Field Notes: Larkin Street

Selective Demolition, Site Constraints, and a Renovation Built in Pieces

Project Team

Contractor: FORMA Construction
Architecture: Marmol Radziner
Interiors: Ingrao Design
Photography and video: Saul Estrada

Larkin Street is a new addition to FORMA’s active project roster, and it has a character that sets it apart from a straightforward gut renovation, because it isn’t one.

The approach pairs selective demolition with careful preservation of the existing home. The team opened certain spaces significantly; others remain largely intact, receiving lighter updates. That contrast defines the project’s character, finished rooms sit directly alongside stripped-back areas still in progress. The team renovates the house in deliberate phases, and that’s by design.

The site itself adds another layer of complexity. The property has expansive views over the Bay, but it also sits on a constrained, sloped lot that requires a highly coordinated approach to sequencing and logistics. Current activity spans rear-yard work tied to landscape and hardscape improvements, selective framing, and circulation through a home that doesn’t have the luxury of a clean, open construction zone. Work is happening across multiple areas at once, with careful attention to what can and can’t be disrupted at any given time.

One detail in this update that speaks to the project’s practical ingenuity: the system used to move excavated dirt off-site runs through the rear lot rather than through the front of the house. It’s the kind of solution that doesn’t show up in finished photography, but it reflects the kind of problem-solving that keeps a project like this moving on a difficult site without compromising the work inside.

Larkin Street is still early in the process, but the approach is already clear: precise, considered, and built around the constraints of a site that rewards that kind of thinking.