Innovation for Families in Need: Four25 San Pedro.

April 2025 | Four25 San Pedro is among the first permanent supportive multifamily developments within the San Antonio metro area and is unique in its intentional adjacency to major public transit. Now under construction, the building’s San Pedro Avenue façade integrates a permanent bus stop in anticipation of VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Green Line, expected to begin operating in 2027.

“The importance of co-locating any public-sponsored housing near major transit lines addresses two major costs disproportionately affecting low-income households: housing and transportation,” explains Jim Bailey, AIA, project architectural lead and planning policy advocate. “Since the 2017 City Bond initiative, my groundwork with local agencies and government to achieve our urban design goals has shepherded this project into existence. It is a proud moment to see it coming up out of the ground now.”

Landscape Design Adapts to Context

“Due to the urban location, the feel of the public realm at the ground floor is essential to the project’s success. We designed the space to be inviting to residents and pedestrians and to feel sheltered from the heavy traffic on San Pedro Avenue,” explains Jennifer Frantz Melde, landscape architect for the project. Native trees, shade, pedestrian scaled lighting, site furniture, and a widened sidewalk helped create this welcoming atmosphere. The continuous building canopy provides shade and human scale and further defines the space. This public realm will acquire greater significance when the VIA Transit Green Line establishes service on San Pedro Avenue.

Jackson Street borders the property on the southwest side, which is the beginning of a neighborhood of mainly single-family houses. To minimize the impact of the building, trees and native plantings are planned along the Jackson Street side, creating a more pedestrian scale along the residential street.

Architectural Response and Expression

On the architectural intent, Jim Bailey offers, “We imagined Four25 as an urban, transit-served building – designed to echo the scale of the downtown business district, rather than the bay-by-bay articulation typical of apartment complexes. We achieve a quality of substantiality in part by weighting the building mass toward San Pedro Avenue, balanced by stepped-down scale towards neighboring Jackson Street.”

Adds project designer, Fernando Ortega, “Two perceptions of scale along the San Pedro façade coexist: the building envelope reads as a substantial mass at car speed, but provides a pedestrian-scaled experience at street level.” Masonry finishes, specified for resilience, also give this urban residential building a sense of permanence, wrapping the North and South corners along San Pedro. A continuous roof element binds a series of intermediate brick pilasters to visually unite the block-long façade, promoting an “illusion of more with less,” adds Fernando. The main entry is emphasized at the North corner with an extended cornice of articulated brick in patterns evocative of tooled leather. The South corner, by contrast, takes a reductive approach, sculpting away masonry to reveal a glazed communal space that enjoys views of the downtown skyline.

Outdoor Spaces Add Residential Character

Four25 San Pedro offers two outdoor amenity areas located on the second floor. An active, family-friendly courtyard surrounds a central, shaded play structure. We utilize brightly colored playground surfaces to create tricycle tracks and add additional play elements. The second courtyard is more passive, with seating and shaded picnic areas. Large planters filled with low-water native plants separate the courtyards from the surrounding apartments and increase the overall habitat in this urban area.

Potential for Lasting Social Impact

In design for Four25 San Pedro, we have crafted a skilled response to the program set out by the City to address the endemic issue of homelessness, district by district. Beyond simply fulfilling the project brief, we approached Four25 and its local impact with great sensitivity and strong empathy toward those families who will benefit from the shelter and support of its resident community.

Architecture, Landscape Architecture