Ken Fulk’s Magic Factory
310 Seventh Street, San Francisco. Ken Fulk’s Magic Factory transformed a historic brick-and-timber warehouse in San Francisco’s SoMa district into an extraordinary combination of design headquarters, creative studio, private residence and gathering place. The property brought work, home and hospitality together across four open-concept levels — a genuinely magical live/work warehouse whose defining achievement was functional: it allowed a growing creative business and a private home to coexist without reducing either one to a secondary use.
Iconic Piece of San Francisco’s History
14,000-square-foot South of Market creative brick-and-timber property. Owner-user or investment opportunity.
2022 asking price: $8,900,000 | $636 per sq. ft.
A Factory Reimagined
Before it became the Magic Factory, 310 Seventh Street was built for furniture production, showroom and warehouse use. The industrial building offered the qualities required for manufacturing: open floor plates, large steel windows, loading access and a structure capable of supporting the movement of materials and finished goods. Its brick façade and architectural detailing gave it a stronger street presence than a purely utilitarian warehouse.
The property later housed other businesses, including Mr. S Leather, before Ken Fulk acquired it in 2007 as his design practice was expanding.
Rather than divide the building into a sequence of conventional offices, Fulk retained its open industrial character. Exposed brick, heavy timber, fir flooring and steel windows remained visible alongside dramatic lighting, richly layered furniture, artwork and collected objects. The original factory had been designed to produce furniture. Under Fulk, it became a place for producing interiors, events, installations and ideas.
The building came to include creative workspaces, a design library, a floral studio, gallery and retail concepts, meeting areas and room for artists and collaborators to work within the same environment. The name “Magic Factory” captured both parts of its identity: the industrial history of the building and the theatrical, creative work taking place inside it.
Work Below, Home Above
The Magic Factory expanded the traditional idea of living above a business to an entirely different scale. The lower and middle floors accommodated Ken Fulk’s design firm, production spaces, offices and collaborative work. A loading dock and large freight elevator serving all four levels supported deliveries and the movement of furniture, artwork and event installations through the property.
At the top was an approximately 4,000-square-foot private loft. Rather than relying entirely on permanent walls, the residence used furniture, rugs, lighting, colour and artwork to create different living areas within one broad volume. The loft included a large kitchen, fireplace, dining and lounge spaces and access to an approximately 1,200-square-foot outdoor terrace overlooking the city. An antique printer’s table reportedly served as the kitchen island, continuing the dialogue between the building’s industrial history and its new residential use.
Fulk lived in the loft with his husband, Kurt, and their three golden retrievers. The property was therefore not an office staged to look residential. It was a working headquarters with an actual home above it.
A vintage steel-and-glass door, reportedly sourced from a former state mental institution, marked the transition between the professional floors and the private residence. The detail was theatrical, but it also served a practical purpose: in a building where work and home were deliberately connected, the door established a visible threshold between them.
A Workplace That Became Part of the Brand
Most companies use an office as a neutral setting in which to produce and present their work. The Magic Factory became part of Ken Fulk’s creative identity. Clients entering the building encountered the same combination of architecture, furniture, lighting, flowers, art and atmosphere that defined the firm’s work elsewhere.
The building functioned simultaneously as a design headquarters, a creative studio, a collaborative production space, a gallery and display environment, a private residence, an entertaining venue and a three-dimensional portfolio. Its working and residential identities reinforced one another.
The upper loft also became known for private dinners and gatherings. A private supper-club environment allowed the kitchen, open living areas and terrace to operate together as an event setting above the active design firm. Reported guests included figures from fashion, entertainment and design, among them Stevie Nicks, Jean Paul Gaultier, Tom Cruise, Andy Cohen, Chaka Khan and Dita Von Teese.
The names contributed to the mythology of the property, but the gatherings also demonstrated how effectively the architecture supported hospitality. The building could move from workplace to private home to social setting without losing its identity.
A Property That Resisted a Simple Category
Calling 310 Seventh Street a warehouse described its origins but not the life created inside it. Calling it an office overlooked the upper residence. Calling it a home ignored the scale of the creative business operating below. Calling it an event venue failed to account for its daily use as a design headquarters.
