Now retired from
@sfchronicle
. Still author of "Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building + the Reinvention of American Cities” -- in
@wwnorton
paperback, 2/25
Two years after up w/
@wwnorton
, I’m nervously thrilled to say my book Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities has a Nov. 7 publication date. It’s one landmark's history but also much more… (1/3)
Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of vernacular use of concrete brise soleil in the 1960s. Here are four examples from Berkeley apartment buildings— sometimes striking, always a saving grace
In other news, I'm starting a three-month leave from
@sfchronicle
to write a book on our Ferry Building, and what its rise and fall and rebirth says about the ongoing evolution of urban waterfronts. Watch this space!
Mission Creek is an engineered channel in S.F.'s newest neighborhood -- and harrowing proof of the complexities of preparing for sea level rise. First installment in a four-part series looking at our fragile bay shoreline
These three residential buildings all front Alamo Square. They all exceed the current 40-foot height limit. Somehow, though, the neighborhood has survived
So I'm leafing through a 1961 travel magazine + what should I come across but --?a full-page color rendering of BART on the Golden Gate Bridge!?!?! In a GE ad? Crazy! (trivia for
@berkeleyside
readers: rendering
#2
is the original plan for what now is Ohlone Park)
One of the many attributes of the raking winter light is how it highlights the idiosyncratic stucco patterns from an era long- gone. Some aims to evoke plasterwork. Some is just ....
"Few commercial landlords or office tenants have the technological capacity to perform the simplest and most effective anti-viral intervention: open the windows," JDavidsonNYC points out. "The ability to let in fresh air is a lost art" via
@intelligencer
Amid everything, good news — tomorrow marks the debut of S.F.’s new Crane Cove Park, complete with ample lawns and a rare sandy beach along the bay. It’s 7 acres in Dogpatch along Illinois Street at Pier 70, a welcome addition in this constricted year
My look back at the car-free road not taken: SF planners in 1963 wanted to reserve Market Street for buses + people because “If one form of traffic movement should be deprived of some of the advantages it presently enjoys, it is the private vehicle”
The S.F. project this fall I’m most intrigued by? The floating fire station on the Embarcadero. Full completion still a month or so off, I’m told, including public waterfront access
Your eyes don’t deceive you —buildings are popping up next to BART stations at unprecedented rates. Here’s my look at how transit-oriented development in the Bay Area has finally come to be via
@sfchronicle
My piece on S.F.'s North Beach and how its deep-rooted urban qualities -- from the street grid to social bonds -- has made it, if anything, more vibrant than before the pandemic
Every large city has an iconic building that reveals how today’s city came to be. That’s what led me to write my new book “Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities,” published today by
@WWNorton
(1/6)
Don’t know the landscape architect, but the pairing of a thunderous fountain and a single sculpted tree at 77 Beale is a sublime intervention in the urban grid. And it gets better as it ages
I'm not one for on-line teasers, but can't resist showing you all this 1944 vision for Market Street -- from the priceless
@sfchronicle
archives, natch -- that I came across while researching a riff to run later this week
Attention, fans of Brutalism: I visited the reborn Berkeley Art Museum, and Mario Ciampi’s gravity-defying wonder has been resurrected in a way you won’t expect. Watch this space!
Wanted to lose myself in nature today but had to be at work at noon. So .... off to Telegraph Hill. Up the Filbert steps, down the Greenwich steps. San Francisco, you still have you charms.
My review of a new low-income apartment complex that's socially affirmative and architecturally engaging. It's also a case study, sadly, in how difficult it is to make such places come to be
My majors being history and journalism, I often fear I’m an poseur as rarified architecture critic. Then I encounter buildings like this concrete block house in El Cerrito— and swoon
Nice to be back on top of the world— or at least back in the 5.4-acre rooftop park above San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center. After 10 months off limits, the landscape is varied and lush
I still am surprised to be reminded that in Berkeley— long a self-righteous citadel of next-to-no growth— you can stand in one spot and see four large construction projects under way. Including, the fenced site in front, with 100 percent very-low-income housing
An absolute embarrassment that's all too typical of S.F.'s corrosive political culture -- too many players indulge in self-righteous superiority, and if they don't get their way 100 percent then they'll rather torpedo "the other side"
This is one of my favorite buildings in Oakland, hands down. (I've a weakness for mid-century modern classicism). At 20th + Franklin, architect unknown (to me)
Next week is the publication of my book "Portal," on S.F.'s Ferry Building, and I am jazzed. But I did not, repeat not, coordinate the completion of the tower's repainting to coincide with my book release!
Yes, it's the obligatory "look what came in the mail!" photo regarding "Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities." And the obligatory 1st blurb, from
@PublishersWkly
: "an illuminating architectural and social history." Pub. date is 11/7
The majestic Glen Park BART station, SF's best Brutalist building by far, could be declared a state landmark by the California Historical Resources Commission. Vote is on August 1; my 2009 Cityscape in praise of Ernest Born's triumph is below:
While
@hknightsf
excels at humanizing the larger problems that plague San Francisco, she never loses sight of the beauties and strengths of an enduringly seductive city. This honor is SO well-deserved. Congrats! via
@sfchronicle
Berkeley talks a good talk about its bicycle boulevards. Actually navigating them on two thin tires? Not nearly so inviting. These shots from recent errand on Ninth, King and Milvia
And for something completely different: I've helped put together one of
@sfchronicle
's first audio walking tours -- an exploration of the highpoints + hidden gems of downtown's masonry canyons. So much to see, so close at hand! (1/3) via
@sfchronicle
Slowly but surely! A full 16 years after it opened,
@deyoungmuseum
is starting to get widespread hints of the green patina promised long ago for the copper skin