sfchronicle.com
From the notion of raising the Ferry Building to the $13.5 billion price tag, the draft plan to begin preparing San Francisco’s bay shoreline for sea level rise is unprecedented. It also must navigate perilous waters before construction crews arrive on the 7.5-mile stretch from Fisherman’s Wharf to Bayview. Not only will Bay Area watchdogs and waterfront lovers scrutinize the plan’s details, but also the approach being pursued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will need to be approved by Congr…
3 months ago
sfchronicle.com
Taking stock of San Francisco’s commercial core these days is a multilayered experience. There’s the hollowed-out aftermath of the pandemic, the angst over what might lie ahead and the fact that construction is still taking place — shaping the future landscape, for better or worse. Which brings us to the corner of Bryant and Zoe streets, where a modest but striking new office building called 531 Bryant offers a template for how, going forward, fresh additions to the urban landscape can serve to…
3 months ago
sfchronicle.com
Marsha Maytum, a low-key local architect whose work spoke volumes about how design can nurture a more humane society, died on Feb. 10, in San Francisco, of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. She was 69. The firm she co-founded in 2001, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, focuses on buildings that serve varied populations in multiple ways — from more than a dozen affordable housing complexes to civic structures and such cultural destinations as the Bay Area Discovery Museum, tucked into the Marin Headland…
3 months ago
sfchronicle.com
For decades, Sunset magazine’s headquarters in Menlo Park embodied a distinct vision of the California Dream — low-slung and inviting, with an immense adobe ranch house opening onto an expansive, bucolic garden inspired by the American west. The landscape architect, Thomas Church, lined a rambling lawn with plantings inspired by an array of landscapes from Puget Sound south to the Mexican border. The building’s architect, Cliff May, was so good at conjuring moods he later designed the Mission-fl…
2 months ago
sfchronicle.com
Macy’s all-but-certain departure from its cavernous home on Geary Street isn’t just about the dim future of old-school department stores or the drumbeat of bad news that fuels San Francisco’s image problems. The closure illuminates something more basic: the extent to which Union Square has ceased to be an essential part of the city’s daily life. The plaza and the commercial blocks that surround it may still loom large in guidebooks, but the center of gravity has shifted — to the extent there rem…
2 months ago
sfchronicle.com
Even as Mayor London Breed talks about adding 30,000 residents to downtown San Francisco, with many of them in buildings that now hold empty office space, a project gearing up on Market Street shows how difficult such conversions will be. The building in question is 785 Market St., a 19-story domed towerette built in 1907 by the long-gone Humboldt Savings Bank. Today it’s almost empty, and developer Richard Hannum wants to turn it into 124 apartments. The early signs are positive, and Hannum ins…
about 2 months ago
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco’s Presidio soon will have something new to look at: detour signs. Roads will be torn up so water and sewage pipes can be replaced. Overhead wires will go underground. The three last vacant buildings in the Main Post will be brought back to life. All of which is for a good cause — improving an unusual national park that in recent years has attracted nearly 10 million visitors but is required to be financially self-sufficient. Still, even leaders of the so-called “Presidio Forward”…
about 2 months ago
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Nature is not what comes to mind when an outsider drives into Bel Marin Keys, a tiny community that begins 1½ miles east of Highway 101 in Marin County, reached by a single road that passes a shopping center and small industrial buildings along the way. The wide streets are monotonous, often lined with homes that resemble those of countless 1960s subdivisions. On some blocks, the only hint that creeks and wetlands might be nearby are the red-winged blackbirds that touch down on utility poles. Wh…
about 2 months ago
sfchronicle.com
The malaise that now grips downtown San Francisco is so entrenched that any would-be solution attracts a following, no matter how simplistic the quick fix might be. Such as the notion that private automobiles should be allowed to return to Market Street. The idea has been kicking around sectors of the business community for the past year. It got more attention when former Supervisor Mark Farrell entered the race for mayor last month with an “economic vitality” platform that includes “open Market…
about 1 month ago
sfchronicle.com
For the past two seasons, Giants fans gathered at Oracle Park have seen a miniature skyline rise beyond the right-field bleachers, a trio of structures filling once clear sky. Now, that work in progress is finally opening to the public — starting with an enticing yet ambitious park along China Basin that deserves a visit, even if baseball puts you to sleep. The 5-acre spread has a simple name, China Basin Park, with a powerful design that is strong enough to meet the challenge of serving multipl…
24 days ago
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco is changing. These are people whose decisions will shape that change — for better or worse.
15 days ago
