San Francisco's skyline has no shortage of glass-and-steel luxury towers, but the Mira — that twisting, angular high-rise in the Rincon Hill area — still manages to turn heads. Designed by Jeanne Gang, the architect behind Chicago's celebrated Aqua Tower, the Mira isn't just another cookie-cutter condo stack. It's genuinely distinctive. But the real question isn't whether it looks cool from the Embarcadero. It's whether it's worth the eye-watering price tag to actually live inside.
By most accounts, the answer is... pretty solid. One Bay Area resident who lives in the building put it simply: "It is a great building and staff. Floor plans are completely different from the Lumina and Infinity. They have curved rooms while the Mira is more angular." That angular design isn't just an aesthetic flex — it creates unique layouts that feel less like a standard luxury box and more like a space someone actually thought about.
Another local who's visited added that the building "seems well insulated" — high praise in a city where older apartments let you hear your neighbor's podcast choices whether you want to or not.
Here's where our editorial hat goes on: buildings like the Mira represent both the best and most frustrating aspects of San Francisco's housing reality. Gang is a world-class architect, and this kind of design ambition is exactly what a major city should attract. But luxury towers alone don't solve the housing crisis. For every Mira unit selling north of seven figures, there are thousands of San Franciscans priced out of the market entirely — not because we built too many beautiful buildings, but because decades of zoning restrictions and bureaucratic red tape choked the supply of all housing, at every price point.
The Mira is a genuinely impressive building. We should celebrate great architecture. But we should also be honest: San Francisco doesn't need fewer Miras. It needs the freedom to build thousands of less glamorous, more affordable buildings alongside them. Until City Hall gets out of the way and lets that happen, stunning skyline additions will remain monuments to a housing market that works brilliantly for some and fails catastrophically for everyone else.
