San Francisco (and the Peninsula)

[garbribre]

Whoa. I've been all over the place, posting tonight. Now it's 11pm ... my time, of course. How'd that happen?!

I've come back to hide in my own little corner again.

Time to change the subject matter, as I do best.

The deYoung is sooo last year. Actually three years ago now. Heh

This is the other new kid on the block.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum

Designed by a fave whipping boy (for many of you) on this forum.

As much as I said I like Elkus' whimsy for Emerson, I haven't seen that in person yet.

This one doesn't quite work for me, in person.

It was fun to watch people bump their heads onto the blue cube in the second picture, though. You can see the metal lip/barrier around the perimeter/base to keep people from getting too close, misjudging the distance, and you know the rest. Hehehehe


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_San_Francisco

 

[czsz]

Um.

It's just a stripped down version of his addition to the Toronto ROM.

Fail.

 

[Beton Brut]

Rubbish.

 

[czsz]

Liebeskind, or the comparison?

 

[Beton Brut]

^ Libeskind. A one-trick pony. His trick is the architectural equivalent of incontinence.

 

[garbribre]

^ I'm chortling, BB.

It is fun to watch people in the throes of spacial confusion when they approach these, especially when you hear them say, 'I hit my head...' a-la Gumby Theater.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum shape and form of the Liebeskindy part is supposed to signify something. (I'm not gonna tell ya. Look it up. Heheh)


Now let's change the subject. (That I'm good at.)


Full moon. Yeeehaaa!

My year. I'm an ox.

Boston needs more of this.

Ummmm.... that'd be neon.


Sounds like some of you in Eastie would like this.

Not just an easier flow of cars through a tunnel but the pedestrian walkways, too.


Mosaic inside the entry lobby of the Masonic Center Auditorium on Nob Hill

Excerpted from their website:

The thoroughly new and modern building was formally dedicated on September 29, 1958. Emile Norman crafted the one-of-a-kind mosaic window that dominates the entrance foyer. This historical window, fabricated in the endomosaic process, incorporates thousands of bits of metal, parchment, felt, linen, silk, natural foliage, thinly sliced vegetable matter, shells and sea life, plus 180 colors of stained glass. The lower portion of the frieze is comprised of actual gravels and soils of the 58 counties of California and the Islands of Hawaii. The window depicts the history of the wayfarers and the seafarers that helped found California Freemasonry.​

http://www.masonicauditorium.com/


blade bltz--I got one of the uncarpeted, re-upholstered trains into The City but on the way back to Oakland, got an old cruddy one. Eeeech! (Please disinfect after exiting.) Carpeting would never cut it in snowy conditions, eh?

The seat upholstery is equally as bad. It's actually worse in person than it looks in these pictures.

Ahh. Yet another post all over the map. Follow the weaving boy. Heh heh

This parade is boring. I'm cold. It's taking too long. Ooo ooo ooo I wanna go over there. But how to get through the barricades...?

 

[Ron Newman]

Is that the tunnel to Alameda?

 

[garbribre]

Ron, you made me do it--taking my own thread off-topic again.


Behold! San Francisco from Alameda Naval Air Station

Oh. Okay. Not so off-topic. I'll restrain myself and won't do any more than this one. I'll start an Alameda thread later.


That's inside the Broadway Tunnel, heading west, as you walk from North Beach/Chinatown to the Polk Gulch neighborhood. The tunnel and street is sort of the dividing line between Russian Hill (would be to the right) and Nob Hill (kind of way off to the left).

 

[DowntownDave]

Hey, we have some nice new new stuff in San Francisco too.....

 

[Beton Brut]

Sounds like some of you in Eastie would like this.

Not just an easier flow of cars through a tunnel but the pedestrian walkways, too.

Look! A clean tunnel! How do they do that?

And beautiful pics as always, DowntownDave. We miss you back East.

 

[DowntownDave]

You know, I was actually traveling from SFO to BOS each week in January. However, between the workshops I was running and my now pathological hatred of winter weather, my camera did not once come out of its bag.

 

[garbribre]

DT Dave!

And where have you been?
(I know where I've been. heh)

Last I recall, you were in Mumbai ... India ... somewhere, holed up in a fashionable villa overlooking the fetid multitudes.

Anyway, yeeeaaaah (whiny), SF has some nice new thingies to look up at.
Oakland can't compete, blah blah blah. Whatever.

Notice something about all of them, though?

Have the design mavens lost the art of textures on many of these new buildings? Everything is glass curtainwalls, essentially. Yawn. Lame.

You did make the Millenium (sp?) Tower look good, though. I cannot get a decent pic of it. Always looks flat (and textureless).

Dude, you don't know how I dodged a bullet this winter. I was supposed to spend much of it in Boston. Due to things beyond my control, I had to remain in the Bay Area an extra five months. WhooHoo! Missed the worst winter in ages, or so I've been told. Though, like you, had a few unpleasant forays into the blistering cold on a few trips east, just enough to remind me that living there is going to hurt.

Anyway, good to see you/read you again.

Oh, and BB--the tunnels are clean because ... I dunno? No sand/salt/excessive moisture to keep the soot sticking to it? I've never personally seen a cleaner/sprayer go through any tunnel here. They must, though.

