Built in 1893, San Francisco’s Market Street Railway powerhouse was once the country’s largest electrical generating facility. The historic brick building that powered the city’s first streetcar has now gone to the dogs, cats and other small animals as the city’s Animal Control and Care facility. The adaptive reuse of the unreinforced masonry structure into a 65,000-sq-ft animal shelter and adoption facility required extraordinary measures. Workers incorporated a major seismic upgrade as well as new utilities, MEP systems, roof, floors and courtyard inside the existing brick envelope. To protect the historic facade during construction, the team lifted everything over the masonry wall with a crane, including structural steel and large MEP equipment. The team also tackled the building’s complex retrofit and repurposing in phases, beginning with the foundation. Workers placed reinforcing shotcrete walls along the perimeter footings to support the preserved exterior facade.