Cadence is a combination of two, 7-story residential buildings in the heart of South San Francisco, adjacent to a high-traffic Caltrain station. Originally, an additional 6-story residential building was planned on a third parcel. The project serves as a gateway to the city’s downtown and as an icon from the freeway. Designed to attract nearby tech workers, the project takes its inspiration from both the city’s manufacturing past and its future by creating a design that is modern industrial and chic. One of the main challenges in the design was creating three buildings that relate to each other, but are not repetitive and do not overwhelm the scale of nearby buildings. The solution was to make each building unique, while interweaving shared elements and material, to give a feeling of continuity. This cohesive design unites the project as a whole and creates a diversity that breaks down the scale of the entire project.