Architecture – Page 3 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

The Home Telephone Building

Posted by Cindy on February 9, 2013

Feb 092013

333 Grant Avenue
Chinatown
Union Square

Ernest Albert Coxhead of Coxhead and Coxhead has given the city of San Francisco many of its finest buildings — one sits at 333 Grant Avenue, San Francisco landmark #141. The Home Telephone Company was San Francisco’s first telephone exchange site. The building, built in 1908 in the Mannerist style, towers regally over its neighbors.

Detail of the entrance to the Home Telephone Building.

The Home Telephone Company was designed for one purpose, thus the undivided treatment of the façade lends a unity to the building rarely seen in one so large. The Corinthian columns comprise three of the upper stories and dominate the façade. The building is crowned with a classic entablature and cornice that take in the top floor of the building. The building has a steel frame covered with Colusa Sandstone, a popular material in San Francisco and other central Californian cities in the early 20th century.

The pride and joy of the building when it was first under construction was the telephone system itself. The Home Telephone Company proudly announced the fact that they were putting in 413 miles of underground conduit to be served by 850 manholes. They were planning a state of the art conduit system to go under the San Francisco Bay to soon connect the East Bay telephone subscribers to those in San Francisco.

In the second decade of the 1900s, as a result of a graft and corruption scandal that included Abe “Boss” Ruef (the political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz in the period of the 1906 earthquake and fire), the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Home Telephone Company and the Pacific Telephone Company, Home Telephone was sold to Pacific Telephone.

Home Telephone Building – view from across the street.

After a life served as telephone company offices, the building was purchased by a real estate developer attempting to cash in on the real estate boom of the late 1990s-early 2000s, but 333 Grant was foreclosed on in 2002. It was rescued and converted to condominiums in 2004. There are 39 condominiums on the upper six floors and retail on the ground floor. One of the condos is a Below Market Rate (BMR) unit. BMR, or affordable rental apartments, is executed by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. In general, the maximum rents are set at 30% of the targeted owners monthly gross income. Minimum income requirements can vary from unit to unit. Many affordable rental units have maximum incomes limits of 50% or 60% of Area Median Income, though some units are lower or higher.

The Home Telephone Company building was at the forefront of the controversy regarding BMRs during the early 2000s. While many units in varying buildings of San Francisco were made affordable by the Redevelopment Agency’s programs, the owners were often unable to remain in the units once costs, such as homeowners dues (which climbed significantly during the early 2000s) were factored in.

Today, this building is a wonderful example of mixed use in a very urban setting with a Lululemon Athletica store at ground level. The proximity to Chinatown and Union Square make it an ideal home for those that are willing to pay what are still considerably high real estate prices.

Islais: From Creek to Sewer to Creek

Posted by Cindy on February 7, 2013

Feb 072013

Islais Creek
Bayview/Hunter’s Point

It is known as Third and Army by skateboarders. Longshoreman call it Pier 84. Locals just think of it as Islais Creek. No matter its name, it is an area experiencing ongoing urban and environmental renewal. Islais Creek originally flowed for 3.5 miles from the hills of San Francisco into the Bay. The area now called Islais Creek Channel is an inlet of San Francisco Bay located in the Central Waterfront area between Potrero Hill and Bayview / Hunters Point. The area was once a vast salt marsh. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries this area of Islais Creek devolved from a habitat teeming with wildlife to an industrial wasteland, until it was finally rescued by environmental, government and neighborhood groups working hand in hand.

Los Islais (is-Lay-is), named for the Hollyleaf Cherry, provided the Ohlone Indians-the first settlers of the area-mussels, clams and shrimp. In the early 1800s the missionaries from Mission Dolores drew their fresh water from the area. Later, the 49ers, coming down from the mountains during the Gold Rush, began settling on its banks, and then the deterioration started. In 1871 over 100 slaughterhouses were situated on the banks of the creek, giving the neighborhood the illustrious name “Butchertown.” After the 1906 earthquake, the city fathers found it a convenient spot to dump earthquake debris. In 1925 the State Legislature created a reclamation district to drain and develop the Islais Creek basin as an industrial area, leaving only a small shipping channel. Until the 1950s this section of Islais Creek was basically an open sewer.

In 1970 the City of San Francisco built a water treatment plant along the channel to improve the quality of the water flowing into the Bay.

This same area of Islais Creek, the center of the current urban renewal, is now a channel within a landfill, atop what once was a broad inlet of the bay. Towering over the site of the rebirth is a dynamic structure called a Copra Crane. Copra is dried coconut imported, in those days, from the Philippines. Men would go down into ships’ hulls, alternatively working and resting for 20 minutes at a time. One man would break up the coconuts with a pick, and another would shovel the broken pieces into a pile. Cranes would then suction the pieces out and transport them to a warehouse. From there the meat was sent to a Cargill plant to be made into coconut oil. In the 1960s mechanization came to the waterfront, and the men, their picks and shovels were replaced by a small tractor with mechanical choppers.

Copra cranes performed many functions in the coconut business; this particular crane was used to load onto ships processed pellets that were then sent overseas to be sold.

The 1970s saw the end of the Copra trade and the abandonment of the industrial area known as Pier 84. In the 1980s a large contingency of environmental and neighborhood groups began lobbying for a clean up of the area and the building of a park to increase the open space that was so needed in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, an area often described as a marginalized community with modern problems including high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime and disease.

A group of retired and active waterfront building tradesmen also joined the efforts to ensure that the Copra Crane was part of this revitalization. The historic value of the crane was recognized by the Port of San Francisco, and the crane was saved.

In the Fall of 2011 the crane was removed and restoration began.

As part of the revitalization, the dock that the crane sits upon will be stabilized and the crane put back in its rightful place. The restoration is expected to cost a minimum of $400,000 and take well over a year. The revitalized area already has a small boat dock and sand slide for launching outrigger canoes. Additional plans call for a museum featuring waterfront labor history. The groups that have worked so hard to restore Islais Creek continue to write grants and find ways to bring jobs and public awareness to the area through urban revitalization. In 2009 Jo Kreiter, an aerial artist, and her troop performed on the crane. It is hoped that more art will be brought to the neighborhood as the popularity of the revitalized area grows.

Islais Creek is home to the Liberty Ship Sculpture by Nobuho Nagasawa and the Metal Fish by Todd Martinez and Robin Chiang.

The Adam Grant Building

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2013

Jan 192013

114 Sansome Street
Financial District

The garland façade, as well as the coffered entryway, were removed in the 1960s.

