San Francisco (and the Peninsula)

[garbribre]

The parenthetical is just for you, blade_bltz.
Get busy!

I thought there was a thread devoted to this cold, damp, cloudy place already.
(Seriously, though, why is it that 95% of the time I am in The City, the weather is like this? Bleagh!)

Didn't find a thread for SF. (Okay, really too lazy to exert the search effort any more than necessary.)

This time, we'll start with the new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

An overview, literally, starting from the new-ish observation deck of the deYoung Museum

You think it's popular now? Wait until the It-Girl novelty wears off and people don't want to spend $25 to see the same ole, same ole.

Feed the people. Everywhere. In not one, but one private and three public locations within the museum. Only one of them opens to the outside garden area that still says 'Pardon our appearance/Construction in progress' over four months after official opening day. (They need to devote all that snarfing space to more exhibits, imo)

The Jupiter II has landed back on Earth!

Naw! It's the Planetarium. I could only get tickets for the last show at 4:30pm. I entered the museum after 10:00am, over half hour after it opened.


The Hamster Wheel, Cage of Death Habitrail for Humans exhibit

Oh. Nope. I looked at the Visitor Map. It says it's the Rainforests of the World exhibit.
I didn't go inside. The wait was about an hour!


Part of the original building, African Hall, was retained and updated with nearly identical exhibits that had occupied it for decades. Also the penguins are housed here. Awwwww. Cuuuute.

The rest of the aquatic life is downstairs in the aquarium. No pics from there. Too dark. Too crowded. Didn't want to distress the ocean dwellers any more than they were already.


The Living Roof--a 2.5 acre habitat for 'millions of native California species.' Ummmm... okay.

The most disturbing thing about being on this part of the roof was that they vented a restaurant right next to the viewing platform. It smelled like fried fish. You tell your kid ... what? ... after you've visited the aquarium.


Sorry. I am soooo snarky. I vowed I would try not to be this way before I posted again. However, I was very disappointed with my Academy experience. I know this is an active research and archival building as much as it is a tourist trap, I mean, an educational facility for the general public. However, I think too much was invested into the building and not enough on its publicly viewable content. I found it all to be sorely lacking.

As he types that, he adds a few purely structural studies to the mix of pix.

Hmmmm...? Think somebody watched "Alien" much?

Lastly, because it is a looming curiosity in the background of the pic just above, the deYoung

 

[kennedy]

It looked way better in the renders...

 

[ablarc]

The old part is nice.

 

[garbribre]

I don't know if you are being sarcastic or what, ablarc.

I am not entirely sure if it can be classified as just another form of facadectomy or even if it is a complete rehab of the previously existing hall. A friend said, 'Look at the floor. It's old. It's original.' Maybe it was part of the original building.

They also 'saved' a portico colonnade, complete with what seems to be non-structural doric columns. It occupies the space between the vast eating 'piazza' (their description, not mine) and the gator swamp--a popular, prominent feature of the old museum as well, though not sure that it is also in its original location or form. Anyway, these columns can be seen in the third pic, in the upper left of frame, behind the glass wall of the skylit dining enclosure. It seems to be a completely useless, silly conceit.

From the visitor brochure/map:

The World's Greenest Museum
Designed by award-winning architect Renzo Piano, the California Academy of Sciences sets a new standard for sustainable architecture. Supported by recycled steel, insulated by recycled blue jeans, powered in part by solar panels, and topped with a living roof, the building is the epitome of energy efficient design.
​

 

[czsz]

I actually like these museums. I think a museum scene was one of those "major city" things SF curiously lacked until relatively recently. That, and an integrated, comprehensive transit system (which is still lacking there).

 

[garbribre]

Museums have improved here only in that they have shiny new buildings. Their exhibit spaces should have been greatly expanded for both permanent and rotating exhibits. They don't seem to be much bigger in their public spaces. I sense the buildings' architectural forms have taken precedent over what is necessary to adequately display their contents.

MUNI sucks, but at least it exists, and it's integrated as best as it can be with all the other competing regional public transit systems. What do you mean? Also, it's cheap, by comparison, to other US cities and metro areas of this size, but not for long.

New pretty pics later tonight. Gotta eat. Got a lot of reading to catch up with here, too.

 

[czsz]

When I critiqued the transit system I meant that MUNI coverage is strangely dispersed. SF's densest neighborhoods, like North Beach, are left without any service, while neighborhoods like the Sunset get light rail. Market Street seems entirely supersaturated with transit.

And if architecture has become an important part of the museumgoing experience, so what? Public consciousness of architecture is relatively dim. The idea that people would go somewhere and pay admission to stand in awe of a building is nearly as encouraging as the idea that they would do the same to view the exhibits that are its nominal purpose.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Are the museums taxed in SF / CA? That's what Menino's proposing, in Boston.

 

[blade_bltz]

When I critiqued the transit system I meant that MUNI coverage is strangely dispersed. SF's densest neighborhoods, like North Beach, are left without any service, while neighborhoods like the Sunset get light rail. Market Street seems entirely supersaturated with transit.

Hmm...I suppose that's true in a way. But I'd rather have public transportation serve areas that would normally be underserved. North Beach is only a short walk away from Market, and all the rich finance yuppies I know who live there refuse anything but taxis. Also, the F line serves the truly touristy areas along the water, from which one can reach North Beach very easily on foot. As for neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and Marina - I assume everyone there owns a car.

