38 Dolores a stylish but subdued addition to Upper Market

The new eight-story apartment building at the corner of Market and Dolores streets hints at what we'll see across San Francisco as construction cranes make way for finished structures: an abundance of careful planning and a shortage of architectural nerve.

On the ground there's a high-ceilinged Whole Foods Market and a wide sidewalk that doubles as an urbane mini-park. But the building above is a procession of compromises, an earnest collage of scales and skins rather than a distinctive work of architecture that stands on its own.

The result is a plus for a corner that's a gateway to the Castro to the west and the Mission to the south. What's missing is that hard-to-define extra spark - the comfortable confidence that once defined Bay Area urban neighborhoods and now is frowned on more often than not.

If nothing else, the finished product dubbed 38 Dolores emerged relatively coherent from a process that included meetings between the developer, Prado Group, and an array of neighborhood groups after a plan for the larger Upper Market area was approved in 2007. There now are a dozen mixed-use buildings along Market Street west of Van Ness Avenue that are recently finished, under construction or in the works.

This one commands notice because of the prominence of the block-long site, at the crest where Dolores Street's march of palm trees concludes and Market begins its long descent to the Ferry Building.

With no shortage of design cues to choose from, Prado Group and BAR Architects chose a contemporary look and then adapted it to the existing contexts on each side.

The building is eight stories tall along Market, while on Dolores the top two stories are pulled back to reduce the building's heft. The south wing along 14th Street drops to four stories, an abrupt transition to the older residential buildings across the way.

At each turn, the architectural details of 38 Dolores are tweaked as well. The Market Street facade has glassy, right-angled bays that are detailed in crisp metal. The stretch along Dolores has thinner bays and a coat of medium-brown brick. The 14th Street wing wears bricks of a light brown hue and adds a skin of faux wooden slats.

"We really felt the character should be different on Market Street than it was on Dolores, and different again on 14th Street," said David Israel, a principal at BAR, the design architect. William McDonough + Partners was involved in earlier schematic designs for the project. "Each context is somewhat different."

The most memorable move, though, is the one that breaks free of context - a sharp prow that extends 25 feet above the Whole Foods entrance where Market and Dolores meet.

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38 Dolores a stylish but subdued addition to Upper Market