Over the course of its 145-year history, the Adam Grant Building at 114 Sansome Street has gone through several iterations. Constructed in 1867, the first building housed the dry goods business of Daniel Murphy and Adam Grant. Architect John Gaynor incorporated 250 tons of iron into this four-story brick structure located at the corner of Sansome and Bush Streets. As a result, the 1868 Joint Committee on Earthquakes honored Gaynor, citing his structure as an exemplar of earthquake-resistant building. Ironically, exemplar or no, the building did not survive the 1906 quake.

In 1908, the Murphy Grant Company hired John Galen Howard and John (J.D.) Galloway Architects to construct a new building (on the same site) for their growing business. This second building, while often characterized as Beaux Arts, incorporated only the sculptural ornamentation characteristic of this architectural style. Otherwise, it was a very simple structure, standing six stories tall.

Nine-foot ornamented urns placed in a set-back corner

In 1926, Murphy Grant and Company moved their dry goods business out of the downtown area, and the building was again redesigned. Under the leadership of architect Lewis P. Hobart, eight more floors were added, and the building was converted into office spaces. In this third (and most current) iteration of the Adam Grant Building, the first 11 floors are topped with three recessed stories with set-back corners. The large open space created by the set-back corners on the 12th floor are utilized as a terrace. During the 1926 construction, four 9-foot ornamented urns were placed at each terrace corner.

The ornamental garland, removed in the 1960s, was replaced in the 2000 restoration by Michael H. Casey Designs.

By the 1960s, architectural styles had changed, and the ornamentation of the main lobby and the entryway were removed.

In 1978, the State of California enacted laws requiring that external ornamentation on buildings in earthquake zones be secured. This resulted in the removal not only of the urns from the Adam Grant building but of a considerable amount of architectural ornamentation from buildings throughout San Francisco (removal often proved easier than securing items).

The interior coffered ceiling, removed in the 1960s, was replaced in the 2000 restoration.

In 2000, the current owners, Ellis Partners (owners and restorers of the Hunter Dulin Building), hired the architectural firm of Ottolini and Booth to restore the Adam Grant building to its earlier pre-1960s grandeur. Working with the original 1906 and 1926 architectural drawings, the Beaux Arts entry façade and lobby coffered ceilings were recreated by Michael H. Casey Designs. Clervi Marble restored the marble floor of the lobby. And the exterior was graced, once again, by four 9-foot urns. These new urns, sculpted by Michael H. Casey Designs, were made of fiberglass, as it was surmised the originals, assumed to be terra cotta, weighed in excess of 1500 pounds.

Due to the care taken during the restoration, the Adam Grant Building has received an “A” rating from the Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage. This means that the building is one of the most important buildings in downtown San Francisco. It is distinguished by outstanding qualities of architecture, historical values, and relationship to the environment.

1360 Montgomery Street – A Streamline Moderne Dream

Posted by Cindy on January 17, 2013

Jan 172013

1360 Montgomery Street
The Malloch Apartments
Telegraph Hill

The Spirit of California.

Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design the images that grace the exterior 1360 Montgomery Street. Du Pont produced two 40-foot high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third on the north side. Du Pont applied colored concrete to the exterior and carved it into shape.

Sgraffito on walls has been used in Europe since classical times, and it was common in Italy in the 16th century, and can be found in African art. In combination with ornamental decoration these techniques formed an alternative to the prevailing painting of walls. The procedures are similar to the painting of frescoes.

Spanish Explorer

As a teenager Dupont ran away from home and rode the rails to San Francisco. His art studies were at the CSFA, UC, and CCAC. Active as a muralist in the 1930s, he painted ceilings at Hearst Castle and other public places in southern California. At the Golden Gate International Exhibition of 1939 he painted murals in the mining building. While serving in the Navy during WWII, he did illustrations of ships and manuals and painted portraits of Admirals Nimitz and Halsey. He received two Purple Hearts for wounds received when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 and in the battle of Okinawa in 1945. After the war he settled in Laguna Beach and painted many marines and coastals of that area. On March 2, 1982 Dupont suffered a heart attack while driving in Newport Beach and died of the injuries.

The Malloch Building has a fascinating history and is well worth the read.

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

Posted by Cindy on January 12, 2013

Jan 122013

100 JFK Boulevard
Golden Gate Park
The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America.

It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050 and had it shipped to his estate on the Peninsula. However, it is also thought that portions of the original building contained California redwood. Upon Lick’s death in 1876, The Society of California Pioneers found themselves the owners. They chose to sell it to a group of 27 San Francisco businessmen. These men, in turn, gave it to the City of San Francisco for use in Golden Gate Park. The state legislature appropriated $40,000 for the construction of the greenhouse, beginning a financial arrangement between public and private sources that exists to this day.

Assembled by the New York greenhouse manufacturing firm Lord and Bunham, this fine example of Victorian architecture opened to the public in 1876. When it was destroyed in 1883 by a boiler fire, banker and railroad baron Charles Crocker funded the restoration. Though it survived the 1906 earthquake intact, by 1933, structural instability caused the Park Commission to close the conservatory for 13 years.

Several other incidents required major repairs through the life of the conservatory, yet none dealt a bigger blow than the wind storms of 1995. Over 400 trees were blown down throughout Golden Gate Park and the park was closed for the first time in its history. The damage to the conservatory was extensive: 40% of the glass was smashed, and several wood arches were damaged. As a consequence, the conservatory had the dubious honor of being placed on the World Monument Funds list of 100 Most Endangered Buildings. In 1998, the National Trusts, Save the Americas Treasures, began the process of raising the $25 million required to restore the conservatory.

This restoration was not easy. The conservatory is 12,000 square feet. The central dome is 56 feet in diameter, 55 feet high and weighs 29,000 pounds. Each wing is 93’ long. The finial on top of the dome is 13’ tall and weighs 800 pounds. There are 16,800 windowpanes within a grid of 100 redwood and douglas fir arches. The original walkways formed one of the oldest concrete pours in the west.

Architectural Resources Group and Tennebaum Manheim Engineers tackled the task of putting the conservatory back into public use. It was found that in addition to the ruin done by the storm, the building had an inadequate brick foundation and there was extensive rot in the non-redwood sections.

The six-year restoration included conservation, restoration and rehabilitation. Two-thirds of the redwood architectural elements were reused; the rest came from fallen, old-growth, buckskin redwood logs. All of the clear glass was replaced with safety glass, 90% of the colored glass pieces were reused and 70% of the mullions were salvaged.

The conservatory is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and The California Register of Historic Places. It is a City and County of San Francisco Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

If you are interested in viewing the oldest complete collection of highland orchids, the huge Amazon water lilies, or the 100-year-old giant Imperial Philodendron named Phil, you can do so Tuesdays through Sunday from 10 to 4. Ticket information can be found on the Conservatory’s website.

