Turning Point

Larkin Street Youth Services (LSYS) is San Francisco’s largest and most comprehensive service provider for young people experiencing homelessness. Founded in 1984, they work with some of the city’s most overlooked and under-resourced individuals: unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, ages 12-24.

LSYS approached Fletcher Studio to help them reimagine one of their new Transitional Housing sites. This new project, Turning Point in Berkeley, CA, is their first outside of San Francisco and offers an opportunity to expand their reach within the Bay Area, ensuring their services touch even more lives.

We identified four areas of intervention on the site that would create a more welcoming environment for visitors and residents: the Front Entry, the Front Yard, the Back Yard and the Side Yard.

In the Front Entry, we proposed a change of paving material to define the building main entrance and recycling the sidewalk concrete to create protected planters. Additionally, by replacing fence panels with fiberglass we can bring in more light to the first floor of the building and add legibility to the facade articulation.

We envisioned the Front Yard as a communal space that can hold an outdoor table for resident gatherings. The Back Yard is a more active space with a ping-pong table and raised veggie garden beds for residents to spend their free time.

existing conditions

site plan

front entry

front yard

back yard

process sketches