Plans have been submitted for a five-story, 31-unit condo development on the site of a former artists' studio warehouse and gallery in Duboce Triangle, designed by Stanley Saitowitz and his firm Natoma Architects.

Socketsite first revealed plans for the proposed development at 67-69 Belcher Street back in June, at which point it called for 36 units. The plans call for razing the existing warehouse structure — born a furniture warehouse in 1919 and converted to art studios and a pretty fab loft in the 1980s — and building up higher than the neighborhood currently is zoned for. The development team will, then, be seeking a density bonus.

Socketsite now reports that the plans have now been formally submitted to Planning, after some refinement and a scaling back to 31 units — with a mix of 19 two-bedroom units, 11 three-bedrooms, and a single one-bedroom unit. The total development is 54,000 square feet, and includes a basement garage for 15 cars.

The modern design is striking both in its simplicity and in the use of brick — something not often seen in Natoma Architects designs. And the angled, two-sided bays across the facade echo the Edwardian bay windows of the Duboce Triangle neighborhood.

The Examiner reported on the property when it hit the market in 2007 — it wouldn't end up selling, and as Socketsite tells us, it was later packaged as a development property, listed for $12.5 million in 2016, re-listed in 2020 for $10 million, and then finally sold for $4.9 million this year.

The owners who converted it into its current state, with a loft residence in one half and raw gallery/studio space in the other, were artists and business partners Spaulding Taylor and Win Ng. They purchased the building in 1977, with Taylor building out his half with a loft in 1983. But Ng passed away in 1991 without completing the conversion of his half. (The pair had also owned a retail store together that specialized in Asian-inspired cooking supplies, ceramics, and kitchenware called Taylor & Ng.)

Taylor sold the property in 1996, and there appears to have been renovations to the loft since then. A recent inhabitant, as you can see in the video below, owned quite a guitar collection. But wow, that loft is rad.