The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2013

Jan 092013

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation
222-226 Jessie Street
Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens

Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that had prepared the 1905 plan for the conversion of San Francisco to a model of the “city beautiful” along the lines of Paris and Washington. As a result, it is not altogether surprising that the architectural ideas of Polk and Burnham should have been applied to an electric substation in a South-of-Market alley.

This noble structure is a simple (but quite sophisticated) exercise in the development of balance, line, and texture. Though the eye focuses on the ornamental, vertical, and symmetrical piercings and moldings, it is the horizontal line of the rough, red wall that catches the breath. Yet, of course, it is the elaborate applied inventions that make the plain surface more than just another brick wall. This is a building that many San Franciscans have never seen, and it is worth going out of one’s way to look at it. The above Here Today, San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage by Roger Olmsted and T.H. Watkins, 1969.

The Substation, which served as a power station until 1924 is now part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum (designed by Daniel Liebeskind). This lovely pediment sculpture is part of the original substation building.

facade_lg

The pediment sculpture is located above the left door and features matte-glazed terra cotta cherubs holding garlands above a plaque that reads 1907, the date the original building was completed. Restoration of the brick facade took six months during which time damaged pieces of terra cotta were built out using fiberglass and putty. The fixtures were then re-glazed to protect them from future environmental damage.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum addition

There are a lot of beautiful ornamentation on buildings throughout San Francisco, and like much of it, it was done by artists and craftspeople that left us with a legacy but not their name.

Fort Point the Best Vantage Point to View the Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by Cindy on January 5, 2013

Jan 052013

It took 116 years for Fort Point to become a National Historic Site, and its life along that road was a bumpy one. Construction on Fort Point began in 1854. Thanks to the California Gold Rush, commerce was booming in San Francisco, and it was important that the portal through which valuable cargo flowed, the San Francisco Bay, was protected. The Fort, as it is configured today, is how it was originally envisioned. In 1857 a reporter for the Daily Alta California described the workmanship at Fort Point as “solid masonry of more than ordinary artistic skill which meets the eye at every point…the visitor is at a loss to determine what he admires most-the granite or the brickwork…” Once the foundation-thousands of tons of granite, brought from China-was laid, work began on the masonry arched casements that would house the guns and the troops. Originally the entire fort was to be of granite, but three years into the project the engineers decided to switch to bricks, made to their specifications on a hill just south of the fort. Master masons were hired for setting and laying the millions of bricks; they were assisted by numbers of men that had gone “bust” in the gold rush.

Slow in finishing, the Fort construction was completed just in time for the outbreak of the Civil War. The military occupied the Fort and prepared it for attacks that never came. Life for those stationed there was not easy: the thick walls, built to protect the Fort, made for dark spaces; the fog, an ever present element of San Francisco made the place cold and damp. The Bay itself also took its toll on the structure. The constant waves threatened to undermine the footings. In early 1862 work began on the 1500-foot sea wall that still remains. Again, thousands of tons of granite, this time from Folsom, California, were laid down and keyed together. The spaces were filled with cement and then covered with tar-impregnated cloth and molten lead.

After the Civil War the Fort was abandoned, except for a caretaker. It did, however have a dozen men garrisoned there during the 1906 earthquake. After all the men were out safely, they noticed that the entire hillside wall had moved away from the rest of the building by eight inches. The Fort was abandoned, and plans to turn it into a detention barracks were adopted. The Fort was remodeled, and yet, never did become detention barracks. The World War I troop buildup brought the Fort back into use as housing for unmarried men. During this time the Fort was also used as a “base end station,” which located the positions of attacking ships and controlled the firing of seacoast guns, mortars, or mines to defend against them. Abandoned once again after WWI, the Fort fell into severe disrepair.

Damage caused by the 1906 earthquake: tie rods were positioned, and the wall was pulled into place and anchored back to the main structure.

The interior courtyard with the original cast iron columns and capitals

In the early 1930s funds were being raised for the new Golden Gate Bridge. Engineer and designer Joseph Strauss initially felt the Fort would be an impediment to the bridge and wanted it gone. In 1937, however, after a tour of the Fort and the realization of its superior craftsmanship, he wrote to the Golden Gate Bridge District: “While the old fort has no military value now, it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason’s art. Many urged the razing of this venerable structure to make way for modern progress. In the writer’s view it should be preserved and restored as a national monument.”

Graffiti left by prisoners from Alcatraz sent to repair Fort Point in 1914

World War II found the Fort again refurbished and armed with Anti Motorized Torpedo Boat guns. The Bay never saw any action during the war, and the rapid demobilization after WWII left the military with a relic. Preservation enthusiasts started to organize beginning in 1947, but no government agency would step in and claim the Fort. In 1959, a group of retired military officers gathered together and formed the Fort Point Museum Association. They raised money and public awareness, and in 1970 President Richard Nixon signed a bill designating Fort Point a National Historic Site.

The Fort has four small jail cells. They now function as offices for the park rangers.

Prisoner art work, found on the jail-cell wall

Garrison Gin, used to move cannons to the upper floors

Fort Point is now part of the United States Park Service. It is open Friday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Candlelight tours are given in January and February. A full report of the history of the Fort, as well as its construction and restoration documentation can be found on the the National Park Service website.

San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement

Posted by Cindy on December 29, 2012

Dec 292012

San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco.

The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking.

The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright white. The beauty of the main court, the well-planned balance of buildings, water, and open green spaces was a wholly new concept to the visitors of the fair. Dignified, monumental and well run, the White City boasted state-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems. All of this was in sharp contrast to the grey, urban sprawl of Chicago in 1893.

Chicago – 1893 World Columbian Exposition – (Photo courtesy of Boston College)

The City Beautiful Movement was a response to failing urban life. An attempt to improve cities through beautification, it was hoped that the solution of social ills would inspire civic loyalty, and make city centers more inviting to the upper classes, in hopes that they would return to them for work and therefore spend money.

The City Beautiful Movement used the language of the Beaux Arts (Fine Arts) Style. This style was named after the art and architecture school of Paris the Ecoles des Beaux Arts and flourished between 1885 and 1920.

The Beaux Arts is a classical style with a full range of Grecian and Roman elements, including columns, arches, vaults and domes.

General defining elements include the following:

Symmetry
Highly ornamented exterior decorations
A single architectural element as the center of the building composition. This could be an over-scaled
archway or a dramatic line of columns.
A dramatic roofline, often with sculptured figures
Monumental steps approaching the entrance
Floor plans that culminate in a single grand room
Axial floor plans so that vistas can be obtained throughout the building

Classic Elements of Beaux Art Architecture.

