2025 AIASF Housing+ Symposium - American Institute of Architects, San Francisco

Thursday, May 15, 2025

9:45 AM - 3:30 PM (PDT)

140 Sutter Street San Francisco, CA 94104 United States

Housing+ Innovations in Policy & Design Symposium

The 2025 AIASF Housing Symposium will spotlight three major issues shaping the future of housing in the Bay Area, beginning with broader policy discussions and moving toward specific building-focused regulations.

We will begin with a panel discussion into the State Density Bonus Law, focusing on the latest innovations as well as how these and other strategies have been applied, and how effective they have been in addressing housing needs across California. Our second session will examine the process to convert underused office spaces into residential units — a trend fueled by the rise of remote work and the surplus of vacant commercial buildings. Panelists will discuss both the major challenges slowing this transition and the incentives that are helping to move projects forward. Our final panel will explore a design concept widely used in Europe and increasingly discussed in the United States: single-stair access in multistory residential buildings. The discussion will focus on California-specific barriers to adopting this model, as well as the technical, regulatory, and design advantages and limitations that single-stair systems present.

Hosted by AIASF in collaboration with the AIASF Housing Knowledge Community.

9:45 - 10:15 AM: Check-in & Coffee

10:15 - 10:45 AM: Program Welcome & Keynote (Q&A)

10:45 - 11:45 PM: Panel Discussion 1 - Density Bonus Through Objective Design Standards

11:45 - 12:30 PM: Lunch Break

12:30 - 1:30 PM: Panel Discussion 2 - Office-to-Residential Conversions

1:30 - 2:30 PM: Panel Discussion 3 - Single Access Stairs

2:30 - 3:00 PM: Closing Remarks

3:00 - 4:30 PM: Networking Happy Hour

4 LUs (Pending)

Learn about how the new objective design standards impact multifamily housing planning and development. Explore how objective design standards are interpreted in San Francisco and the beyond.
Hear from experienced professionals on what they see as the roadblocks to successful office-to-residential conversions. Explore the differences between San Francisco and other cities where this approach to adaptive re-use is successfully being executed.
Understand how is San Francisco is similar to and different from other California cities that have moved towards allowing single stair buildings. Explore what we need to consider in San Francisco for policy changes to occur to allow for single stair buildings from a public safety perspective.