Empty Printer Cartridges for Daniel Webster School (Potrero Hill)

Time to recycle all the printer empties. Your old inkjet and laser printer cartridges will help Daniel Webster Elementary School (Potrero Hill, San Francisco) to buy school supplies.

Drop off your empty inkjet or laser cartridges at the school office in the small admin building on Missouri Street between 19th and 20th streets during school hours. Your old printer cartridge empties can help out a Potrero Hill school. Bring in all you have, from home or office — it all helps.

And, a brief note on the polis: And while you're at it, tell your representatives in the government that you want the U.S. to invest more in public education. Let's raise the starting salaries for teachers to the high-five figures so we can attract the best teachers to the schools that need the most help. We can't fool ourselves any more — an uneducated population is bad for society.

Technorati Tags: budget, education, schools, society, taxes

Lunar Eclipse of 20 February 2008, from San Francisco

Turned out that Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, was a good evening for an eclipse. In the middle of a series of rain storms, the weather cleared for a while in San Francisco and right on schedule the full moon arose in the east, already obscured by Earth's shadow. Here it is, viewed from San Francisco's Potrero Hill. Also, check out my photos of the Aug. 28, 2007 lunar eclipse.

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

Night Ride: View from Potrero Hill, with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

This Sunday, January 20, 2008, join the San Francisco Bike Coalition for Night Ride: View from Potrero Hill.

6 pm — meet at Panhandle Statue (Fell Street at Baker)

“Catch beautiful views after following the sneaky least-steep route up this hill. By taking it slow and steady, you'll find the hill is not so bad, and the view is worth the effort. Bring blinkies, snacks to share (thermoses of hot beverages are encouraged in winter!). For more info, contact ”

Technorati Tags: bicycles, BikePower, PotreroHill, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBikeCoalition, SFBC

David Baker, architect of 888 7th, speaks on “Better Living Through Density”

From the California College of the Arts calendar:

David Baker / David Baker + Partners, Architects
Architecture Lecture Series
Monday, October 8, 2007 at 7 pm

California College of the Arts

Timken Lecture Hall
1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
Google map

Info: 415.703.9562 or architecture@cca.edu

“Better Living Through Density”

Denser neighborhoods are more active, more interesting, safer places that support local retail and services and foster community. But what makes urban housing beautiful and functional for residents and neighborhood alike? David Baker will describe—using some of his own work as examples—the components of good urban design, including active pedestrian edges, the hierarchy of open spaces, sensible parking strategies, and sustainable approaches that make higher densities better for all.

David Baker FAIA has been practicing architecture for nearly 30 years, and in 1996 was selected as fellow of the American Institute of Architects. David founded San Francisco-based David Baker + Partners in 1982. With a focus on sustainable affordable housing—particularly multifamily urban infill projects—the award-winning firm has come to be known for combining social concern with a signature design character. From 1977 to 1982, David was principal of Sol-Arc, a firm dedicated to energy-efficient architecture. A progressive urban activist and bicyclist, he has also been a teacher, a union carpenter and a philosophy major, and has recently learned to knit.

Baker is responsible for the building complex nearing completion at 888 7th Street at the foot of San Francisco's Potrero Hill — site of the former Art's Trading Co.

2005-2007 18th Street: mega modern new architecture on Potrero Hill

This new work of architecture at 18th and Rhode Island Streets in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood will surely be showing up soon in better design Web sites and magazines. It's still under construction but is finally ready enough for its glamour shot. Potrero Hill has been sprouting a number of modern home designs over the past few years, but this one goes the extra mile, not only in its bold design but also its spanning of two city lots. Still, its residents will have to contend with the Muni #19 bus line, who's diesel groans up that hill at all hours.

The home looks like it'll actually be multi-family: it has 2 addresses on the north elevation, 2005 and 2007 18th Street (Google map), and another address on the Rhode Island side. A look at the Live Local satellite view shows that two homes were razed to make way for the new building:

Directly to the north of the lot, across 18th Street and in the foreground of the bottom picture, is a still-empty lot, which is the location of the occasional Potrero Walk-in Movies.

