Tag Archives: move

SoMa: A Neighborhood on the Move

Issues New School Facilities Plans Updates Autumn 2013 No Comments

Diverse and dynamic are two words that describe the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood, which has grown into an incredibly vibrant district of residents, cultural organizations and businesses. It bustles with world-class museums, shopping, dining, convention space, hotels, housing and educational institutions, the most recent of which is Pacific’s new campus.

The Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry is itself playing an important part in the continued development of the Fifth Street corridor in the western portion of SoMa. With the school’s nearly 1,000 students, faculty and staff, along with approximately 10,000 patients who will visit the school for care, SoMa is about to get a new infusion of people into its already dynamic streets.

5M Project

The proposed 5M Project (black markers on map above), a mixed use development project, will span a four-acre site roughly bounded by Mission, Fifth, Howard and Mary Streets. Once constructed, the 5M Project will include more than one million square feet of office space, 750 new dwelling units and 150,000 square feet of ground floor retail, educational and cultural uses.

New Yahoo! Offices on Fifth Street

In August, tech giant Yahoo! signed a deal to occupy 70,000 square feet of space for its new San Francisco offices. Yahoo!’s new space is located in the San Francisco Chronicle’s building directly across from the dental school.

The Old Mint Prepares for the Future

The Old Mint, a stunning national historic landmark, is located on Fifth Street between Mission and Market. The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society is undertaking the restoration of the Old Mint to house the future San Francisco Museum at the Mint. The society is currently raising funds for the second phase of the project. Once the funding is in place, construction will begin, culminating in the grand opening of the museum in three to five years.

New Apartments at Fifth and Folsom

A block and a half away from the dental school’s location, two apartment buildings are under construction. A 282-unit apartment building at 900 Folsom and a 181-unit apartment building at 260 Fifth Street. Both units will include street-level retail space to serve the neighborhood.

Technology, Commerce, Culture and Conventions

Further down Market Street in the mid-Market section between Fifth and Tenth Streets, companies such as Twitter, Dolby and Square have leased commercial office space or purchased buildings. On Market Street near Fifth, the 250,000-square-foot Market Street Place retail complex is currently under construction, as is a Nordstrom Rack store. The Moscone Center also has big plans in its future and will be adding more than 350,000 square feet of convention space during an expansion expected to begin in late 2014.

The Dugoni School of Dentistry is moving forward in getting to know the people, companies and organizations in its new neighborhood. In the spring of 2013, the school hosted a special reception for civic leaders and neighborhood business leaders. School representatives have joined key local business organizations and regularly attend meetings of the Yerba Buena Alliance, Yerba Buena Community Benefit District and San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

  • Map of SoMa area surrounding 155 Fifth Street.
  • Cypress Equities and the Carlyle Group’s rendering of Market Street Place.
  • Avant Housing’s project at 900 Folsom.
  • Avant Housing’s project at 260 Fifth Street.

There and Back Again: The Dental School Family Returns to its Roots

Issues Autumn 2013 No Comments

Founded in 1896 as the College of Physicians and Surgeons, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry has served the San Francisco Bay Area for 117 years.

1896 The College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) is founded in San Francisco, and takes up residency at 818 Howard Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets.

1899 Enrollment exceeds capacity in the rented Federation Hall on Howard Street and P&S moves to a newly constructed school on Fourteenth Street between Mission and Valencia Streets.

1945 To accommodate the increasing demand for dentists, the school purchases a lot behind the building on Fourteenth Street in San Francisco and brings in portable clinic units and offices.

1958 The school outgrows its building on Fourteenth Street and begins raising funds and searching for a new building in San Francisco. 1962 The College of Physicians and Surgeons affiliates with University of the Pacific and becomes University of the Pacific School of Dentistry.

1965 Ground is broken for the dental school’s new building at 2155 Webster Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood.

1967 The school moves into its new building at 2155 Webster Street.

2004 In honor of its incumbent dean of 28 years, the school is named the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry.

2011 The University purchases a former Wells Fargo office building at 155 Fifth Street and establishes a new location for the school in the city’s South of Market district and extensive renovations begin.

2014 The University’s new San Francisco campus, housing the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, will open at 155 Fifth Street.

From Classrooms and Clinics to Condos: What Happens to 2155 Webster Street? Whether as a location for learning, receiving care or employment, 2155 Webster Street has been part of the lives of thousands of people since it opened in 1967. What does the future hold for the building?

Trumark Urban, a Bay Area residential condominium developer, purchased the building from University of the Pacific this past June. The developer plans to build 75 condo units averaging 2,000 square feet each, along with 4,000-square-foot, two-story penthouses with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The building will get a new exterior “skin”—expected to be a mix of glass and earthy materials. The company also plans to redevelop the parking lot into townhouses.

The dental school will continue to hold all of its academic programs and clinics in the 2155 Webster Street location until it completely vacates the building at the end of July 2014. There will be no interruption to or impact on the existing experience for students and patients. The building operations team will continue to maintain the facilities through the end of the academic year.

University of the Pacific worked with Newmark Knight Frank Cornish & Carey Commercial to complete the real estate transaction with Trumark. According to Dan Cressman, executive managing director of the Newmark Knight Frank Cornish & Carey Commercial Capital Group in San Francisco, 2155 Webster Street is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a developer to create a world class condominium development in San Francisco’s most prestigious neighborhood, rivaling high-end condo projects in New York and London.”

