845 California Street

My wife and I lived at 845 California Street for three years, and it was wonderful! Great view, charming building, spacious studio. Until January 2026. Since then, of the building's two elevators, the left one has been completely broken, and the right breaks multiple times a week. Living on the seventh floor, this situation was frustrating to say the least. Luckily we have the ability to climb these stairs regularly, but some of our older neighbors have suffered significant isolation and risk of injury. Every time we submit a maintenance request, we receive an email that sounds like it came from a robot (and honestly, their quality of service would be offensive to most robots) indicating that the service team will follow up with the maintenance team. As if they haven't been hearing about this for months. I thought an automated customer service system would overcome the frailties of human memory? It seems Brick + Timber offers the worst of both worlds. The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection has visited six times since February, and each time, the elevator is miraculously fixed! Therefore our public officials have told us there is nothing they can do about the situation. The main alternative we have left to believe is that Brick + Timber is purposefully making the building unlivable while just barely maintaining the limits of legal habitability. Either that, or they have zero expertise in long-term management of their portfolio's physical plant. Does Brick + Timber stand for malice, neglect, incompetence, or all three? I leave it to the reader to decide.

I love this building. It's gorgeous. The apartment is great. But the building management refuses to care for it. The elevators almost never work. Any problem, guaranteed it will be a couple of weeks before they even acknowledge that you reported it. As to when they'll do something about it? Frankly they might not ever. If you can live with that BS, this place is great. I'm starting to wonder how much more I can take though.