Watermark Condominiums, Lendlease Development

The Watermark is a 130-unit 22-story high-rise project on a half-acre site on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. The design considers the site’s spectacular setting on the San Francisco Bay, at the confluence of varying urban districts and their respective scales. The building’s tower form is articulated with step-backs which, along with projecting bays and balconies, emphasize the slender verticality of the building while affording maximum view opportunities for all apartments. The step-backs also accommodate the mix of one- two- and three-bedroom and penthouse units.Soil conditions dictated that parking be accommodated in a three-story above grade podium structure. This building base is shaped to relate to the scale of surrounding buildings, and its expression is carefully integrated with the tower. The light, transparent nature of the tower, with its glass balcony balustrades and light-colored spandrels of glass and metal, is brought down into the base at the monumental Bryant/Beale corner, while cast-stone walls punctuated with recessed entries, windows, and openings articulate the base walls.

Photography: David Wakely