Check out more Potero Hill modernism here on Le Blog Exuberance:

• Modernist apartment building
• High Modernism at Carolina & 22nd Street
• 2130 24th Street: woody modernism looking good
• Cactus moderne: 618 Carolina Street
• 705 Utah Street: the street address that has no street
• The machine in the garden // the garden in the machine

Technorati Tags: architecture, homes, modern, ModernArchitecture, moderndesign, modernism, PotreroHill, residential, SanFrancisco

Crash! An incident on the 101 Freeway

Big accident on the 101 Freeway this morning in San Francisco, between the 22nd and 23rd Street overpass at Potrero Hill and “Hospital Curve.” Four helicopters drew my attention away from the neighborhood I was out walking in, and to this scene of destruction and utterly immobilized traffic in the south-bound lanes. I counted a motorcycle and at least three cars involved.

Technorati Tags: accident, highway101, PotreroHill, SanFrancisco, traffic

705 Utah Street: the street address that has no street

The really funky house at 705 Utah on Potrero Hill (San Francisco) is for sale again. When it first hit the market a couple years ago, just after being built, I  toured the home at an open house event. It's located on a very strange lot which is accessed from 19th Street where it dead-ends at San Bruno Avenue. It's a pretty spectacular home, but it is barely a hundred feet from the edge of Highway 101 at “Hospital Curve.” Talk about the “roar of the freeway” — get used to it, as you fork over your two million bucks.

Below: the home under construction, viewed by satellite, from Live Search:

In the photo below, you are standing at the kitchen, which is 3 steps up from the living room, looking across the living room to the west. Just below the windows is the 101 freeway and its eight lanes of incessant traffic. The right-most window is actually a door leading to a tiny triangular balcony where you and your midget friend can breathe in the exhaust before you retreat back into the home, shutting all the windows because it's simply too horribly loud to exist otherwise. A perfect gilded cage.

Residential areas immediately adjacent to obnoxious freeways should be the low-rent district; here in San Francisco, living on top of the freeway is a two-million dollar privilege. Ah, but the views are spectacular.

In the photo below is the other home built as part of this project, on 19th Street proper. The passageway to the right of the home leads to 705 Utah. On the red wall at the right edge of the photo, the street address is signaled in stylish metal lettering, but don't expect the pizza guy to ever find that. It's a highly confusing address, especially because it doesn't map properly on Google Maps, and you can't actually get to Utah Street from there without a trip of many blocks.

Below: the above home is seen during construction, outlined in the red box; 705 Utah is also under construction, seen in the circle:

Below, the Google map, where I drew in 705 Utah as a red box; Utah Street is the block to the right of Potrero Ave at Mariposa, and you can see that there isn't actually any Utah Street at 705 Utah Street!

See more posts about Potrero Hill homes… [Le Blog]

Technorati Tags: 705Utah, PotreroHill, SanFrancisco

Potrero Hill has the fewest homes for sale in years

I don't know what it means, but right now, December 20, 2006, Potrero Hill has only 11 homes for sale, according to a search on the Urban Bay Properties website. I'm going to guess that some listings were pulled for a few days and they'll soon re-appear (a common “trick” pulled by shady agents, I think). Some of this is also probably due to the holiday season.

It's interesting that the inventory of homes for sale has been falling as fast as home appreciation since the peak of the real estate bubble in November 2005. Just back in Apri 2006, there were 36 listings on Potrero, the highest number I had noted in about 3 years of watching.

Cactus moderne: 618 Carolina Street, Potrero Hill

Here's a recent remodel on San Francisco's Potrero Hill:

618, 620 and 622 Carolina Street is about as fine a modern city home (for three families) that I've seen built in years. Generous balconies allow for the outdoor living so often possible in this sunny side of town. The monumental cactii Euphorbias add a Palm Springs Moderne flair to the streetscape, and the garage door follows our currently developing tradition of using wood in modern façades. There's also a nice use of industrial materials in the black metal railings and especially in that trellis at top, which will probably be covered in hanging purple wisteria in a few years. All in all, a fine addition to our neighborhood.

Technorati Tags: modern, modernarchitecture, moderndesign, modernism, PotreroHill, SanFrancisco