Urban Advocates Find New, Public Home

"For 50 years, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) has been advocating sound planning through investigating local decisions, making counterproposals, and conducting community outreach. As of tomorrow, it will finally have a welcoming space to match its community-oriented goals. The new space (which replaces cramped offices on the upper floors of a building on Sutter Street downtown) not only projects light and openness, it also provides SPUR with a street-front space to host exhibitions, panels, and lectures.

Designed by local firm Pfau architects, the four-story, 14,000-square-foot headquarters is located on Mission Street in the South of Market neighborhood, just around the corner from SFMOMA. Its white, modern facade stands out on a block of traditional brick buildings. But the $8.5 million building still fits well within its context. It's a simple whole made up of intricate parts, a crisscross of thin louvers, small, operable grid-like windows, clear expanses of glass, and glowing, translucent rectangles."