With 656 units of affordable student housing, the recently-completed Academe at 198 is a key component of UC Law’s vision for a vital new academic village in the San Francisco Tenderloin neighborhood. The first four stories of the new 16-story building are given over to large courtrooms, where law students can practice in an environment that simulates what they will encounter in the real world, as well as libraries and social spaces. Above this podium level rise 12 stories of residential housing with studios, one-, and two-bedroom apartments.

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The primary structure is composed of shear walls and features 7”-thick post-tensioned floors with large cantilevers at the edges. In order to maximize the efficiency of the design, R+C utilized a performance-based design approach, which allowed us to reduce forces by nearly 60% while maintaining the desired architectural features. We used nonlinear time-domain analysis, where records from previous earthquakes were used to test the performance of the structure, which was vetted and approved via a rigorous UC peer review process. 

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The building is a transformational hub both for the school and the local community—providing space that transcends the boundaries between learning and living.

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Photography by Bruce Damonte