The City Beautiful Movement began in San Francisco in 1904, when James Duval Phelan, former mayor and president of the “Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco,” invited Daniel Hudson Burnham to town. Daniel Burnham was the indisputable “Father of City Beautiful.” He was the Director of Works for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and took a leading role in the creation of master plans for a number of cities.

Burnham’s group proposed that a new Civic Center complex be built at the corner of Market and Van Ness with radiating grand boulevards. A landscaped park would begin at the Civic Center and extend to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Twin Peaks was to be crowned with a neo-classic library overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plan created neighborhoods, which would be accessed by a grid pattern, and tied the transportation systems to scenic views. The groups’ plan prescribed careful treatment of the hills and streets and even took into consideration the issues of building costs, maintenance and upkeep.

The War Memorial Veterans Building – San Francisco

The War Memorial Opera House is almost identical to the Veterans Building.

In 1906 the earthquake and fire presented the City Beautiful movement with a blank canvas-with one caveat, the merchants of San Francisco, eager to regenerate commerce, would have the final say as to the direction of future building in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, there was still a significant Beaux Arts influence in a number of buildings that were built after the earthquake, and the Civic Center we know today is one of the finest examples of the movement.

The Bill Graham Auditorium

The Beaux Arts buildings that create the heart of Civic Center include City Hall and the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) completed in 1915 in time for the Pan Pacific Exhibition, the War Memorial Opera House and the War Memorial Veterans Building, the Main Library and the State and Old Federal Buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.

These classic buildings give the San Francisco Civic Center a visual cohesion that should encourage visitors to sit and enjoy this area. Sadly, due to the continued onslaught of vagrancy, the City of San Francisco has destroyed the central park area, Civic Center Plaza, that brings the buildings together.

“The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better public space is the undesirables problem,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. “They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem.”

The Civic Center open space has no benches, and if you are looking for a place to sit, you will find poorly maintained lawns interrupted by sparsely planted annuals. A colonnade of pollarded London Plane trees stands like sentinels over a vast bed of decomposed granite that used to house a reflective pool. While the Asian Art Museum has often placed intriguing and world-class art in the plaza, it is not yet enough to make the average citizen want to visit.

Dealing with the homeless problem in San Francisco has never been one of calm and reason; making the area scream, “go away” has not worked. It is time to find a way to bring vibrancy and humanity back to the area. It is time that the city slowly works its way back to the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement within its own Civic Center.

The State of California building

450 Sutter, A Mayan Palace

Posted by Cindy on December 22, 2012

Dec 222012

450 Sutter Street is San Francisco’s monument to the Mayan Revival branch of Art Deco.

Art Deco draws on a variety of sources including Art Nouveau, Cubism and the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Art Deco celebrates the technological wonders of the early 20th century, the frivolities of the roaring twenties, and the hard times of the Great Depression.

Art Deco is commonly divided into three related design trends: Streamline Moderne, Classical Moderne and Zigzag Moderne. Zigzag, represented by angular patterns and stylized geometry, flourished in large cities and was primarily used for public and commercial buildings.

The Mayan Revival (also called neo-Mayan) was one of the facets of Zigzag Moderne. Mayan Revival was used primarily in the 1920s and ’30s. Although it was named “Mayan,” it drew on the motifs of many of the Meso-American cultures, such as Mexica and Aztec.

450 Sutter Street, completed in 1929, was designed by James Rupert Miller and Timothy L. Pflueger. A steel curtain-wall building, 450 Sutter broke from tradition with the building’s skin design. Miller and Pflueger covered the 26 floors with heavy Mayan Revival style patterns-undulating verticals of ornamented terracotta run from the first floor to the roof. The addition of horizontal bands of windows adds to the overall effect of richness and complexity. The street level and entry are cast in aluminum. In the lobby, cast bronze alternates with Burgundy/Levanto marble.

The building was designed and built for dental salesman Francis Edward Morgan Jr. at a cost of $5 million (including the land). The building was built specifically to house doctors’ and dentists’ offices. According to advertisements, offices could be custom outfitted with electrical and plumbing as the tenant needed. Rents began at $50 a month for three rooms and $100 a month for five. At the time of its construction, it was not only the second tallest building in San Francisco, but said to be the largest medical office building in the world.

The unusual motifs and ornamentation of this grand building received mixed reviews at the time of its opening. The San Francisco Chronicle quieted any discord with the following 1929 review:

“Speculation has been rife as to the meaning of these graceful symbols, but their meaning is negligible-they justify themselves by being graceful and attractive. They give the front of the building just enough feeling of movement to emphasize the general vitality of a severe but thoroughly virile design. They tell the passerby any story he chooses to read into them-and that is poetry.”

450 Sutter was one of the last great skyscrapers to be built in San Francisco in the first half of the century.

Cast bronze and cast aluminum lobby ceiling

Cast aluminum elevator doors surrounded by burgundy/levanto marble

Rincon Center Rain Column

Posted by Cindy on November 19, 2011

Nov 192011

The Embarcadero

Rincon Annex Post Office

98 Howard Street

The word “rincon” means “inside corner” in Spanish.

In 1939, architect Gilbert S. Underwood, most famously known for his design of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, designed this Art Deco-Moderne structure for the United States Post Office.

In the 1980s the building was put up for development by the USPS. A 23-story mixed-use building was added on the south side of the block that contains a new post office, offices, and 320 apartments. During excavation, a number of artifacts from the long forgotten saloons, boarding houses and laundries, of the waterfront, destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire began to emerge. The most interesting items found are on display in the lobby that contains WPA murals by Anton Refregier.

Rincon Center’s focal point is the Atrium, which features murals by artist Richard Haas that depict San Francisco’s culture, science, technology and transportation. Doug Hollis’ water sculpture “Rain Column” features 55 gallons of water falling 85 feet every minute. Its total cost was $300,000.

It is almost impossible to photograph “Rain Column” There is a ring suspended from a skylight in the ceiling. The water showers down onto the floor, here surrounded by plants. The sound is unbelievable and the visual is spectacular. There is an interesting photo on Doug Hollis’ website that shows the ceiling.

Chinatown Architecture

Posted by Cindy on July 25, 2011

Jul 252011

15 Waverly Place
Chinatown – San Francisco

The Marble plaque on this wall reads:
Chinese Baptist Church

Property of the

American Baptist Home
Mission Society of NY
Built 1888 Destroyed 1906
Rebuilt 1908

When Chinese students were not permitted to attend the city’s public schools, the Church offered day school for children, and night school for adults. Today it offers English language classes and an outreach program to immigrants.

