Micro-living

I once lived in a 375 square foot studio……….. for 6 and a half years. Crazy? Yeah. But I grew to love the place and its location. And with mediocre paying architect jobs, and a car payment, the $650 /month rent worked. It was 2 rooms , a living room in the front, and everything else in the back. I slept in the kitchen, albeit in a small loft space. I could make sunday breakfast from bed, flipping pancakes while reading the paper. Ah the memories. I left in 2000, and with that being at the height of the dot-com boom, the rent skyrocketed, to $1,650. Again, for 375 square feet.

We live in a larger space now, why we even have a hallway! But I have always felt that we Americans could live in smaller spaces, and I think that , in this era of green everything, that is an underutilized strategy. Green materials are important, but why not start with using less material by living in smaller spaces. I went to a presentation recently by a couple in San Francisco who had just remodeled their Pacific heights home. It was hailed as a green tour de force, but it was a 3,500 sf home for 4. It just seemed like an irrelevant review of a couple of wealthy people who had the means to spend lavishly on all things green.  In the meantime, the average American lives in well over twice as much as space as in other nations (except Australia, there’s are bigger!!). Getting smaller, and yes, greener, that’s what we should do , ultimately.

At any rate, these reflections were prompted by the article below. My 375 square feet was a palace compared to this.

Here’s the full article:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/cozy_crazy_couple_makes_tight_studio_R15ToNFTaJE3c17zkw4efP

Grand Tour.12- Point San Pablo

Quick, how many lighthouses are there on San Francisco Bay? Answer in a moment.

One of the oddest hikes yet undertaken on our Grand Tour (Recession Version!), hike number 12 takes us to little known Point San Pablo.  Point San Pablo is a peninsula that juts out into the bay in Richmond just north of the Richmond San Rafael Bridge. Much of this peninsula is owned by Chevron, but a narrow strip of land is independently owned or in transition. So this hike strikes a recurring theme on the Grand Tour, land between uses; often an industrial or military past that is giving way to an alternate future. Here’s the route:

So how many lighthouses do you have? If you guessed 5, I think you would be correct, and I ask this, because one of them is on this route. The other 4: Point Bonita out at the mouth of the bay, Point Lime in Sausalito, and one each on both Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands.

We broke a “Urban Ambles” rules on this trip, as we accessed this amble via  car, but at least it was a car share. So, on with the amble.

History

This is a largely industrial landscape, most of this peninsula is owned by Chevron, and its the relatively narrow sliver of land that is not owned by Chevron, along the Bay , that was our route. This strip of land actually used to be an island, the largest in San Francisco Bay, but the shallow marshlands that separated it from Richmond were filled in at the turn of the 20th century. The land facing west was once   home to Chinese shrimpers, and then to the largest winery operation in california, believe it or not, at Winehaven, right on the bay. After the winery left, the navy took over, and it became the Point Molate Fuel Depot. The navy base was decommissioned in 1995, along with many other bay area bases, and the land has since been up for redevelopment.

Reflections at Thanksgiving

When I started this blog, I found this photo, and it was part of my first post. Certainly part of the focus of the blog has been chronicling my journey caused by our current economic trauma. Well, I recently passed one year since I have worked full-time for a company. So, I thought I would reflect for a moment on this past year.

In many ways, this has been an amazing year. I have accomplished much: I’ve learned new skills, free-lanced,  become much more engaged with my community in a variety of pro-bono ways, spent more time with family.  And I have continued to create, my lifeblood. But its been hard of course. This past week for example, I had an interview scheduled with a firm, and I had spent the better part of a week preparing, sending them a custom mini-portfolio at their request, updating my website for what I was sure would be a knock-out multi media interview presentation. The day  before the interview, I received a cryptic e-mail telling me the interview was off, (it turned out they were in need of people because of a large project they were awarded), a project that was now on hold til  next fall.  I suppose its the way of the world now, it’s the second time it’s happened this year to me. But why not at least have the interview, to see if there is a fit for the future? I mean , they make you jump through a bunch of hoops, then poof- can’t even give an hour of their time, after the week I spent preparing?

