The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and subsequent fires leveled 80 percent of the city’s infrastructure, leaving very few structures that date back before the earthquake. This includes the historic Musto Building at 717 Battery on the edge of the North Beach neighborhood, which replaced the Musto Marble Factory when it was rebuilt in 1907. The 58,000-square-foot brick building served as a retail and warehouse space until 2013 when it was once again reincarnated. This time, the historic building was transformed into The Battery, one of San Francisco’s most notable and chic private clubs.
The Battery was built by San Francisco-based BCCI Construction Co. with structural engineering performed by Holmes Culley, San Francisco; core and shell architecture by FME Architecture + Design, San Francisco; and interior design services by Ken Fulk, San Francisco. Construction time took two-and-a-half years, making it one of the most complex projects that BCCI has ever completed.
This project was extremely intricate on many levels because there were so many building systems required to operate the many special features and to accommodate the complex space program. Normally, there are not this many complex systems in one building, especially a building of this size.
Bracing the Exterior
BCCI conducted multiple renovations and retrofits throughout the process, which included implementing a new building structure and a complete interior build-out of upscale amenities, such as guest suites, a fitness center, wine bar, plaza, Jacuzzi pool, library, saunas, spa, massage rooms, game room, card room, restaurant and conference center.
From a structural perspective, renovations to the existing historic building consisted of a mandatory unreinforced masonry building seismic upgrade, which allowed for the expansion of the basement and the addition of a new fourth-floor penthouse. A Performance Based Engineering approach was used to achieve the Basic Safety Objective of ASCE 41. A Non-Linear Dynamic Analysis model of the strengthened building was created, which incorporated a seismic system of special moment-resisting steel frames designed to be drift compatible with the slender brick piers in combination with the long, solid unreinforced masonry walls at the edges of the building. This allowed the existing brick masonry to remain exposed, minimizing the need for additional building materials, maximizing the amount of interior floor area and maintaining the building’s original exterior character, all of which were design goals for the project. Furthermore, BCCI utilized fiber-wrap material on the interior exit stair corridors to minimize the real-estate loss by other structural means.
BCCI incorporated a seismic strengthening system that was sensitive to the building’s historic fabric by bracing the structure with three new steel brace frames that extend through each floor level allowing the interior brick surfaces to remain exposed. Positioned on the south, east and west sides of the building, the brace frames were left exposed so they could be part of the structural vocabulary and aesthetics of the new building. The exposed wood structure is now supported by the new moment frames, which were integrated into the wall system. In essence, BCCI created a steel bucket that allowed all of the frames to be exposed by cradling the structure’s existing wood beams.
Photos: Blake Marvin