harming its integrity; therefore it should be preserved intact. A post-fire auto showroom built around , the building has recently changed use and design. Designed in an Italianate commercial style, the building retains its original bracketed cornice, floral-motif frieze, and the Ionic pilasters. Recent additions to the facade have unfortunately obscured much of the original detailing with fake-marble cladding.

The architectural treatment extends two bays up Austin Street, allowing some flexibility for alterations or additions to the rear of the building. This building is a four story former auto showroom originally built for the Paige Motor Car Company and is presently in office and retail use.

The building is marked by two story arches on the ground level differentiating between the functions of the building. The building has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of its corner location, it could not be altered or added to without significantly harming its integrity, and therefore it should remain intact.

An excellent collection of three Gothic apartment buildings strongly related to each other by the use of similar materials, color, massing, scale, fenestration, bays, cornice and belt lines. The corner building Van Ness shuld be preserved intact.

A seven story medical office building with ground floor retail use. The base consists of the lower two floors in which paired windows are separated vertically by two-story Corinthian pilasters and separated horizontally by spandrels embellished with bas-relief ornamentation.

Above the third floor windows a prominent belt runs the lengths of both facades and a cornice caps the top edge. Because of its corner location, its present massing and its two highly visible, architecturally outstanding facades, no exterior alterations should occur. This is an important corner stone church designed in the Romanesque style. It is noteworthy for its entrance arch decoration, corner tower which is an important visual element in the streetscape, and an excellent second story arcade on the eastern facade.

Because of its massing and architectural treatment on four facades, it would be difficult to alter or add to without significantly harming its integrity, and therefore it should be retained intact. Located on a small rise and set back from the street, this is a three and a half story Palladian residence with a strongly emphasized central bay consisting of Ionic columns flanking the entrance, a second floor balcony, a Palladian window on the second story and the roof dormer, and an ornate cornice.

Because it is a freestanding structure, it would be difficult to alter or add to without significantly harming its integrity; the building should therefore remain intact. Located on a small rise and visible above a one story building to the north, this is a three-story Victorian residence with stick style influences, a steeply pitched roof, an ornate chimney stack and abundant detailing.

Because of its prominent location, its three architecturally treated facades, and its massing, it would be difficult to alter or add to without harming its integrity; the building should therefore remain intact. This is a three and a half story Victorian residence recently converted to commercial use with a two story addition to the rear. The building has a strong presence on the street due to its prominent corner location, its square bay windows on both Van Ness and Vallejo, and a complicated gable roof.

Additions to the rear should be kept below the level of the original cornice. This is a small scale Byzantine style church with Baroque detailing. The style, massing and central form of the church are unusual in the Bay Area. Because of its corner location, three architecturally treated facades and massing, it would be difficult to alter or add to without significantly harming its integrity; the building should therefore remain intact.

This is a three and a half story Victorian residence with an extremely articulated handling of the facade consisting of round- and three-sided bays, an impressive entrance flanked by double Ionic columns, ornate cornices and belt course, and an unusual treatment of the roof dormers. Because of massing and scale, the building could not be altered without significant harm to its integrity and it should remain intact.

This is a well-proportioned six story apartment building with good detailing throughout its facades. Above the rusticated basement, a belt course follows the plan outline of the facades including the ters of bay windows which are separated horizontally by spandrels with bas-relief. This massive civic improvement project is bringing San Francisco its first Bus Rapid Transit system, a much-needed and globally-proven solution to improve transit service and address traffic congestion on Van Ness Avenue, a major north-south arterial.

To maximize the benefits during construction, the project also includes extensive utility maintenance, civic improvements and safety enhancements that will revitalize this historic corridor. Construction at a Glance. Temporary blue curb parking for people with disabilities and loading zones Google map. Navigating without left turns from Van Ness. Sign up for project updates. Temporary Bus Stop Relocations Map. Have a question about construction or the Van Ness Improvement Project?

The illustration below shows the three construction phases and work you can expect to be conducted in each phase. Once the utility work is completed, the sidewalk and roadway will be restored to begin the next phase of construction. Construction of the Van Ness Improvement Project is underway.

The project received final environmental certification from the Federal Transit Administration on December 20, After construction is completed, Bus Rapid Transit service is expected to begin The planned improvements are expected to cut travel times for Golden Gate Transit and the 47, 49 and 90 Muni routes by 32 percent. The new Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit corridor will feature nine northbound and nine southbound boarding islands along the red, center-running transit-only lanes.

These locations for station platforms are key transfer points in Muni's Rapid Network. Mansions of prominent families populated the northern end while the southern had dense working-class housing. Serving as a firebreak after the earthquake, Van Ness saved the western part of the city. Once the Golden Gate Bridge was built, it shifted toward regional auto travel.