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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
San Francisco Development News



Knapsack Hike 04 by Tom Hilton, on Flickr


===================================================================================================

I decided to carry this thread over from SkyscraperPage.com to give everyone a rundown of San Francisco's projects. Enjoy! :)

San Francisco Now:



Recently Completed

JP Morgan Chase Building

function: office
height: 433'
floors: 31
architect: Cesar Pelli Architects
completion: 2002

Rendering:




The Paramount

function: residential
height: 420'
floors: 43
architect: Elkus/ Manfredi Architects
completion: 2002

Rendering:





Four Seasons Hotel and Residences

function: residential, hotel
height: 398'
floors: 40
architect: Gary Edward Handel & Associates
completion: 2001

Rendering:




199 Fremont

function: office
height: 364'
floors: 27
architect: Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz
completion: 2000

Rendering:





101 Second

function: office
height: 354'
floors: 26
architect: Craig Hartman of SOM
completion: 2000

Renderings:





55 Second

function: office
height: 330'
floors: 25
architect: Heller Manus Architects
completion: 2002

Renderings:




150 California

function: office
height: 330'
floors: 23
architect: HOK
completion: 2000

Rendering:




W Hotel

function: hotel
height: 315'
floors: 31
architect: Hornsberger & Worstell
completion: 1999

Rendering:




Two Folsom (Gap Inc. Headquarters)

function: office
height: 275'
floors: 15
architect: Robert A.M. Stern
completion: 2000

Rendering:




Bridgeview Towers

function: residential
height: 250'
floors: 26
architect: HKS Inc.
completion: 2002

Rendering:




The Metropolitan I and The Metropolitan II

function: residential
height: 250' and 200'
floors: 27 and 22
architect: Heller-Manus Architects
completion: 2004

Renderings:



Avalon at Mission Bay I

function: residential
height: 160'
floors: 16
architect: Fisher Friedman Architects
completed: 2003

Images:




250 King Street also known as The Beacon

function: residential
height: ~160'
floors: 16
architect: SOM
completion: 2003

Rendering:


************************************************
Under Construction

St. Regis Museum Tower

function: residential, hotel, museum/ cultural institution
height: 484'
floors: 42
architect: SOM
completion: 2005

Renderings:




New Federal Building

function: office
height: 234'
floors: 18
architect: Thom Mayne and Morphosis
completion: 2005

Rendering:



Bryant Street Seawall I and II aka The Watermark

function: residential
height: 220'/ 135'
floors: 22/ 13
architect: Moore Ruble Yudell
completion: 2005

Rendering:



Avalon at Mission Bay II

function: residential
height: 160'
floors: 16
architect: GGLO architects
completion: 2007


UCSF Mission Bay Student Housing

function: residential
height: 155'
floors: 15
architect: SOM (?)
completion: 2005

Rendering:



199 New Montgomery

function: residential
height: 150'
floors: 16
architect: Heller Manus Architects
completion: 2005

Renderings:


*********************************************************************
Approved

These are the projects that are mostly likely to be constructed in the next few years.

301 Mission Street

function: residential, hotel
height: 625'
floors: 58
architect: Gary Handel + Associates
completion: 2007

Renderings:





555 Mission Street

function: office
height: 482'
floors: 34
architect: Heller-Manus Architects
completion: 2007/2008

Rendering:


*On hold due to high vacancy in Downtown San Francisco. Currently seeking anchor tenant. Barclays Global Investors has recently been listed as a possible tenant.


201 Folsom and 300 Spear Streets

function: residential
height: podium- 80'; 2 400' towers and 2 350' towers
floors: 40, 40, 35, 35
architect: Heller Manus Architects and Arquitectonica
completion: 2007-2009

Renderings:



* 300 Spear, which has been redesigned by the architecture firm, Arquitectonica, will be the first of the two projects to be built. As of April 2005, work has begun on the site.


InterContinental Hotel

function: hotel
height: 320'
floors: 31
architect: Patri Merker Architects
completion: 2007

Rendering:


(The rendering does not do the project justice!)

