Archive for August, 2009
It’s been nearly a year since an opponent of the North Beach library project said the proposal was all wrong because: “Libraries are square or rectangular buildings. In addition to being three-sided, none of the Triangle’s sides are equal, making for a curiously-shaped building replete with odd angles, the antithesis of a structure whose primary purpose is to house bookcases.” A memorable argument indeed, and we’ve seen renderings now that can attest to the very three-sided nature of the library destined for the embattled North Beach Triangle. So it is with delight that we see the intervening months have added much nuance and flavor to the argument in a new BeyondChron piece: “Perhaps the ultimate irony is that neither city librarian Luis Herrera nor his predecessor wanted a library on the Triangle. Wrong shape, tiny lot and even murmurs of bad feng shui.” And bad feng shui is only the beginning of a building’s troubles, as we all know.
· North Beach Library Fiasco: Part III [BeyondChron]
· North Beach Library Landing, Mason Street in Peril [Curbed SF]
· Notes On Architecture [Curbed SF]
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MISSION BAY: We’re not sure just how new this parking garage is, but a reader rode by the Gattaca-style structure on Third and South, and sent us these photos. She wonders, swooning: who’s the architect? Anyone?
["Dark Center of the Universe," courtesy Plug 1]
· East Bay man discovers banks don’t like construction loans anymore [CBS 5]
· The secret underground lizard people of Los Angeles! [BLDGBLOG]
· Noe Valley’s St. Paul’s gets the scaffold treatment [nv buzz]
· North Beach’s Mason Street Plaza: thumbs up [Pedestrianist]
1) Snazzy Bayview Library Might Ditch Crusty But Beloved Wall: “This design is surprisingly decent. Better looking in my opinion than the branch libraries going up in much fancier SF neighborhoods.
Its just sad they have to get an architect all the way from Portland for a decent design to result…”
2) On the Market: Two Contemporary Twins in Bernal Heights: “This pricing is hallucinatory. Nearly a million for a tiny place like this would be overboard even in the good, north side of Bernal. But this location is right by the freeway, Bayshore, AND the projects — and nowhere near any of the shopping on Cortland (or the public transportation on Mission). These should go for around $500k. Ridiculous.”
3) Mission Bay: A Real Neighborhood At Last!: “It seems like there could have been a better distinction made between the area north of Mission Creek, which really is feeling more like a neighborhood with more businesses and probably has more freaking dogs per capita than anywhere else in the world, and the area south of the creek, which…. well, just look at the picture above.
In Mission Bay North the parks are really nice, as is the promenade on the water. Some of the buildings are ugly, but uh…… this is SAN FRANCISCO we’re talking about right?”
4) High-Speed Rail Ruling Confuses, But It’s Some Sort of Setback: “There is a direct correlation of countries with successfull single-payer health plans and countries with successfull high speed rail systems. This country to too selfish to have either.”
5) Rendering Reveal: Saitowitz White Box in SoMa Will Blind You: “SF has quite a few better representations of ‘a larger architectural world’. Not enough, but I’d hope that as fans of modern architecture we won’t just accept any old thing thrown our way. Saitowitz has plenty of successful and unsuccessful projects in the city. It’s important to notice the difference.”
Forbes: Sinking property values, high unemployment and prices, and poor environments add to the pressure felt by residents in these metros.
