390 First Street, San Francisco, CA

Category: Multi-Unit Residential

Square Footage: 178,040 sq ft

Services Provided: HVAC

Completion Date: 2020

LEED Rating: Silver

Owner: Mill Creek Residential

Architect: TCA Architects

General Contractor: Swinerton Builders

Mechanical Contractor: Bay City Mechanical

Pragmatic PE started this project from Basis of Design and schematic drawing bridge documents published by a third-party engineer procured by the owner. The project was originally permitted through the City of San Francisco Planning Department in 2013, but the accepted means and methods of construction and design had significantly changed when the permit sets were generated in 2019. Pragmatic PE met with the City of San Francisco building department personnel to negotiate accommodations for both sides. The requirements of Article 38, related to air pollution zones within the city, were engineered into the final HVAC design. The building officials’ mandate to separate bathroom, dryer vent, and kitchen hood exhausts were relaxed for most areas of the building. The separation of exhaust deviation saved Bay City Mechanical from having to negotiate a significant change order in addition to sending the entire design team “back to the drawing board” to redo the shaft layouts within the building.