Conservatory of Music looks to build tower
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is composing its next movement on Van Ness Avenue.
The music school has filed a preliminary application with the Planning Department to build an 11-story tower at 200 Van Ness Ave., a 140-unit building that will house about 300 students and faculty and include a publicly accessible performance space.
The filing comes eight months after the conservatory bought the Lighthouse for the Blind building at 214 Van Ness Ave., a 13,000-squarefoot commercial building, as well as a 27-unit, rent-controlled residential building next door at 200 Van Ness Ave. The music school paid
$8.3 million for the Lighthouse building and $5.9 million for the three-story apartment house.
All the rent-controlled tenants in the 200 Van Ness building will be relocated during construction and then given an opportunity to live in the new building at their current rents, said David Stull, the conservatory’s president.
“We aim to create a special place that benefits the entire neighborhood and, in that spirit, we are doing everything in our power to ensure a smooth transition for the building’s existing residents,” Stull said.
The conservatory will build “a world-class facility in the heart of the city’s performing arts district” that will supply badly needed housing as well as a “highly innovative performance venue, teaching and rehearsal halls” and a streetlevel cafe with live music. “It will be a fantastic opportunity for people to come and enjoy free recitals,” Stull said.
The two properties are less than two blocks from the conservatory’s campus at 50-70 Oak St. and across the street from Davies Symphony Hall in the Civic Center performing arts district. The Lighthouse for the Blind will continue to occupy 214 Van Ness until it relocates next year to 1155 Market St., a 40,000-square-foot space that is about three times as large as its current home.
The conservatory has about 200 students living in the Panoramic, an apartment complex at Ninth and Mission streets, which opened in September. The school also has beds at 1412 Market St. and 112 Columbus Ave. in North Beach. The Van Ness building will consolidate students in one place.
Construction is expected to begin within the next three years. The architect on the project is Mark Cavagnero, who designed the SF-Jazz Center on Franklin Street. Like that building, the conservatory building at 200 Van Ness will include street-level performance and rehearsal spaces that will be visible to people walking or driving by.
“The hope is to excite people about the art, the music and the conservatory,” he said. “The goal here is to make Van Ness and Hayes (street) come alive.”