After the 1906 earthquake, many buildings in San Francisco were built of brick, mainly because people feared fire more than shaking. This of course was foolhardy as brick does not stand up to earthquakes and to continue to work as public buildings these all have been retrofitted. What I love about this building is the “clinker brick”.

Wikipedia describes these thusly: Clinkers are burnt under temperatures so high that the pores of the fuel property are closed by the beginning sinter process. Thus they are considerably denser and therefore heavier than regular bricks. Clinkers hardly take up water and are very resistant. In early brick firing kilns, the surface of the bricks that were too close to the fire changed into the volcanic textures and darker/purplish colors. They were often discarded, but around 1900, these bricks were discovered by architects to be usable, distinctive and charming in architectural detailing, adding the earthy quality favored by Arts & Crafts style designers.

There is also a wonderful stain glass piece in this church that I had to photograph from the outside, as I was unable to get into the church.

Art Nouveau in Chinatown

Posted by Cindy on July 24, 2011

Jul 242011

720 Kearny Street
Chinatown, San Francisco

The first overseas office of the Sing Tao Daily was opened in San Francisco in 1975. The parent company of the Sing Tao Daily, the Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited, was founded in 1938 and is based in Hong Kong. It has one of the longest publishing histories among the Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong.

This amazing Art Nouveau building designed by Luigi Mastropasqua in 1907, is at the corner of Commercial and Kearny Streets in Chinatown. Mastropasqua is probably more famous for designing Julius’ Castle on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill.

Commercial Street is one of the oldest thoroughfares in San Francisco, dating back to 1847. At that time Commercial Street was but two and a half short blocks—from Dupont (now Grant Avenue) to the old waterfront just past Montgomery (where Leidesdorff Street now is.) Its name derives from the fact that it was early San Francisco’s most prominent commercial street.

Commercial has a very colorful history, serving off and as a red light district of San Francisco in the Barbary Coast days.

This street also houses my favorite restaurant in Chinatown – City View Dim Sum Restaurant at 622 Commercial.

Oriental Home and School of San Francisco’s Chinatown

Posted by Cindy on July 23, 2011

Jul 232011

Chinatown

940 Washington Street, San Francisco

I love the architecture that you find in Chinatown. I actually think, more because of the history than the actual styles. This brick building with its’ beautiful tile arched entry is one of my favorites. It is the Gum Moon Womens Residence. It has a nice piece of marble with the inscription.

Oriental Home and School

of the WHMS of

The ME Church

This building’s history begins in 1870. The history of the Chinese immigration in the United States is not a pretty one, and this is standing testament to the people that did care. The Reverend and Mrs. Otis Gibson had become aware of the “mui tsai”, girls in bondage. He wanted to do something to help. With twelve other women they formed the Womens Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast with the mission “to elevate and save heathen women, especially those on these shores, and to raise funds for this work”. A full account of the Society can be found in a published article by Jeffrey Staley. The building itself was built after the 1906 earthquake and was designed by Julia Morgan.

Phone Company Building

Posted by Cindy on July 21, 2011

Jul 212011

743 Washington Street
Chinatown

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Established in the 1840s, It plays an extremely important part in the history of San Francisco and the history of the Chinese diaspora. Chinatown is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city and one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the United States. It is also one of the more working class neighborhoods of San Francisco. Chinatown has more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Chinese Telephone Exchange sits at 793 Washington. In 1891, the first public telephone pay station was installed in Chinatown. In 1894, a small switchboard was set up to serve the patrons of the phone system. People were often asked for by name rather than by number, so telephone operators had to memorize and know each patron by name. This made telephone numbers unnecessary, which was important since the Chinatown community felt it was rude to refer to people by numbers. Operators also knew the address and occupations of patrons so they could distinguish between two people with the same name. In addition, they had to speak five Chinese dialects as well as English.

The exchange was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, but was rebuilt, and remained in operation until it closed in 1949.

Technology changed, and switchboards were no longer needed. The Bank of Canton bought and restored the building in 1960.

Chinatown has an incredibly rich history and there are hundreds of books out there about it, but two that I find especially interesting are: “The Barbary Plague” by Marilyn Chase and “Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown” by Arnold Genthe and John Kuo Wei Tchen.

Embarcadero – Commuting

Posted by Cindy on May 23, 2011

May 232011

This is our temporary Transbay Terminal. The old one has finally been demolished. The Transbay terminal was originally built in 1936 to handle the trains that came across the Bay Bridge into downtown San Francisco. However, after WWII, the train lines were removed and the terminal became a bus depot. Over the years it has become nothing more than a run down homeless refuge. I am all for their tearing down the old one, and I am all for building a new one, but I am not sold on the new ultra modern design to come.

The new Transbay terminal will take years to build. It has been designed by Pelli Clark Pelli Architects. The plan is for a 5.4 acre rooftop garden, 1 million square feet of space, 100 foot high windows and 11 transit agencies. We shall see.

In the meantime, this is our temporary station. I really love this, clean open, easy to navigate. Granted, can be a tad wet and cold in the winter, but hey, this isn’t Chicago.

Here is a short – silent video illustration of what the new terminal is going to look like.

Mission Bay – Where did good architecture go?

Posted by Cindy on April 6, 2011

Apr 062011

Mission Bay

What happened to architecture? This is not architecture, this is value engineering. These buildings were cliches before they were finished. No one is going to fly hundreds of miles to the great city of San Francisco and snap pictures of these monstrosities, unless of course they are urban planners. I would like to leave the more technical aspects of why this is off the mark to an architect blogger, you can read his succinct points on architecture and then you can contemplate why these building miss in so many ways.

The above photo was taken in the newest area of San Francisco called Mission Bay. This area sat virtually empty until 1998. It is over 300 acres and was owned by a development company in Canada. When they went broke the quagmire began. There were developers that came in and demanded, politicians that were bought and sold, and social entities that muddled up the issues. Out of that we have the most ugly 300 acres ever created. It is a city within a city of no use save for developers to make large quantities of money, and politicians to fill their election coffers. The buildings far exceed the height limit originally told the general public, they are so close together that it is not a nice place to be unless you are on your lunch out of your office. There is housing, with promised “urban living” amenities, that I doubt will ever live up to the hype. There will never be anything but large corporate stores and restaurants, because the leases all stipulate that you must use union labor for all your build outs, and small individual, and unique companies can’t afford those labor rates. This began before the great recession, so the desire for tax dollars from payroll to income, while a factor, was not the overriding reason to sell out. What happened San Francisco?

245 Market Standing As A Remembrance of Skyscrapers of Old

Posted by Cindy on March 29, 2001

Mar 292001

245 Market Street
Financial District / Embarcadero

The seventeen story Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building, designed by Bakewell & Brown and built between 1923 and 1925, is one of a series of skyscrapers built during the 1910s and 1920s which imparted to San Francisco its downtown character. This character of large ornamented classic buildings is fast being lost with newer modern style buildings. 245 Market was also one of the first steel skyscrapers built in San Francisco.

