San Francisco's Loft Movement

Joe O'Donoghue, director of the San Francisco Residential Builders Association, has used his bullying manner, and sharp sense of San Francisco politics to clear the way for waves of loft construction in the South of Market, Mission and Potrero districts. Critics argue that the lofts are "architectural abominations", and the structures have become the focus of a political struggle. The lofts sell for $300,000 to $1 million. The Board of Supervisors and the S.F. Planning Commission, lobbied by artists concerned about their dwindling ability to afford to live in the city, adopted changes in the planning code in 1988 permitting live-work construction.