A new residential complex in San Francisco helps fill a need for housing some of the city's most vulnerable residents.

Developer McCormack Baron Salazar worked with Bayview Senior Services to create the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Building, a LEED Platinum certified senior center and affordable residential complex, on San Francisco’s Third Street Corridor. The Senior Building is dedicated posthumously to Dr. George W. Davis, executive director of Bayview Senior Services, who had worked for a decade to create an “Aging Campus” for seniors in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.

When it opened two years ago, the Senior Building received more than 4,000 applications for its 121 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Twenty-three of the apartment homes are reserved for formerly chronically homeless seniors, and two are set aside as supportive transitional housing for seniors leaving incarceration. Seniors with a history as residents in the local ZIP code and seniors displaced by the redevelopment of nearby public housing were given first priority.

The apartments occupy the top four floors of the building. Each residential floor features lounges and a laundry room, with shared decks on the second and fourth levels. The ground floor of the east wing offers residential services, including on-site social services and case management, and shared spaces, including a private common room, a fireplace and event kitchen, a fitness center, and a beauty salon.

Beyond meeting the practical needs of residents, the project team also focused on aesthetics. Based on the community’s desires and sense of identity, San Francisco-based David Baker Architects shaped the Senior Building with elements inspired by African design. The building’s textured facades, earthy palette, and the central tower’s organic form stem from traditional village colors and structures. African textiles were referenced for interior accents, including Ghanian kente cloth accents on the railings and Malian mud-cloth inspired color blocking on the elevations.

The 14,000-square foot Senior Center serves as a meeting place, social venue, and critical service center for seniors in the Bayview Hunters Point community. Its commercial kitchen serves more than 500 lunches for seniors each day, and its classrooms offer cooking demonstrations and wellness classes, among other community events.