The building was enlarged in 1945-1947 to the design of Arthur Brown, Jr. The addition, which has its own address at 25 Beale Street, is fully interconnected with the main structure and functions with it as one building.

Reflecting Beaux Arts and City Beautiful precepts of harmony, the building was designed to be compatible with the adjacent Matson Building (on the left)

Similar to other Chicago School skyscrapers built during the 1910s and early 1920s, the primary elevations are divided vertically into three major divisions – separated by horizontal divisions relating to those of the Matson Building.

The lower divisions are ornamented with a classical arcade, rising through two stories. The fourteenth and fifteenth floors, capping the structure, are articulated by a giant order of applied Doric columns with full entablature which is very similar to the base of the dome on San Francisco’s City Hall. The shaft, or central portion of the elevations, is expressed with paired windows lighting each structural bay.

Rams heads ornament the lower stories of the building.

Bakewell and Brown’s first commissions included the interior of the City of Paris department store (Now Neiman Marcus) and the city hall for Berkeley, before entering the competition for the 1915 San Francisco City Hall for which they are best known. Brown also designed the city’s War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, the former in collaboration with G. Albert Lansburgh. Browns work shows his training in the Beaux-Arts tradition.

In addition, Bakewell and Brown designed several homes in the Arts and Crafts style championed by Bernard Maybeck.

Bakewell and Brown also designed the Byzantine-inspired Temple Emmanuel (1926) at Lake St. and Arguello Blvd.

The building was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and underwent a comprehensive seismic retrofit and historic rehabilitation completed in 1995.

One Bush Plaza and Its Environs

Posted by Cindy on March 26, 2001

Mar 262001

1 Bush Plaza
Market Street Area

One Bush Plaza, also known as the Crown Zellerbach Building, stands as a monument to International Style. International style is a phase of Modern architecture that began at the beginning of the 20th century, and continues as a dominant style in corporate and institutional structures in the 21st century. The term originated from the book International Style (1952). The book documented the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture held at MOMA in New York City in 1932. International Style encompasses three elements: expression of volume rather than mass, emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and expulsion of applied ornament.

Construction began on One Bush Plaza in 1957. Designed by a team led by Edward Basset of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (for the Crown Zellerbach Paper Company), it was the first significant building to go up in San Francisco after the Great Depression, and a stark contrast to the traditional stone and masonry buildings that surrounded it.

One of the best views of One Bush Plaza is from the Mechanics Monument on Market Street.

This International Style building was the first glass curtain-wall tower building in San Francisco. (The Hallidie Building, built in 1917, featured the first glass curtain-wall in San Francisco; it was, however, just the facade.)

A curtain-wall system consists of lightweight exterior cladding, which is non-structural and simply keeps out the elements. It can provide a variety of exterior appearances but is characterized by narrowly spaced vertical and horizontal mullions (a member dividing a window) with glass or metal infill panels. The advantage of a glass curtain wall is that light can penetrate farther into the interior of the building. In a curtain wall system, all wind, seismic and load factors are borne by the floors, ceilings and columns-this is what allows for lightweight materials, such as glass, to comprise entire exterior walls.

The monolith housing the elevators delights the eye, balancing the main building without being symmetrical.

The entire building is not done in this curtain-wall style; the elevators and stairwells are placed in a service wing hidden behind a monolithic wall clad with over five-million one-inch tiles of varying dark colors. As sunlight strikes these tiles, the reflecting colors shift and shimmer. This monolith is offset and pushed toward Market Street. Steel girders of the building stretch across the entire width of the building; this eliminates the need for interior columns and presents the occupant with an open floor plan easily adaptable to changing needs.

The building is perched on pilotis-stilts or pillars that carry the weight of a building by raising it off the ground. Pilotis not only raise the architectural volume of the building but redefine its relationship with the surrounding public space. The lobby, a three-sided glass structure, sits between these pilotis. The travertine (a form of limestone) lobby floor extends beyond these windows to allow for human passage and art installations.

Sitting on a triangular lot, the large skyscraper holds court with a round one-story pavilion sitting on a pedestal (523 Market Street). The pavilion, built at the same time, was to house The American Trust Company. Four months later the Trust Company merged with Wells Fargo Bank, who maintained an office in the building until the 1980s. Today the building houses a brokerage firm. The circular building has a precast folded concrete roof that is clad in copper.

One Bush was the first office building to be set in a plaza. The two buildings on the lot are surrounded by a Japanese-influenced garden that also designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The garden is sunken and discretely hidden from the surrounding streets. The area features river rocks embedded in concrete and bands of gray slate. While the garden provides a quiet area in downtown, it is officially a Privately Owned Public Open Space. There is no seating, and therefore the area is rendered a thoroughfare rather than a potential small park. The front entrance to One Bush Plaza faces Bush rather than Market Street-initially a cause for raised eyebrows-as Market during the late ‘50s was in decline. This is most likely why the landscaped area was not made to feel inviting, but as times have changed, it seems a missed opportunity.

This fountain by David Tolerton was part of the original plaza design.

San Francisco Chronicle architecture columnist and author John King writes about One Bush Plaza “if the tower’s clean lines are timeless, the concept of the plaza has aged poorly. It treats architecture as sculpture, and brings light and air to the street by tearing holes in the city. Reality, we’ve learned, is far more complex.”

Both One Bush Plaza and 523 Market Street were recognized as San Francisco Historical Landmarks on May 17, 1987

Two Old Banks Still Stand Proud

Posted by Cindy on March 16, 2001

Mar 162001

Grant Avenue and Market Street

Many critics of historical preservation projects complain that the process leaves the building frozen in time. Adaptive re-use proves that this does not need to be the case.

Adaptive re-use, which adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features, can also a sustainable form of development that reduces waste, uses less energy and scales down on the consumption of building materials. San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square remodel in 1964 marked the first adaptive re-use project in the United States and San Francisco has never looked back.

A prime example of adaptive re-use in San Francisco can be found when comparing the two, classic Beaux Arts buildings that make up the stately entrance onto Grant Avenue from Market Street, the one street in San Francisco that comes closest to embodying the City Beautiful movement espoused by Daniel Burnham.

Coincidentally, both buildings were originally banks. Standing at 1 Grant Avenue is San Francisco Landmark #132: built in 1910 as the Savings Union Bank it was reconfigured for retail through adaptive re-use in the 1990s. The Savings Union Bank was designed by Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville. Both gentlemen were graduates of MIT and began their San Francisco practice in 1898.

