Oriental Warehouse

The Oriental Warehouse is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the entire South of Market area — an 1867 brick storehouse built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, where tea, coffee, rice and silk landed from Asia. Before Angel Island opened in 1910, the building also served as an immigration processing facility for Chinese and Japanese arrivals; the history here is genuinely deep, and the city recognizes it with landmark status.

The conversion, finished in 1996 by Reliance Development with architect Edmond Lee, is one of the most interesting in California: after Loma Prieta damage and a 1995 roof fire, an entirely new structure was built inside the preserved brick shell — a building within a building. The massive original perimeter walls read from every unit.

Sixty-six live/work lofts, roughly 1,350 to 1,800 square feet, all with two baths, a block from the Embarcadero and South Beach marina. Inventory is scarce and units trade on the building's name.