* The developer has lined up the financing for the project, and it should begin construction soon.


10th and Market

function: office, residential
height: the 14 story tower will rise to 150'; the 21 story tower will rise to 200'; and the 24 story tower will rise to 345'
floors: 3 separate towers rising to 24, 21, and 14 stories
architect: SOM
completion: 2006/2007

Rendering:
Poor rendering of the base of the 320' tower:



14 story tower:



* Office portion may be dropped, if city decides to purchase an existing building.


524 Howard Street

function: office
height: 310'
floors: 23
architect: Heller Manus and Robert Frank Architects
completion: ?

Renderings:


* 524 Howard is on hold as a result of the high office vacancy rate in downtown San Francisco. If entitlements are pulled, another project could move foward. Site is zoned for 450'- 400' (which means >500' with a crown and setbacks).


Exchange Place (350 Bush Street)

function: office
height: 250'
floors: 19
architect: Heller Manus
completion: 2007(?)

Rendering:



* Project is on hold. Project sponsor is currently looking for an anchor tenant. The current structures have been demolished on the site.


1146-1160 Mission Street

function: residential
height: 235'
floors: 24
architect: AGI Capital
completion: ?

Renderings:


* Project was approved by the Board of Supervisors on February 10, 2004.


48 Tahama Street

function: office/ residential
height: 216'
floors: 20
architect: Komorous-Towey Architects
completion: ?

Renderings:


* Approved September 2001.


325 Fremont Street

function: residential
height: 200'
floors: 20
architect: Baum Thornley Architects
completion: ?

Renderings:

available at http://www.btarchitects.com/indexf.html


Bovet Place

function: residential, retail
height: 200'
floors: 17
architect: Donald Macdonald Architects
completion: ?



*Project was approved in 2001, but no work has been done. In all likelyhood, entitlements have been (or will be) pulled and another project can move into site.

**************************************************************

Proposed

Harbor Village Resort

function: residential, commercial, open space
height: 3 towers: 650'
floors: 61 each
architect: ?
completion: ?

Renderings:

none

One Rincon Hill:

function: residential
height: 550' and 465'
floors: ?
architect: Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates
completion: 2007 (?)

Renderings:





45 Lansing Street

function: residential
height: 400'
floors: ?
architect: ?
completion: ?


340-350 Fremont Street

function: residential
height: 400'
floors: ?
architect: ?
completion: ?


399 Fremont

function: residential
height: 350'
floors: 37 (5 below grade parking levels)
architect: ?
completion: ?

Renderings: none


375 Fremont

function: residential
height: 350'
floors: 33
architect: Beverly Prior Architects
completion: ?

Renderings: none

* This tower may be eliminated under the plan being proposed by the Planning Department (see bottom of post). Unfortunately, this tower would sit too close to other towers on Rincon Hill.


535 Mission Street

function: residential
height: ?
floors: 30
architect: ?
completion: ?

Renderings: none

* This tower is a replacement for an office proposal made in the 1990s.


690 Market Street
renovation

function: residential, hotel
height: 312'
floors: 24
architect: ?
completion: 2006

Renderings:




1177 Market I, II, III, IV, and V

function: residential, retail
height: 240' - 120'
floors: 24 - 12
architect: Arquitectonica
completion: ?

Renderings:




*Project is being redesigned by Arquitectonica.


631 Folsom Street

function: residential
height: ~200'
floors: 21
architect: ?
completion: 2007 (?)

Renderings:





Pavilion Mixed Use Project

function: hotel (conference), residential, retail
height: residential portion ~200'
floors: ?
architect: Michael Willis Architects
completion: 2007-2008

Rendering:




********************************************************

Never Built

The Hemisphere

function: residential
height: 475'
floors: 51
architect: Heller Manus Architects
completion: n/a

Rendering:



* Project was cancelled. The Board of Supervisors voted on September 28, 2004 to use their powers of eminent domain to take the parcel that the Hemisphere would have occupied. The parcel is apart of the ROW for the new Transbay Terminal.