This steel frame building is clad in gray granite. Six Ionic columns hold up its massive pediment 38 feet high. This modified domed temple is derived from the Roman Pantheon. The pediment, designed and sculpted by Haig Patigian, houses a Bas Relief of Liberty. Patigian, an Armenian by birth who spent most of his career in San Francisco, was one of the cities most prolific sculptors during his time.

At one time the front was graced with bronze doors. These doors consisted of four panels designed by Arthur Mathews and were said to be “descriptive of the historical succession of the races in California.” First the Indian, then the Spaniard who was typified by a Franciscan monk, next a miner representing the “American” and then an allegorical representation of a San Franciscan shown as the ideal figure of a youth beside a potter’s wheel modeling one of the new buildings in the city. Those doors have been replaced with glass.

Interior of Retail establishment at 1 Grant Avenue (photo courtesy of Goldstick Lighting Company).

Inside are eight Tavernelle (an old building stone term that means spotted or mottled) marble Corinthian pilasters and columns thirty feet high. These support the main cornice, which is surmounted by an attic and coffered ceiling. The walls are not of marble but of Caen stone. Caen stone is a limestone quarried in France near the city of Caen. It was first used in the Gallo-Roman period. (the period when Gaul was under Roman influence)

Across the street, also built in 1910, at a cost of $1.5 million, stands the Union Trust Company Building, San Francisco Landmark #131. Union Trust merged with Wells Fargo Bank in 1923. The building still houses a Wells Fargo Bank branch.

Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Public Library.

Clinton Day was the architect of this Neoclassical Beaux Arts building. According to the July 1, 1908 San Francisco Call “The structure at Market Street and Grant Avenue Will Be Handsome and Commodious.” Day came from a distinguished California family. His father was State Senator Sherman Day and co-founder of College of California, the precursor to the University of California Berkeley. Clinton Day was a graduate of College of California.

This modified temple design is without a pediment. Its beautiful layered façade consists of carved granite ornamentation, derived from classical antiquity that includes ten columns, a bracketed overhang and a roof crowned by a balustrade parapet. This is all accented by dark iron window framing. The curvature on the Market Street side grounds it nicely to its location.

This well-heeled area of Market Street makes these two banks stand proud, unlike the rundown Mid Market area that holds the Hibernia Bank.

Pediment at 1 Grant Avenue designed and sculpted by Haig Patigian.

IOOF Building at Mid-Market

Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2001

Mar 082001

26 7th Street
Mid Market

This is the second Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple in San Francisco, the first was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. There is a wonderful history of the past temples with great photographs at my friend Mark’s site. Check out the old photos here.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), is a global altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations. Their symbol of three links stand for Friendship, Love and Truth.

The North American IOOF was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819. Odd Fellowship became the first national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851

The building, designed by G. A. Dodge was erected in 1909. The building is undergoing construction on the lower floor, removing much of what we see today. The photo above was taken in July of 2011.

According to his son David Dodge’s Website:

On July 31, 1919, just weeks before his son David’s ninth birthday, George A. Dodge was killed in an automobile accident. The accident occurred in the tiny San Joaquin County town of French Camp—near Stockton—as a result of a collision with a Southern Pacific train. Witnesses described the driver, Robert Oliphant, a steel salesman from San Francisco, as trying to beat the train to the crossing, ignoring its warning whistles. Dodge was pinned beneath the wreckage and died instantly. Oliphant was seriously injured and taken to the local hospital.

This horrific incident snuffed out the life and career of George A. Dodge, a successful San Francisco architect.

George Andrew Dodge was born in San Francisco on September 4, 1864, the third son of David and Catherine (Gentner) Dodge, who had moved to San Francisco from New England earlier that year. By the age of twenty-six, George was established as a professional architect in San Francisco. On June 15, 1893, he married Maude Ellingwood Bennett. The couple set up house in the city and George’s business grew. Their first child, daughter Kathryn, was born in 1899, followed by daughters Frances, born in 1905, and Marion, born in 1907. By the time of David’s birth in 1910, the Dodge family had relocated across San Francisco Bay to Berkeley.

In 1903, Dodge entered into partnership with James Walter Dolliver (1868-1927) and they worked together up until Dodge’s death under the firm name Dodge and Dolliver. Together they were responsible for designing and building several public buildings around the Bay Area, including St. John’s Presbyterian Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall in San Francisco. Dodge was selected as the lead architect by the Odd Fellows Board to rebuild the Hall (on the corner of Seventh and Market Streets) after the previous building was destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906. Other projects include the San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, Tamalpais Union High School in Mill Valley, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Jail in Santa Rosa, and Carnegie libraries in Palo Alto and Woodland (Yolo County).

In Redwood City, the “old San Mateo County Courthouse” now serves as San Mateo County History Museum, which is fitting given the building’s own ill-fated history. The marker designating it a historical landmark tells the story and reads, in part: “In 1903, the architectural firm of Dodge and Dolliver designed a domed rotunda courthouse. It was completed and ready for occupancy when the 1906 earthquake demolished all but the domed rotunda. The courthouse was reconstructed between 1906 and 1910.” Visitors to the museum can still see the Dodge and Dolliver dome. (This project recently underwent a complete restoration. My husband, the late, Michael H. Casey was the sculptor of all the reproduced eagles and ornamentation within the new museum).

This picture, showing the construction, was shot in May of 2013

The symbols of the IOOF.

The IOOF shares the all-seeing eye symbol with the Masons, as both fraternities require members to believe in a higher being, a deity of some sort, though the specific religion of each member is not dictated by the fraternity. (Although many of the IOOF symbolism traces the meanings back to Judeo-Christian teachings.) The all-seeing eye reminds Odd Fellows that God watches them always.

The moon and seven stars is a symbol of the Rebekhahs. They represent the never failing order which pervades the universe of God and all of nature, and suggest to the members the value of system, regularity and precision in all worthy undertakings

The main symbol of the IOOF is the three chain links, sometimes with the letters F, L and T carved inside them, which stand for Friendship, Love, and Truth

Two shaking hands (grasping each other in a handshake) can be a symbol of the IOOF as a sign of Friendship, one of their tenets.

A higher order of the IOOF called the Encampment uses the symbols of crossed shepherd’s hooks and/or ancient Middle Eastern-looking tents. The Encampment branch of the IOOF strives to impart the principles of Faith, Hope and Charity. The crossed shepherd’s hooks symbolize that the higher order of the IOOF are like the Israelites—shepherds, watching their flocks and keeping them safe. And the tents are the tents of the wandering Israelites, to remind us we “do not permanently abide here, as we are on a pilgrimage to the grave.”

