Plans for Hunters View call for the replacement of all 267 low-income units on site, plus 530 new market-rate rentals and condos. The developers are a venture of three private firms, the John Stewart Company, Devine & Gong and the Ridge Point Non-Profit Housing Corporation. The overall effort is overseen by the city. The total project, slated for completion in 2017, has an estimated cost of $500 million.

All the earlier buildings, a loose-knit group of wooden rowhouses, had been built in the 1950s on the foundations of World War II-era barracks for shipyard workers. Arranged haphazardly on different parts of a steep hillside, the rowhouses lacked any unified relationship to one another and as such were difficult to protect against crime. All the original buildings are to be demolished.

The new master plan, prepared by a local architect, Daniel Solomon, gives the area a regular street grid, as well as a new public park. Social services like child care and job training are available on the site of the new towers. The developers also have provided retail space for two or three stores, to offer residents better access to possible amenities like a convenience store.

And to try to improve access of residents from this isolated section to the rest of the city, the urban design includes new road connections between local streets and city thoroughfares.

Both the buildings and the master plan seek to emulate the San Francisco style of urban design, emphasizing both density and verticality, according to Mr. Solomon. He and a colleague, Anne Torney, also designed two of the new buildings. (Mr. Solomon and Ms. Torney, now partners at Mithun Solomon, designed the buildings while employed at WRT Solomon Etc. A third building was designed by Paulett Taggart Architects of San Francisco.