Bloomingdale's Hotel

function: hotel
height: 400'
floors: 31
architect: Hornberger + Worstell
completion: n/a

Renderings:




535 Mission Street

function: office
height: ?
floors: 24
architect: HOK
completion: n/a

Renderings:


* Project was dropped after office market was flooded with excess space. Developer is now seeking to build a 30 story, 251 unit residential tower on the site.


Sofitel Hotel

function: hotel
height: 320' (?)
floors: ~30
architect: SOM
completion: n/a

Rendering:



* Project was dropped after the economy soured. Another 500 room hotel project is being proposed for the same site, but the design will be different.

Sofitel Hotel- Other Proposal in Design Competition

function: hotel
height: ?
floors: 33
completion: n/a
architect: Hornberger + Worstell

Renderings:




* Proposal lost to SOM's Sofitel Hotel proposal.


************************************************************************
In addition to all these proposed projects, San Francisco is also developing plans for its first two high-rise residential neighborhoods, the Transbay Terminal and Rincon Hill. One tower in the Transbay Plan may include a new tallest for San Francisco!

Where the two project sites are located:



Rincon Hill:



Transbay Terminal:





If built as planned:




Other Notable Projects

Westfield San Francisco Center

status: under construction
function: retail, office
height: ?
floors: 8 (above ground); 1 (underground)
architect: (?) developer: Forest City/ Westfield
completion: 2006

Renderings:





James R. Herman International Cruise Terminal and Bryant Street Park

status: under construction
function: residential, retail, open space, office, maritime (cruise terminal)
height: n/a
floors: n/a
architect: SOM
completion: Bryant Street Seawall Condo Tower: 2005; Bryant Street Pier: 2006; Cruise Terminal: 2008

Renderings:





* Facts on the new terminal:
-Terminal: 100,000 square feet
-Public Open Space: 215,000 square feet (more than 35 percent of the total site area), includes public plazas, waterfront walkways and terraces
-Retail: 180,000 square feet, including a grocery store, restaurants, a multi-screen cinema and other neighborhood-serving retail
-Office: 360,000 square feet
-Parking: 425 spaces
-Two berths: a 1,000 foot berth and an approximately 825 foot berth

de Young Museum

status: under construction
function: museum, cultural
height: tower portion: 144'
floors: n/a
architect: Herzog & de Meuron
completion: 2005

Renderings:




* As a result of its copper skin, the museum's exterior will eventually turn from its brownish reflective hue to a green to match the surrounding park.


The California Academy of Science

status: under construction
function: museum, cultural, educational
height: n/a
floors: n/a
architect: Renzo Piano
completion: 2008
cost: $370 million

Renderings:





* The Academy of Sciences is located across the concourse from the de Young museum (above).


Jewish Museum San Francisco

status: under construction (foundation is currently being laid)
function: cultural, museum
height: n/a
floors: n/a
architect: Daniel Libeskind
completion: Fall 2007

Old Renderings:





New Rendering:




Transbay Terminal

status: approved
function: retail, transportation
height: ~80'
floors: 4 (above ground) and 1 (below ground)
architect: n/a
completion: 2011
cost: $2 billion+

Conceptual Renderings:




* Project will link all of the major Bay Area transit providers in one location in downtown San Francisco. In addition, project will also feature an underground extension of the Caltrain commuter rail line as well as future high speed rail service to Los Angeles.

If you want to add more, please do!
 
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#162 ·
The new politics of dense development in San Francisco

^^ I am still optimistic and it's still better compared to other cities. :wink2:

By: Dan Schreiber 05/29/11 4:00 AM
Examiner Staff Writer

With Bay Area population growth projected to continue, planning for future transit and housing needs is taking a turn away from the automobile.

Keeping San Francisco from becoming a forest of skyscrapers once dominated conversations about development in The City. Opposition to such “Manhattanization” was a platform that environmentalists, neighborhood groups and outright foes of development used to block construction projects.

But times have changed.

The onset of global climate change and the automobile-dependent sprawl that helped create it have forced developers, planners, urbanists and even environmentalists to rethink the future of a city facing significant population increases but almost no room left for horizontal expansion.