Traveling Up The Hudson River

A common lament of those of us who were raised in the northeast is that “while I love California, I do miss the fall”. And I certainly have uttered that phrase many times, although lately, I have found my love of California wavering, its been more tough love given its current dysfunctional state. Last month, I spent a wonderful 10 days in New York State. The bulk of the time was spent in New York City with friends, and near Syracuse upstate with family. This post concerns itself with the journey in between, a marvelous meander up the Hudson River, at  the height of its autumnal splendor.

The Hudson with Catskills beyond

A Bit of History

Anniversaries are afoot this year along the Hudson. Exactly 400 years ago, English explorer and the river’s namesake Henry Hudson sailed up the river on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. And 40 years ago, a bit west of the Hudson, there  was Woodstock.

The Hudson is an impressive river. It flows south from the state’s highest peak in the Adirondacks, gradually widening through the Hudson Valley, and its the valley’s defining hills and mountains which put on the great October show. I took the train up to Syracuse, stopping in Poughkeepsie, and the train rolls right next to the river. The trip on that sun-splashed perfect October day was spectacular.

The Hudson River Valley is rich in history. It played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War, has had many noteworthy residents such as the Roosevelts and the Vanderbilts, it was home to  the establishment of the first great American Art movement, and  of course, some stunning architecture. And its a scene of great contradictions, in places  severely depressed economically, yet at the same time these down at the heels places lie within the shadow of grandiose institutions that line the river.

Will They Ever Finish Market Street?

The great urban design writer Ada Louise Huxtable lament of years past- “Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard” inspired this post, that and the fact Market Street has been in the news quite a bit lately. Seems not a week goes by and we don’t hear about some new traffic plan for Market Street : cars, but only so-far, no cars at all, no cars or buses, tandem bikes only, only clowns on unicycles, etc. The latest was a proposition, that failed, which would have allowed  an area of heightened illuminated signs in the mid-Market area. I voted for this. At any rate, some ramblings on Market Street

The Past

Market Street is the most famous street we have, the grand boulevard, connecting downtown’s focal point at the Ferry Building, with the city’s almost highest point- Twin Peaks. Discussions about improving Market Street have gone on for over 100 years. In 1905, the great Chicago Architect Daniel Burnham was enlisted to develop a new urban plan for the city. Amidst his city-wide planning, he imagined a grand boulevard along Market , culminating with an acropolis-like enclave of buildings and statuary, complete with cascading waterfalls down its slopes. The plan was approved 6 months before the Earthquake, but the city fathers ditched the plan for expediency sake after the quake- rebuilding instead largely what was there before.

Burnham's Twin Peaks Acropolis

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

But why write about  historic Market Street when we can experience first hand. Two incredible videos, one from yes 1905, and a second from 1941.

Grand Tour.11-Berkeley: Books, Bohemians, and Busted Budgets

The Grand Tour (Recession Version!) continues with a visit to Berkeley. When we last left the Grand Tour , we were making our way from Oakland, through Berkeley, to Albany and its strange “Bulb”. But Berkeley deserves its own post. My saunter focused on the beautiful campus and the hills above it,  a schizophrenic 6-mile walk, to and and from the Berkeley BART station. Here’s the route.

More than 6 months ago (yikes), the Grand Tour visited Stanford, the archrival, certainly athletically, and I think esthetically,  to Berkeley. If Stanford is ochre-hued  meditteranean mission, a literate world set into the wilds as directed by Junipero Serra, Berkeley is one part Sophocles, one part Prussian Bohemia- an informally grayish  classical ensemble set along a creek amongst the redwoods. As someone who attended a college whose campus most closely resembled a shopping mall,( in fact, had an Orange Julius suddenly appeared adjacent to the Engineering Lecture Hall, no one would have blinked. ) this is an especially extraordinary setting.

The San Francisco Art Institute

I have many favorite places in San Francisco, but one stands above all the rest,  the San Francisco Art Institute on Russian Hill. The Art Institute, founded in 1871,  is one of the oldest  and more prestigious art schools in the country. Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Bruce Nauman, and Clyfford Still have taught there, Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Errol Morris, and yes, Courtney Love,  studied there.

