Downtown S.F. spots that say ’tis the season
Maybe it’s that Bay Area trait of bending over backwards to be culturally sensitive, but the holiday decorations this year in our Financial District and environs are enough to make Ebenezer Scrooge...
View ArticleKarl the Fog speaks out!
In the course of preparing for last month’s very enjoyable live “chat” with Caille Millner (OK, we were typing away on behalf on this very paper’s excellent Opinion Shop), I reached out to local...
View ArticleBay Lights going dark for 11 months — Bay Lights 2.0 to follow
Beginning Friday at daybreak the Bay Bridge, which for the past two years has doubled as the canvas for an LED light show, will go back to being “just” a bridge. But only for the next 11 months. The...
View ArticleGentrification bears down on San Francisco — in 1985
This just in: “San Francisco has become perhaps the most gentrified large city in the nation.” Growing business sectors are crowding the tip of our peninsula, leading to “spiraling housing costs,...
View Article16 views of Chicago — where architecture reigns
Chicago is catnip to architecture lovers — the one American city that takes pride in all types of buildings, the old and new and short and tall. Devoted to art, shaped by hubris. Which explains my...
View ArticleAn architectural tour of … parklets?
Say what you like about Parklets — and there are detractors as well as devotees — they are now an established part of the scenery not only in San Francisco, but beyond. The initiative to convert...
View ArticleHidden wonders of S.F.’s Financial District
San Francisco’s Financial District can seem forbidding from afar, steep walls of stone and glass forming shadowy canyons. Then you enter — voila! — and discover that the architectural landscape teems...
View ArticleMore than the Pyramid: S.F.’s skyline (slide)show
This city isn’t known for its skyline. I get it. But here’s an architectural secret: the way that San Francisco scrapes the sky is more varied than it seems. Besides the landmarks we take for granted —...
View ArticleThe view from the top (of the Presidio)
I finally made it to the top of the tunnel enclosing the roadway formerly known as Doyle Drive, and all I can say is: It’s big. With postcard views of expected beauty, but also fresh vistas of...
View ArticleWhich one of the Bay Area’s beautiful bridges is the best?
Say what you want about the often-conflicted architecture of the Bay Area — where buildings of recent vintage often seem apologetic for their existence — our bridges are first-rate. From the postcard...
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