City // San Francisco
March 31, 2009
Two Which Do You Aspire Two? Goldsworthy's Spire and Pereira’s Transamerica
Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire in the Presidio of San Francisco {read more about it here on Le Blog…} and William Pereira’s Transamerica Pyramid // San Francisco, California
Technorati Tags: AndyGoldsworthy, architecture, art, Presidio, public, SanFrancisco, Spire, Transamerica
March 31, 2009 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 24, 2009
The God Diet: Churches as Relics in a 21st Century City
"God" is a myth that we use as an excuse for not doing good in this lifetime. God is dead. I look around the city of San Francisco and I’m reminded of this liberating reality. The church as an organization to relieve the suffering of the poor may still be useful to society, but the church as a great power is fading, fading to a deserved oblivion, while ecclesiastical buildings stand like relics of another era, vestiges of long-broken promises.
Technorati Tags: architecture, California, church, DoloresHeights, falsehoods, MissionDistrict, MissionDolores, myths, PotreroHill, religion, SanFrancisco, SouthOfMarket
March 24, 2009 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 10, 2009
Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire in the Presidio of San Francisco
Here in San Francisco, the English artist Andy Goldsworthy has erected the first of his “spires,” a massive assemblage of culled cypress trees from the Presidio’s mature forest. Found just north of the Arguello Gate on a slope of land uphill from the Inspiration Point Overlook, the spire juts out of the earth as a bundle of thick tree trunks 8-across, but as it climbs to its 100 foot height, it tapers to just one ragged branch.
Above: one of the new seedlings planted as part of the Presidio’s reforestation.
Above: at the base of the spire is what appears to be some local rock — the same sort of green serpentine rock that we find all around San Francisco.
I was up early today chasing the moon as it set over the Pacific, but found myself distracted by the spire as I entered the Presidio. I stopped to take photos and spent the next hour or so circumscribing the site and marveling at the spectacle.
Read and see more:
- Two Which Do You Aspire Two? Goldsworthy's Spire and Pereira’s Transamerica
- Goldsworthy reaches high with Presidio ‘Spire’ (interview) — San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 25, 2008
- Work Stands Out Before It Blends In — New York Times, Oct. 20, 2009
- Andy Goldsworthy's 'Spire' — PBS News Hour blog post
- "Spire” by Andy Goldworthy — The Presidio Trust
- Goldsworthy at the Presidio Exhibit — The Presidio Trust
- Phillips Garden has a collection of other Goldsworthy artwork.
Technorati Tags: AndyGoldsworthy, art, forest, Presidio, SanFrancisco, sculpture, Spire, trees
February 10, 2009 in Art + Burning Man, City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 28, 2009
Pier 70 cranes, San Francisco waterfront
On the east edge of San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood you'll find the great cranes of Pier 70. While ship repair is still actively pursued in the dry docks, portions of the pier are virtually abandoned, with these cranes sitting unused. The City of San Francisco may someday rehabilitate the area as public space — they'll call it “Crane Cove Park.” Worth checking out is the Pier 70 Master Plan Fact Sheet and Overview (PDF).
See also:
- The Independence leaves port for the last time: a great white hulk of imperial excesses
- My flickr photos tagged Pier 70
- Pier 70 Area - Port of San Francisco website
- Historic info on Pier 70
Technorati Tags: cranes, Pier70, SanFrancisco, shipyard, waterfront
January 28, 2009 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 12, 2008
Corrugated San Francisco
All around the industrial/post-industrial parts of San Francisco are these corrugated-skin buildings — cheap, quick and light architecture for industrial use, for maximum return on investment:
December 12, 2008 in Architecture, City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 21, 2008
Happy spring // unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War
Happy ** spring
And unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War.
Technorati Tags: poppies, spring
March 21, 2008 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 13, 2008
The Independence leaves port for the last time: a great white hulk of imperial excesses
This ship, the Independence, has been in drydock for years at San Francisco's Pier 70 shipyard. It's fated to be cut up for scrap. While the average sentient being was “watching” the “Superbowl” (*gag*), I was out tooling around the exceptionally quiet City on my bike (thank you for not driving those few hours, ya gas-addicted whores). A few days later, the ship was towed out of the bay, probably to be scrapped in Asia. So goes the waste of the the world's rich.
- Last U.S. ocean liner heads into the unknown — San Francisco Chronicle
- History and old postcard photos of the Independence
- Flickr photos of the Independence leaving San Francisco Bay, 2008
Technorati Tags: cruiseship, Independence, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBay, ship
February 13, 2008 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 06, 2008
Hunter's Point Power Plant: demolition death
Catastrophic demolition accident at old PG&E plant (30 January 2008, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, by Tonja Muhammad):
“The untimely collapse of a steel structure at the old Hunters Point PG&E Power Plant on Evans Avenue caused the death of one demolition project worker and serious injury to two others Monday. Two five-story boiler towers were being prepared to be brought down when the collapse happened.”
The (big, bad) machine in the garden.
- Hunter's Point Power Plant being decommissioned, San Francisco, Heron's Head Park
- PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant Dismantlement and Abatement
- Hunters Point Power Plant Controversy in Bay Nature magazine, 2006: "In the late 1990s, when local residents started to question their abnormally high rates of cancer and other afflictions, the San Francisco Health Department began studies that revealed some frightening statistic — Bayview-Hunters Point residents were suffering from twice the average U.S. rate of asthma, cervical, and breast cancer, and had hospitalization rates that were three times the national rate for congestive heart failure, hypertension, and emphysema. Bayview-Hunters Point and the bordering neighborhood of Potrero Hill also had noticeably higher rates of bronchitis and other upper respiratory diseases in children."
Technorati Tags: demolition, energy, HuntersPoint, PG&E, PowerPlant, PowerStation, SanFrancisco
February 6, 2008 in City // San Francisco, Potrero Hill // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (2)
January 09, 2008
Anna's Danish Cookies, now Farina, in the Mission
From Tablehopper's review of Farina, the restaurant on 18th Street in San Francisco's Mission District that replaced Anna's Danish Cookies, I learned this about the fate of the Anna's old sign:
“There is a spacious communal table, with two-tops that that are cleverly made out of the former Anna's Danish Cookies sign that line the towering front bay windows…”
Technorati Tags: AnnasDanishCookies, MissionDistrict, SanFrancisco
January 9, 2008 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (3)
January 04, 2008
Whirlpools in San Francisco during winter storm
We're in the midst of a walloping winter storm here in San Francisco. I created a giant whirlpool in the street by clearing the leaves off a storm drain that had clogged. When I walked into the water, it was about mid-calf deep — nearly 12“ of standing water, soaked to the bone. Potrero Hill neighborhood, 20th and De Haro.
Technorati Tags: rain, SanFrancisco, storm, street, whirlpool, california
January 4, 2008 in City // San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (1)
