Phase: Completed (2026)
Client: Chula Cafe

Chula Cafe is a women-owned Mexican coffee shop in the historic warehouse building at Crane Cove Park, San Francisco’s newly rehabilitated waterfront park. The park sits in the Dogpatch next to Mission Bay, two of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods, but it opened without anywhere to get food or drinks. Chula Cafe filled that gap. It gives visitors a place to gather and gives the neighborhood a daily destination rooted in Mexican coffee culture.

KWONBAE led the design of Chula’s first shop, turning the owners’ identity into a warm, efficient space for quick service and lingering. The work fit a modern cafe program into a historic structure, keeping its character while bringing in new equipment, utilities and accessible circulation. Because the building is on Port of San Francisco property, KWONBAE steered the project through SF Port permitting, wwhile avoiding historic review, coordinating with the agency, the owners and consultants through approval. The cafe brings the building back into public use and helps liven up the waterfront.