The major offender in SF is really the Geary st corridor, which they are planning to convert to BRT (blech). Right now the 38 bus is one of the worst transit experiences imaginable (then again, people don't seem to be murdered on it as they do along Blue Hill Ave).

 

[JohnAKeith]

Ha, ha, ha! The 38? The one that goes through the Tenderloin? I used to take it every day! I would just duck in my seat and hope for the best.

 

[garbribre]

blade summed it up for me well enough.

czsz--'...left without any service.'
Are you kidding? Where?

One thing that I find truly incomprehensible is how saturated the bus service is, even outside the city limits. A new line runs every few blocks. Even cross-town bus lines aren't very spread apart.

Now, if you mean gaps between bus arrival/departure times, then I agree. All the bus lines are on a schedule, much like BART or commuter trains. It does not seem to be adhered to. It seems impossible to keep them spaced apart effectively. (BTW--North Beach has five lines serving Columbus Avenue alone, some of which then branch out into other areas through the neighborhood.)

The cross town connector, which I doubt will ever get off the ground (and shouldn't), would have served Chinatown and North Beach. Much like the Silver Line, in a different form, it is a boondoggle. My minority opinion.

The 30 Stockton is also a nightmare worthy of mention in conjunction with the 38 Geary. Also, any bus line along Van Ness. Whiplash inducing.

As for the 38, I hope it makes you appreciate the T more.

Do yourselves a favor--if you ever need to use the 38 again, walk over to the Transbay, wait patiently at the Transbay for the 38L (limited), board, take a seat, then go all the way to the Avenues. Between the Bay and Japantown, find a secondary line heading along a parallel route. Or walk. Those are a few of my tricks.

JohnAKeith--taxation of museums? More specific please.

 

[garbribre]

And if architecture has become an important part of the museumgoing experience, so what? Public consciousness of architecture is relatively dim. The idea that people would go somewhere and pay admission to stand in awe of a building is nearly as encouraging as the idea that they would do the same to view the exhibits that are its nominal purpose.

My objection is not architectural aesthetics of the museums. I am more concerned with the interiors. Every new museum built here in the last decade fails from a gallery viewing experience. That's my preference speaking, which may not be the consensus. (Never is, it seems. )

I like a more classical flow and structure associated with my gallery viewing.

If you are going to break with that tradition, then it better have a good reason to be that way and it should be executed more thoughtfully and carefully.

I like the new deYoung when viewed as an exterior structure. I like the few risks they took with the placement and flow of permanent galleries on the second level.

The lobby and main level is a disaster. The special galleries are rendered inconsequential by funneling them into curious alleys. The flow of the ground level is confusing and distressingly frenetic. I feel like I'm in a mall on Christmas eve, or a general seating concert at an arena.

That said, here's some pics of the deYoung, mostly exterior studies.
(And, yes, true to form, another dreary day in The City.)

A couple taken from the interior.

From the ring road near the new California Academy of Sciences

The question always asked--are there holes in the metal skin?
Yes, on the tower and on the overhanging elements. The lower portions are dimpled, as if hammered by a ball peen.

Put on your 3-D glasses for proper viewing. Heheheh

 

[ablarc]

Really, really grim.

A big Bronx cheer directed at the Park's elegance.

Fie!

 

[kennedy]

I um...really like that building...seriously.

 

[czsz]

I think half the gloom is the product of perpetually foggy SF itself.

Wasn't the De Young designed with some Pacific Islands aesthetic in mind? If so, I'd cheer it as an example of a postcolonial San Francisco. This is a Pacific Rim city as much as it is an American or Western one, after all. The Beaux Arts - and their ideological connotation - have already had their chance to leave a mark.

I understand garbire's concerns about poverty of gallery space. I think my argument from above still holds. If the architecture itself is art as much as the contents, then spectacular atria and the like should get equal billing when planning the economy of a museum's space.

 

[garbribre]

Considering ablarc's blunt critique, I'd like you to consider the correlation to any brutalist structure in Boston. Do their insertions into that climate make sense? City Hall? Lindemann/Hurley/State Services Center? Harbor Towers? (Add your fave, offensive, concrete structure in for discussion's sake.)

As far as the achitects' intentions, czsz, I think they like to think that they were being reverential to something, as you speculated. I've read a few different perspectives. Rather than reveal them here, or type my own analysis, I'd like to leave it open to discussion about what they intended. After all that's what most of us come to this forum for, right? I'm not in the habit or fond of lecturing and I find I've been funneled into that mode lately.

In sparkling sunlight, the exterior of the deYoung has a remarkable quality.

Now, without trying to derail the topic from the deYoung, I suspect this will be more to ablarc's liking.

The Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

 

[Beton Brut]

A big Bronx cheer directed at the Park's elegance.

The building's fractured form takes cues from the tectonic forces that necessitated its construction. I dig it. It's pretty photogenic.

 

[garbribre]

It does what a museum like this should do, in my estimation--makes you feel its power.

 

[czsz]

Amazing. A trip back to the Bay Area is definitely in order.

 

[CDubs]

It's an awesome sight in that park. The exterior of the building is really cool.