New S.F. neighborhood like a campus fraternity row Great Meadow's lawn looking like a campus fraternity row

Jake Kopperman (left) tries to block a shot by Jeff Schneider during a game of volleyball at Fort Mason's Great Meadow, where mostly young men come to play sports and party. Jake Kopperman (left) tries to block a shot by Jeff Schneider during a game of volleyball at Fort Mason's Great Meadow, where mostly young men come to play sports and party. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close New S.F. neighborhood like a campus fraternity row 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

Fort Mason, a 237-year-old military post turned national park, has some of the city's most beautiful coastal views, conference venues, a high-end restaurant and, recently, luxury apartments.

But, despite the efforts of Park Service members, the place has been getting quite the reputation. And a new nickname: Frat Mason.

On a recent weekend afternoon, several hundred people - most of them young men - packed the lawn of the Great Meadow, an enormous expanse of green at the corner of Octavia and Bay (conveniently located across the street from the Marina Safeway).

Some were residents of the historic buildings, which were converted into upscale rentals in January 2012 - but most just came for the party. Young men in salmon-colored shorts lounged on a picnic blanket next to heavy red coolers. A few strung hammocks between the lawn's palm trees. Others had set up corn-hole tables, horseshoe ranges, bocce ball and a volleyball court.

It's where you find the all the frat stars, especially on a Fraturday.

" 'Cause it's like the fratty, preppy Dolores Park," said 24-year-old Armando Anido Jr., an investment banker who dropped in from his South of Market pad.

Dolores Park is known for its craft beer and proximity to Bi-Rite artisanal ice cream. Crissy Field is often packed with middle school birthday parties and Lululemon-clad joggers. The Great Meadow at Fort Mason is a Bud Light Lime kind of spot. There are hardly any children. And it's almost all guys.

"I remember when the trash mobs first came," said Alexandra Picavet, the public affairs specialist for the National Park Service, referring to the young men who congregate on the lawn. "It was right around Earth Day."

Fort Mason - with 1,200 acres of greenery - has long been known for its Fort Mason Center, which houses music and arts nonprofits and Greens, the vegetarian spot regularly celebrated as one of the city's best restaurants. But, over the past four years, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has spent millions to make the old military houses habitable (and desirable).

A resident population

There are now 27 buildings, with a total of 38 units, where rents range from $3,600 for a two-bedroom to $12,000 for a three-bedroom. Like the best of fraternities, there's a waiting list.

The unlikely party began when the GGNRA started renting out the apartments - and noticed something strange.

"It's 70 percent men," said Catherine Robles, the park's realty specialist. "They average in their upper 20s, mid-30s. There's the one house we call the Google Girls, but otherwise it's majority male. We really don't know why."

Picavet, the park's public affairs officer, is less than enthusiastic.

"We have a beautiful Phil Burton statue on the meadow - this is the man who saved the park, who started all of this," she said of the GGNRA. "And now you'll find party hats on him. I mean, you never know!"

Like any neighborhood

The new residents insist that partying is only a small part of what's going on at Fort Mason. They say that the neighborhood feels like family, where residents borrow sugar from each other and troubleshoot for their startups while, yes, sometimes having margaritas.

"It's a community and it's almost like a club - if you're having a party, you let the neighbors know," said entrepreneur Darren Streiler, who works from home (usually on a lawn chair) along with his several single-guy roommates in a building residents call "the house of handsome." "You always see a lot of guys you know out there playing football on the lawn."

The few women residents of Fort Mason seem to enjoy the dynamics.

Denise Bertuccelli and her roommate, Mary Heindel, who met playing the drinking game flip cup in the Marina and moved into Fort Mason in January, host Sunday night "family dinners."

"Yeah, it's Frat Mason, but it's a wonderful place to live," said Bertuccelli. "It's the first place I've been friends with all my neighbors. Steve'll call and be like, 'Guys, I made meatballs.' You just don't see that in the city.

"It's the 'sun's out, guns (biceps) out; sun's gone, shirts on' crowd," Bertuccelli said. "I'll walk to the edge (next to her apartment) and just be like, 'There are a thousand people here in our backyard.' And the lawn games are great - we got a tepee last week."

What's for dinner?

At her whitewashed house one recent evening after work, Bertuccelli drank Chardonnay while young men casually sauntered in from next door looking for food - "we're always cooking for them," she said, shaking her head.

Bertuccelli thinks the community became tight-knit because 20 of them moved into the new apartments at the same time, making it feel like September on a college campus - "we all saw each other carrying boxes, all dealt with Comcast problems together."

Meetings like happy hour

The property management group, Gaetani Real Estate, has started hosting its quarterly residents meetings as happy hours at the General's Residence, an event venue.

Many of the residents, who work in tech or have their own startups, work from home during the days.

"It's beautiful here and feels like a creative place to hang out and work - and a lot of us are entrepreneurs," said Steve Long, who works in sales and frequently attends the "work from home parties" that residents organize on the lawn. "And there's the hostel, so we have food."

The nearby youth hostel cafeteria is where Long and Streiler eat most of their meals.

"I eat there whenever the girls don't feed me. We're all traveling or around during the day - a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of us work from home. So we all eat lunch at the hostel," said Long, who had a BLT and a burrito earlier that day.

He jokes about how the police arrive on horseback: "We've got a corn-hole and a beer pong set up, and the horse cop will tie up outside and join in."

Their own holiday

Streiler and his roommates created a holiday called Cinco de Derby, which combines Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day. "So we'll wear seersuckers and sombreros."

They fall in to discussing Fleet Week plans. Bertuccelli and Heindel have a nearby storage unit "with nothing but costumes."

In the 1970s, the lawn was a parking lot, and the buildings were decrepit.

"We used to have 10,000 people on that lawn every year for the Oyster Festival concert," said Picavet. "And it was never as bad as this.

"Nothing's changed on the lawn that would bring them. But then they just all started Instagramming it! I find a lot of social media happening there now," she said. "I think it brings more of them, you know? And they're hashtagging, but they call it the Green or something, which isn't even its name. They like it because it's close to Safeway where they can get their drinks."

But Streiler, like many of his fellow newcomers, thinks the neighborhood deserves renown.

"Most of San Francisco doesn't even know this exists," he said. "I've lived in probably seven different neighborhoods, and this is by far the best."