Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger builds box-like home in SF’s Dolores Heights

Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger is building a box-like home amid the stately Victorians of San Francisco’s Dolores Heights that neighbors might call insta-garbage.

The cube-shaped mansion’s stark, geometric design atop a hill at 801 Sanchez Street has upset residents who say it doesn’t fit with the character of the neighborhood, the San Francisco Standard reported. It marks the latest home on what some call “little tech row.”

“I think it’s absolutely hideous,” one neighbor, Linda, who declined to share her last name, told the newspaper. “And you can quote me on that.”

The house is owned by Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, according to a neighbor who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Noe Valley Voice reported the same in April 2019, saying Krieger paid $10 million for the property

The Krieger project, planned in 2019, required the demolition of a stately home in 2022.

Plans for its replacement include a 7,900-square-foot home with three bedrooms, four bathrooms, two powder rooms and a yoga room and playroom on the second floor, according to the city Planning Department. It will have a “library garden,” plus a bigger garden, lower terrace and a reflecting pool in the backyard.

Eric Holeb, whose family has lived in the neighborhood since 1956, said other well-heeled newcomers have peppered his street with metal-and-glass cubes, now rubbing shoulders with narrow, shingled cottages and Victorians. 

“It’s all boxes now,” Holeb, 69, told the Standard. “And it’s all three materials: wood, brick, metal.”

Two limited liability companies, Woof Hall and Square Seven Management, own the property, according to tax records reviewed by the Standard. 

Square Seven is managed by two executives at Iconiq Capital, an investment portfolio company serving such tech moguls as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Krieger, according to Business Insider, is a former client of Iconiq.

The lawyer who manages Krieger’s Future Justice Fund is listed as the registered agent for Woof Hall, according to a state business filing. The Brazilian-born Krieger co-founded Instagram, which Facebook bought in 2012 for $1 billion. He’s now chief product officer at Anthropic.

The new home’s dark wood-and-glass facade has gone up, and the garden has been put in place, a neighbor told the Standard. A worker said construction is expected to be finished by December.

“Oh, god, every time I pass there I’m like, ‘Look at this behemoth building,’ ” said real estate agent Eileen Bermingham, calling the mansion “over the top.” “All it’s missing is a moat.”

Others were exasperated, rather than furious, at the design.

“Whaaaaat!” said dogwalker Monica Prado, 26, after seeing pictures of the prior home and renderings of the new plans. “It’s too modern. There’s no pizzazz. It doesn’t fit San Francisco.”

Krieger isn’t the first techie to buy a home in the neighborhood prized for its views of Downtown.

Dolores Heights was a quaint, family-oriented neighborhood before Zuckerberg bought a home there in 2012, a real estate agent previously told the Standard. The Meta boss sold it in 2022 for $31 million, but other Meta executives still call the neighborhood home.

“That whole block there has become this little tech row,” Bermingham said. “I think people have gotten used to it.” 

— Dana Bartholomew

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