The Art Institute  moved to its current site in 1926. The original building was designed by the San Francisco firm Bakewell and Brown, the same firm that designed San Francisco’s City Hall, among other buildings. Its a masterful study in mediterranean romanticism, the tower, the courtyard, the breezy arcades, all delightfully overgrown with all manner of planting. In 1969 a modernist  addition was completed, designed by Paffard Keatinge Clay. A raw, even brutal concrete counterpoint to the original building, its highlight is  a stepped lecture hall set in a plaza, on top of which sits an outdoor ampitheater. The plaza surrounding the hall is an abstract composition in its own right, and offers stupendous views of the city and bay below. The spatial sequence one experiences in this building is extraordinary, first through the classical entry portal, then into the lush courtyard, a glance up at the tower, a detour  into the Diego Rivera Hall to see his great mural, then, after being  squeezed into a hallway between the old and new buildings, one is released in the addition’s plaza, and an extraordinary and little known vista point overlooking the bay. And like all good mediterranean complexes , the parting view of the building, the tower on the hill, embellishes the experience in our memory. Lucky enough to live around the corner from the building for a few years, my favorite image in my memory is that tower, seen at night, in the fog, a romantic  beacon beckoning to the cacophony of ship’s horns below. Below, we walk through the building.

Remembering Julius Shulman

.

Oh, to find your calling in life. Its something we all aspire to, struggle for, sometimes achieve. I had the privilege a couple nights ago of previewing a documentary on the life of a man who found that treasure.  The documentary, entitled “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman”, directed by Eric Bricker, explores the life of Mr. Shulman, the legendary photographer of  Southern Califonia modernity. It premieres next month, and its a joyous testimony to a man who clearly found his calling. Mr. Shulman passed away in July, he was approaching 99 years of age, and was still active in photography right up to his death. Based in Los Angeles, Shulman introduced many to iconic Southern Califonia modernism, as authored by the likes of Rudolf Schindler, Richard Neutra , Pierre Koenig, Albert Frey, and John Lautner. This is perhaps his most well know photo, a magnificent home designed by Koenig, high over Los Angeles.

Tenderloin Tales- The Signs

The tenderloin wear’s its heart on its sleeve, or perhaps more apt, its tattooed forearms. To wit, some signs form the ‘loin.

Haven't had the prime rib...........

Typical 'loin joint- lots of squinting denizens coming out to smoke

dcbzz

Glorious sign- no shortage of liquor in the ‘loin.

Color and pornography.

"Tenderloin National Forest"- National Park Service inspired.

Nothing to add

Inspiration and/or admonishment-weekly on Turk street

Grand Tour.10- Ambling Through The East Bay

The Grand Tour (Recession version!) continues as we make our way along the East Bay. Picking up where we left off in Alameda, this leg takes us through parts of 5 East bay cities, Oakland , Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, and El Cerrito.. I got there and back on BART, starting at the 19th BART Station, finishing at El Cerrito. Here’s the longish 11 mile route:

Barb-B-Q and Religion

We begin our tour in Oakland, hiking  one block over to pay a visit to the marvelous new Christ The Light Cathedral at Lake Merritt.  This is an exquisite building, designed by Skidmore ,Owings, & Merrill, in my humble opinion, one of the best pieces of recent  religious architecture (It deserves its own post). The design particularly works wonderfully at the scale of urban design, commanding its corner with its truncated elliptical shape. The interior is a wood slatted shell within the outer glazed shell, which gives rise to a soothing level of natural light. The building comes to the ground gracefully, unlike so many modern religious buildings whose towering sculptural tops land on squat little rectangular bases. My only quibble with this building is more a question, how could the diocese afford it?

At any rate, this part of Oakland is rebounding. In addition to the cathedral, there is a sparkling new Whole Foods and the newly refurbished Fox Theater nearby. There is also the new Uptown Broadway development, and while the buildings are nothing to shout about, the ensemble has pointed to a new, more promising future for the area.

Just beyond Uptown, we travel down San Pablo, on our way to Emeryville, and the neighborhood declines quickly. Wedged between Uptown and Emeryville, this stretch is littered with boarded up shops, tattered apartments, and the periodic fast food joint, often on a second or third life, in this case, as a bar-b-q joint.