Odd Fellows Front Door on 7th Street in San Francisco

UN Plaza Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

UN Plaza
Civic Center

There is more to the U.N. Plaza fountain than meets the eye, however, typical of the City of San Francisco it took three redesigns, one public vote and a lot of back and forth (much of it ridiculous), to finally get the thing built.

The fountain was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. The Plaza was a joint effort between Halprin, Swiss architect Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke.

The fountain is intended to represent the seven continents of the world. Each “landmass” is tied together by the water symbolizing the ocean.

According to an April 26, 1977 San Francisco Chronicle article: The fountain was to be highly computerized. “On each of the nine spurting slabs of the fountain will be a wind measuring device and if it is real windy, the spurts will slow down or stop altogether to keep passerby from getting sprayed. Second, the computer will cause the depth of the waters in the fountain’s 100 foot wide basin to vary from bone dry to eight feet.”

According to the designer, Lawrence Halprin, this change in water height was to simulate the tides of the bay. None of these items were maintained properly and no longer work.

On the top stone far left is written: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation….It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” This is a quote from Franklin Roosevelt. The entire plaza was designed and built to honor the 30th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter that took place in the San Francisco War Memorial.

Designed in 1975 the fountain is made of 673 blocks of granite weighing between 3 to 4 million tons, it is 165 feet long and cost $1.2 million.

The fountain has had mixed reviews over the years. When it was dedicated in 1975, then-U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young described it as “a tribute to the U.N.’s goals of seeking peaceful resolutions to international rivalries.”

But then-Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko described it as “pretentious schmaltz . . . whose ‘tidal pools’ are supposed to simulate global oceanic action but rarely work and merely toss around empty muscatel bottles.”

The Plaza has the distinction of being in the Hall of Shame of the Project for Public Spaces, and it has been a source of controversy, anger and neglect for many years.

If you are interested in learning more about the problems of UN Plaza and how the fountain fits into these problems, there is a fabulous 30 minute radio show that you can listen to here.

The original design for the UN Fountain submitted to the SFAC

I want to thank Joel Pomerantz of Thinkwalks for going to the San Francisco library and sending me the entire file to “prove a point”. I am grateful for my friends that care about the minutia of San Francisco history as much as I do.

The Faces of 50 UN Plaza

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

50 UN Plaza
City Center

The Federal Building of San Francisco was vacated by the US Government in 2007 when they built a newer building in Civic Center. It has recently undergone a $121 million restoration and will be the offices of Section 9 GSA.

This article is about the exterior of the building.

In 1927, the government allocated $2.5 million for the Federal Building’s design and construction, although final costs reached a total of $3 million. Architect Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the building, which was constructed between 1934 and 1936.

Arthur Brown, Jr. (1874-1957) was born in Oakland, California. He graduated from the University of California in 1896, where he and his future partner, John Bakewell, Jr. were protégés of Bernard Maybeck. Brown went to Paris and graduated from the École des Beaux Arts in 1901. Before returning to San Francisco to establish his practice with Bakewell, the firm designed the rotunda for the “City of Paris” in the Neiman Marcus department store in San Francisco. Other notable San Francisco buildings include Coit Tower; San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; and the War Memorial Veterans Building. He was a consulting architect for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Federal Building is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. The six-story steel frame is encased in fireproof concrete with concrete flooring and roof slabs, important features after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The street elevation walls are constructed of brick but faced with granite, with the exception of a section of the McAllister Street elevation, which is faced in terra cotta.

Male and female mascarons (carved faces) adorn the exterior. The carvings sport different horticulturally themed headpieces, including corn, wheat, cat tails, and oak leaves. There are 18 of them in total.

Sadly it is not known who did all these wonderful carvings for the building.

Boats on the Bay – Pier 14

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2000

Jan 192000

Pier 14
The Embarcadero

Titled “Boats on the Bay,” the project was designed and created by students of the Build San Francisco Institute . These simplistically drawn, colored tiles depict tugboats, cruise liners, and military ships.

The Architectural Foundation of San Francisco has created the Build San Francisco Institute, a half day high school program for students interested in design, construction, engineering and architecture. The Build San Francisco Institute is a unique community educational partnership, involving AFSF, San Francisco Unified School District and more than two dozen major San Francisco firms. The program combines a rigorous academic program with mentorships in the partner firms, so that students not only gain new knowledge, but also have the immediate experience of applying that knowledge in a real world setting.

An Ohlone Indian Tule Canoe – 1597

Pier 14 was inaugurated on June 15, 2006, the 637-foot public pier was built upon the recently constructed breakwater for the SF downtown ferry terminal at Embarcadero and Mission Street.

Levi Plaza Brings the Sierras to San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2000

Jan 112000

1155 Battery
The Embarcadero

In 1982, the Haas family (heirs to Levi Strauss) were looking to build a new corporate campus for the Levi Corporation. They called upon Lawrence Halprin to design the plaza for the campus. While prolific, Halprin is best known for Sea Ranch in California and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C. Sometimes referred to as “Modernism’s Olmsted,” Halprin is one of the most celebrated landscape architects of the late-20th and early-21st century.

From the beginning, the Haas family requested that the company’s values be incorporated into the design. They desired a “sensitivity to detailing and high standards of workmanship” and expressed the following sentiments: “monumental architecture is not our style,” “The Plaza too should be distinctive,” and “Quality never goes out of style.”

Halprin divided his design for Levi Plaza’s five acres into two parts: a hard park and a soft park. The hard park is similar to a European plaza. The soft park was described by Halprin as a “transplanted piece of the Sierras.” In part, this is in homage to Levi Strauss himself, who got his start selling riveted, denim work pants to miners in the Sierra Nevada.

The soft park is an open space easily accessible to anyone that chooses to enter. This portion of Levi Plaza fills a triangular lot surrounded by The Embarcadero, and Battery and Union streets.

This “transplanted Sierras” includes open water, fountains and attractive nuisances (anything on a premises that might attract children into danger or harm) that would not work in another environment. Thanks to 24-hour, 365-day security, this type of appealing, open design is allowed to exist in an urban environment. Unlike public parks that are funded by tax payers and subject to public use-be it for picnics or protests like OWS-Levi’s Plaza has an autonomy that comes with private funding.

A waterfall at the end of the park is a well recognized fixture of Halprin’s designs. This waterfall flows into a gentle stream that snakes throughout the park. Lined with granite boulders that act like sculpture, the stream is caressed by artificially constructed grassy burms sheltering the visitor from noises that emanate from the streets surrounding the park.

When the park ran $4 million over budget, the Haas family chose to pay for it out of their own personal funds. They have also made provisions to keep the park maintained in perpetuity.

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