San Francisco is celebrating the grand opening of Mission Walk, the first below-market-rate, for-sale homes in the new Mission Bay neighborhood. Mission Walk is a development by Berry Street LLC (an affiliate of BRIDGE Housing Corporation) and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA). The project was designed by San Francisco-based Leddy Maytum Stacy architects.
Mission Walk provides 131 for-sale condominiums and townhomes (25 one bedrooms, 82 two bedrooms and 24 three bedrooms) in two five-story buildings; each building features an on-grade parking garage and landscaped courtyard. The development was designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifiable levels. 
The homes are priced to be affordable to households that earn 80 to 100 percent of the 2008 area median income (up to $94,300 for a family of four) and are part of the SFRA’s Limited Equity Program. Sales prices range from $159,000 to $303,000, in a neighborhood where market-rate condos are priced from $500,000 and up.
“With the opening of Mission Walk, the Redevelopment Agency’s affordable housing work in the Mission Bay North Redevelopment Project Area has been successfully completed,” said SFRA Executive Director Fred Blackwell. “The Agency will next turn its affordable housing efforts to Mission Bay South. We are very excited to offer 131 families the opportunity to own their home in this affordable, high quality community with immediate access to Mission Bay’s family-friendly park and recreational amenities.”
Diana,
Thank you for your coverage on affordable housing. As a social worker now interior designer I’ve always believed in “design for the rest of us”. This is truly part of universal design. What do you see as the role of interior design in this arena?
Susan, thanks for your comments. I think that exterior and interior design must be compatible whether it’s an affordable housing project or an office building. I also think that too often a great piece of architecture falls apart once you walk through the door. It seems to me that the role of interior design should be to bring value to the project through spaces that will attract and retain the target demographic. What inexpensive design tips can you share for developers of affordable and low-income housing?