  • 2155 Webster Street.
  • Graphic shows the dental school’s locations from 1896 to 2014.

University Celebrates Landmark Purchase of New Home for Dental School

Issues New School Facilities Plans Spring 2012 No Comments

The future of University of the Pacific looks bright in the Bay Area.

The recent landmark purchase of a new home for the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry and other Pacific programs is generating much excitement among the University community and San Francisco’s civic leaders and community members alike.

University of the Pacific’s purchase of a seven-story building at 155 Fifth Street in San Francisco marks one of the largest facility projects ever undertaken by the University. The future new campus is located in San Francisco’s burgeoning South of Market (SoMa) district. It will provide a distinctive new home for future generations of Pacific students.

Five floors of the 395,000-square-foot building will house the Dugoni School of Dentistry, as well as classroom space for other University programs. The remaining two floors will be leased as premium office space. The building will undergo a comprehensive renovation, including a complete replacement of the building’s exteriors and interior spaces, which is expected to take approximately two years. The new campus is expected to open in mid-2014.

“This new facility will allow Pacific to strategically expand its footprint in San Francisco by providing a highly visible presence downtown,” said Pamela A. Eibeck, president of University of the Pacific. “This will give us important opportunities for our dental school, which has been in San Francisco since 1896, and also will allow us to build programs for students in our eight other University schools and colleges.”

“I am proud to welcome the University of the Pacific’s Dugoni School of Dentistry to their new home in SoMa,” said San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “This new campus represents a significant investment in San Francisco, bringing new jobs, new economic activity and one of the top dental schools in the nation to the heart of our City.”

The new building will contain flexible learning environments, labs research areas and support space for the dental school, and will also accommodate clinical changes and technology enhancements to support patient care. The SoMa location offers many neighborhood amenities and close proximity to parking and public transportation options for students, faculty, staff and patients.

“We are proud to be part of the exciting development activity taking place in the South of Market neighborhood,” said Dr. Patrick J. Ferrillo, Jr., dean of the Dugoni School of Dentistry. “The new facility will allow easier access for our patients to receive oral health care, and provide state-of-the-art learning environments to support our academic programs.”

Key partners for the renovation and construction project include the San Francisco office of SmithGroupJJR, Inc. as the lead architect; San Francisco-based Plant Construction Company as the general contractor; and Nova Partners, Inc., of Palo Alto, for project management services. The 155 Fifth Street renovation project is estimated to employ about 200 tradespeople over its duration.

The University is funding the cost of the purchase and renovations through an upcoming fundraising campaign, revenue from commercial leases and the sale of two properties currently used by the dental school in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood.

  • Downtown San Francisco, showing the Central SOMA district (in yellow).
  • Downtown San Francisco, showing the location of 155 5th Street (in red).
  • Architect’s conceptual rendering of building exterior.

Purchase Agreement Signed for New Home

New School Facilities Plans No Comments

The Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry recently  took a bold step forward in its plan for future facilities in San Francisco. The school has signed a purchase agreement for a seven-story downtown building which features approximately 395,000 square feet of facility space.

The building is located on Fifth Street between Mission and Howard Streets in one of San Francisco’s most vibrant districts, the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood. The site was selected after an intensive review of more than 20 locations by a facilities task force made up of dental school representatives, University of the Pacific senior leaders and members of the Board of Regents. The purchase agreement, while not finalized, is expected to be complete by late 2011 barring any unforeseen delays.

Future plans will include an extensive renovation and remodeling of the entire building, which is currently vacant. The building will be completely stripped down to its structural elements. The exterior will be re-skinned and the interior designed from scratch. One advantage of the building’s large, open floor plan is the opportunity to have a blank slate for the dental school to design and create optimal facilities. Design and remodeling work is expected to take up to two years to complete before students, faculty and staff can occupy the building.

When it came time to look for a new location, the school had an extensive wish list driven by several years of new facility feasibility and programming studies. Key features include: flexible space for modern learning environments; clinical spaces to support the new group practice model being planned as part of the new Pacific Dental Helix Curriculum implementation; a more convenient location accessible via public transportation for patients; communal space to better support the school’s culture; and environmentally efficient facilities to replace the aging systems and equipment currently used in the school’s existing building in Pacific Heights.

Approximately 225,000 square feet in the building will house dental school facilities. Additional square footage will be used by University of the Pacific for other purposes, which include the possibility of leasing space to commercial tenants or use by the University for programs in San Francisco in years ahead.

“This exciting step is the culmination of many years of feasibility studies and planning as part of the implementation of our strategic plan, Advancing Greatness,” said Dean Patrick J. Ferrillo, Jr., a member of the Facilities Steering Committee. “While we have much work ahead of us, we are confident this new location will serve us well for decades to come. I would like to thank the school community, including our alumni and donors, who continue to support this vision to create state-of-the-art facilities that will keep us on the leading edge of dental education.”

The school also recently selected Nova Partners, Inc. as its project management firm, SmithGroup as its lead architectural firm and Plant Construction Company as its general contractor.

More details will be shared in future issues of Contact Point and other announcements to the school and alumni communities.