I biked through the Alameda tube once--big mistake--and from brushing the walls, I did have soot smudges on my clothing, and probably on my lungs, too.

Photo flash kind of washes out the visibility of the fine grime. It's not that clean.

Actually, those tiles look better than what's in my bathroom/kitchen. I hang my head in reverence.

 

[DowntownDave]

I go to Delhi, not Bombay. In fact I have to fly to Delhi on Sunday. I will be there for six weeks this time. However, I also get one day in Istanbul and five in Egypt. So that's ok. I have a great view of the traffic, though:

Are you really returning to Boston? Believe me I just couldn't do it. I was staying at the Club Quarters on Devonshire street, and had to go to our offices next door to Back Bay station. I actually had to plan the route to the Orange Line that included a stop at Dunkins with minimum outside exposure...

It is true that we have seen mostly glass stuff going up, but mist if it is decent, I think. It is certainly better than all the holes currently in the City where work has been canceled. Some is boring for sure, like SF Blu:

I do post regularly over at Skyscraperpage forum; I wondered what happened to you as I have never seen you post over there.

 

[garbribre]

Oh, my! The view from your office in Delhi makes Houston office parks look nice.

Six weeks, eh? Pity. I'm being feted in No. Beach, Ides of March weekend. How fitting. If you are around....

Yeah, the prodigal son returns. It's for a combination of things, and the timing just worked. It's complicated. I am not thrilled, but I need to be in the Boston area. The Bay Area will always be waiting for me, barring any major tectonic plate adjustments. Heh!

Hey, Dunkin's coming west, finally! They've been waiting for Starbucks to falter and were ready to swoop into markets they previously avoided.

And there's a CVS pharmacy in Berkeley. The East Coast and New England institutions are going to blanket the country now.

I'll have to return eventually, on the wave of East Coast ventures that will be mopping up what remains of CA after the state's collapse. Hahaha.

Now back to SF.

I watched that 'Blu' go up daily. What an unfortunate row of buildings to stare at. All the new structures going up throughout SOMA are horrible, especially those hotels and residences beyond the Moscone, heading west--nasty!

Speaking of holes in the ground, I am alarmed at how many buildings in Oakland are half built with no re-commencement dates. Haven't seen that in SF yet, have you, especially the condom buildings, as they are jokingly called? (I'll post a few pics of them in the East Bay thread later.)

Also, drive along San Pablo Ave from Oakland's Uptown development area all the way into Albany and gawk at the numerous, vacant, new-ish, loft-like, hipster residential buildings--appalling.

The above has polarized the people, hasn't it? Has created quite the punctuation on the skyline off the beaten path. Not a bad thing, until the area between it and the rest of the spread of downtown marches its way to the Bay, and the rest of this complex is built, in a decade or more, given the current situation, if lucky.

 

[DowntownDave]

I'll be in Luxor on the Ides of March. I am _such_ an international man of mystery, huh? I am around this weekend, however.

I would welcome the advent of DD on the West coast; I have no use for Starbucks. The other issue I have out here is that one cannot find any decent fried clams. That said, I hope you know what you are setting yourself up for. January was more than enough to convince me that there can be no going back.

One Rincon has been polarizing. I do think it will be better when the second tower is eventually built, but it does make quite an impact.

The Infinity isn't bad, either:

Of course, if all we had were glass buildings the area would be far less interesting.

 

[garbribre]

Dave: PM

The Infinity suffers the fate of dull curtain walls of glass and ugly balconies, times two, and the ground level is atrocious.

At least the undulating forms make for some curious profiles and light play, as you've captured.

I liked it better before the skin went on. (I lost most of my pics from that time, though.) The steel structure of most buildings is far more interesting. It's the sculptor in me.

Wish I had your gear, and more patience with technique. Still just point and shoot a lot, as evidenced.


Here's a perspective most don't get. Pity. Great way to travel. These are taken while on the commuter ferry. Into the sun for these, unfortunately. Doi!

More later. Gotta get back to business. Besides, I'm getting all misty-eyed. Still cannot wrap myself around the concept that I'm leaving. Need to find an isolated corner to hide in for a time out. Can't--be--seen--in--public--in--wussy--mode.

 

[DowntownDave]

You really want to trade:

for

:wink:

 

[statler]

The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco. -Mark Twain

.

 

[DowntownDave]

Ha ha. He does not seem to actually have said that.

I admit I'm crazy, anyway. I could easily tolerate Singapore weather now but not Boston.

 

[garbribre]

You really want to trade:

for

:wink:

Hell, no! As I said elsewhere, I need to do this. Unfortunately, my wants are secondary at the moment.

The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco. -Mark Twain

Accurate attribution or not, he'll always be noted for his quote, as Gertrude Stein will always have her notable quote about Oakland misappropriated.


My most surreal Bay Area weather experience was my first 4th of July here. I thought I had been beamed to the polar ice caps. Funny story. Too much to go into here. My local 'friends' pulled a fast one on me, punking the Bay Area newbie. Never forgave them for it.


I'll take more of this, please, haze and all, any day.

(Notice how I am looking DOWN on you San Franciscans, DT Dave. Heheh. Let the Oakland - San Francisco pissing match recommence!)