Even the term “live/work” required further explanation. The Magic Factory was not simply a residence with an office or studio attached. It was a multi-level environment in which professional, residential and social uses were intentionally connected.
Its approximately 14,000 square feet included four open-concept floors, a 4,000-square-foot loft, a 1,200-square-foot terrace, an 11-car surface lot, a loading dock and a freight elevator serving every level. Those operational features were as important as the celebrated interiors: parking, loading and vertical access supported employees, deliveries, creative production and events, and the open floors allowed the building to change as Fulk’s company grew.
As the firm expanded to more than 75 staff members and took on larger projects in residential design, hospitality and creative direction, it eventually began to outgrow the property that had helped define it. The Magic Factory was offered for sale in 2022 for $8.9 million as an owner-user or investment opportunity.
What the Magic Factory Teaches About Live/Work Design
A desk placed in a bedroom does not necessarily create a live/work property. Successful live/work design usually depends on several deeper relationships.
Separation without isolation. Working and residential spaces should be able to operate independently when necessary while remaining conveniently connected.
Access that reflects actual use. Clients, employees, deliveries and equipment may require an entrance and circulation route that do not pass through private living areas.
Flexible space. Open or adaptable layouts can accommodate changing professional and residential needs over time.
Operational practicality. Storage, parking, loading, sound transfer and movement through the property can matter as much as appearance.
A clear relationship between uses. A property may be visually suitable for working and living, but its permitted uses and building configuration still need to support those activities.
At 310 Seventh Street, the scale of the building allowed different functions to be distributed across four levels while remaining part of one creative environment. Smaller Canadian properties may accomplish the same objective through separate entrances, ground-floor workspaces or carefully planned transitions between public and private areas.
The Magic Factory became memorable because it was visually dramatic, but its more lasting real estate lesson lies in how effectively the architecture supported several parts of Ken Fulk’s life and business at the same time. The building did not simply contain his work. It became part of it.
Cross-Border Live/Work Comparison
The Magic Factory is exceptional in scale and design, but the relationship it created between home and workspace also appears in Canadian real estate — in converted industrial lofts, townhouses with street-level commercial units, residences above shops and condominiums designed with separately accessible workspace. The comparison is not based on price or architectural scale. It concerns how the working and residential areas relate to one another.
Feature
Magic Factory, San Francisco
Canadian Live/Work Context
Building form
Magic Factory, San FranciscoConverted brick-and-timber warehouse
Canadian Live/Work ContextConverted loft, mixed-use townhouse, shop-house or purpose-built live/work development
Working component
Magic Factory, San FranciscoDesign headquarters, studios, gallery and production space
Canadian Live/Work ContextOffice, studio, professional service, storefront or permitted commercial unit
Residential component
Magic Factory, San FranciscoLarge private loft above the working floors
Canadian Live/Work ContextUpper-level residence or connected residential suite
Separation
Magic Factory, San FranciscoUses organized principally by floor
Canadian Live/Work ContextSeparate entrance, floor, room or street-facing workspace
Operational access
Magic Factory, San FranciscoLoading dock, freight elevator and surface parking
Canadian Live/Work ContextClient entrance, storage, parking or service access where available
Property classification
Magic Factory, San FranciscoWarehouse, office, residence or live/work building
Canadian Live/Work ContextResidential, commercial, condominium or mixed-use
The Canadian Search Challenge
Live/work properties in Canada do not always appear under one dependable property category. A townhouse with a commercial storefront may be classified as residential; a loft with substantial studio space may appear as a conventional condominium; another property may be marketed commercially even though it includes residential quarters. The most important details can be hidden inside the listing description through phrases such as “ground-floor workspace,” “separate commercial entrance,” “artist studio” or “street-facing office.” The Magic Factory represents an unusually elaborate version of this classification problem — the floor plan, entrances, permitted activities and relationship between the spaces matter more than whether it is called a warehouse, loft, office or residence.
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