The opening last month of the Inn at the Presidio means visitors to San Francisco no longer must leave the City to experience an overnight stay in Northern California’s great outdoors.
A building that housed single officers during the Presidio’s days as a working Army post has been refurbished, and reopened last month as the elegant-but-homey Inn at the Presidio. Photo courtesy of Presidio Trust
By Bill Picture
Published: May, 2012
The opening last month of the Inn at the Presidio means visitors to San Francisco no longer must leave the City to experience an overnight stay in Northern California’s great outdoors.
The former Building 42, a historic structure that once housed unmarried officers stationed at the Presidio, a U.S. Army post from 1848 to 1994, has been transformed into a charming bed-and-breakfast style property that affords a peaceful and sustainable alternative to the downtown hotels.
"SFTravel estimates that 85 percent of the people who visit San Francisco come back," said the Inn’s general manager, Terry Haney. "The first time people come to San Francisco, they stay downtown and do all of the usual things—ride a cable car, shop in Union Square, go to Fisherman’s Wharf. But when they come back, they want to experience a different side of the City; and that’s what we provide."
Shortly after the Presidio was transferred by the Army to the National Park Service, the Presidio Trust was created to manage the lion’s share of the nearly 1,500-acre park. True to the Presidio Trust’s stated mission—to preserve and protect the property’s natural beauty and historic structures (the Presidio’s Main Post was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966)—the team in charge of Building 42’s extensive makeover worked hard to retain its elegant-but-homey, Georgian-Rival-style charm.
Improving, not replacing
First on the team’s to-do list was a seismic retrofit. The challenge was how to brace the unreinforced masonry so that it can withstand a big shaker without installing unsightly crossbeams. The answer: core-drilling. "It’s much harder to do, and more expensive, but the cheap and easy way was never an option at any point during this process," Haney said.
The building’s original windows were refurbished and reinstalled, as were its doors and moldings, and new wiring and plumbing were installed throughout the building without disturbing the original horsehair plaster walls.
"That’s why the rehab took almost two years," Haney added, "but it was definitely worth it." Reusing these original elements makes the Inn at the Presidio inherently greener, as replacing the elements would have resulted in landfill-bound waste, as well as carbon emissions from the manufacture and transport of new building materials.
Adding to the Inn’s greener-than-green portfolio is a slew of water-conserving and energy-efficient features, including radiant heating and insulation made of recycled denim. On the operations front, Inn management has set a green course that includes using only non-toxic cleaning agents and eliminating the use of travel-size plastic bottles for bathroom amenities by installing refillable dispensers that can be topped off between guests with bulk-purchased shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion. It’s also worth mentioning that these bathroom amenities are purchased from a local, all-natural—and in many cases, organic—skincare company.
"Every element and every decision, through and through, was done with achieving LEED Gold certification in mind," Haney said. That certification (by the U.S. Green Building Council) is now pending.
Another exciting component of the property’s makeover is its contribution to the Presidio Trust’s ongoing effort to restore and revitalize the Tennessee Hollow Watershed, a creek system that runs through the Presidio. "The Army left it in pretty bad shape, and the Presidio Trust has been working hard to clean it up," Haney said.
Surface runoff, as well as water collected during storms by the building’s rainwater leader system, are both carried by the existing storm-drain system to a new treatment bay that uses soil- and plant-based filtration systems to remove pollutants from the water on its way to nearby Crissy Field Marsh.
"We call it our ‘rain garden,’ and it’s really amazing," Haney said.
A cabin in the City
While the Inn’s green features will surely put it on the radar of eco-minded travelers to San Francisco, inarguably its ace-in-the-hole from an overall booking standpoint is its location in a veritable wilderness with easy access to popular attractions, and big-city luxuries and conveniences within walking distance.
Haney hopes the Inn will help lure more out-of-towners to the Presidio, whose wooded areas and hills are little visited compared to many other San Francisco attractions.
To that end, outdoor spaces at the Inn were refurbished to encourage guests to spend time taking in the gorgeous natural surroundings. Large porches accessible from many of the rooms feature old-fashioned rocking chairs, and a fire pit on the back porch completes the cabin-like setting for a nightly wine-and-cheese reception.
"The views of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge are amazing, and you can spend hours out on the balconies," said Haney. "You can hear the birds singing in the morning, and watch coyotes passing by throughout the day. When you’re here—and by ‘here,’ I mean the Presidio in general—it’s really easy to forget that you’re in San Francisco."
The Inn at the Presidio has been booked solid most weekends since its official opening last month. Since the opening, Haney said he has noticed a definite difference between the Inn’s guests and visitors who stay downtown. "Our guests are definitely more laid back, I’d say. They like being in the City, but don’t necessarily want to deal with the hustle and bustle of downtown. They come here because they want to be able to relax, and this is a great place to do that."
For more information on the Inn and the Presidio, visit
Careful attention was paid to retaining the historic building’s charm. A seismic upgrade of the unreinforced masonry was completed without the use of unsightly crossbeams, original windows were refurbished, and new wiring and plumbing were installed without disturbing the original horsehair plaster walls. Photo courtesy of Presidio Trust
Outdoor porches accessible from most of the rooms encourage guests to get outside and enjoy the Presidio’s natural beauty. A nightly wine-and-cheese reception is hosted around the firepit on the back deck. Photo courtesy of Presidio Trust