Click the picture for renderings of the future developments.


Past rejection of density propelled the growth of suburbs and the carbon emissions of longer car commutes. But today’s dominant paradigm favors dense, transit-oriented infill developments that encourage walkable access to schools, stores and services.

The transformation of the South of Market neighborhood and the creation of Mission Bay are two prominent examples of such development. More recently, even bigger projects have begun moving through The City’s approval pipeline.

In Hunters Point, developers will soon begin construction on a small part of their proposal to build 10,000 new homes. Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors narrowly approved a plan to build 5,700 more homes at Parkmerced. The board is set to consider a separate vote on about 8,000 new housing units at Treasure Island on June 7.

Politics aside, growth in San Francisco depends, above all, on the sheer demand for housing.

By 2035, the Bay Area is expected to be home to about 2 million more people and 902,000 more homes, with almost all that growth concentrated in existing urban areas. This daunting 29 percent population increase has prompted regional planners to urge local governments to reduce their per-resident carbon emissions by 15 percent.

That’s the crux of the “Initial Vision Scenario for 2035,” which was released in March by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments. The report envisions that while the Bay Area’s population grows from 7 million to 9 million people, San Francisco will add roughly 90,000 households, pushing its population to around 1 million.

Predictions such as these are encouraging Bay Area cities to greenlight dense transit-oriented housing to help curb car and truck emissions and buck the suburban development trend that has reigned since World War II.

Environmentalists will keep fighting developments that involve the addition of traffic, but don’t expect the same kinds of fights over greater density in San Francisco.

“People understand if you just say ‘no’ in San Francisco, there’s going to be a million more people living in Modesto, and that’s a horrible carbon footprint,” said Jason Henderson, an assistant professor of human geography at San Francisco State University. “The City is willing to absorb its share of growth.”

But Henderson also said such growth will require an investment in transit.

“We’d have to buy a lot of new buses and a lot of new trains,” he said.

For instance, although the Sierra Club dislikes the parking plan at Parkmerced, developers linked construction of new housing units to a Muni light-rail extension, and the group did not oppose the project.

Instead, the opposition to Parkmerced rested with tenants who love the character of their postwar townhouses. Gabriel Metcalf, the executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, regards such housing as an anachronism.

“Parkmerced was from an era when people were fleeing cities to places with green lawns and easy car access, removed from the problems of the inner city,” Metcalf said. “What we’ve learned since then is that more-traditional city forms give more options to people. We need to say no to development that is car-oriented and yes to development that is transit- and pedestrian-oriented.”

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ approval, in a 6-5 vote, of the massive Parkmerced redevelopment seems to suggest an emerging political consensus in favor of Metcalf’s viewpoint.

The fight over Treasure Island, which would bring 16,000 more people to the middle of San Francisco Bay and presumably add to the already snarled state of Bay Bridge traffic, is different.

Despite planners’ efforts to beef up ferry and bus services and include amenities that would reduce off-island trips, detractors still can’t see how the project won’t involve more cars. John Rizzo, the political chairman of the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay chapter, said his organization supports infill development, but Treasure Island doesn’t fit that bill.

“To say people are always going to take the ferry or do everything they need on the island is just kind of crazy,” Rizzo said. “If you densify an area and it doesn’t have any transit, it’s just going to clog everything up.”

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com



Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/05/new-politics-dense-development#ixzz1O4Vgssdl
 
#163 ·
No sure bets when it comes to housing

Months of political tip-toeing before Tuesday’s approval of a massive housing redevelopment at Parkmerced should demonstrate a simple lesson: There is no exact formula for predicting whether development plans become reality in San Francisco.

Parkmerced has most things The City’s fractious development intelligentsia are now seeking — dense housing in an existing urban space with access to San Francisco’s mass-transit system. From 1975 until the early ’90s, political leaders faced opposition for approving large buildings even when they were located close to transit nodes.

That was underscored, San Francisco State University political science professor Richard DeLeon said, by the 1986 approval of Proposition M, which put caps on high-rises, among other limits.

By 1992, when DeLeon’s book “Left Coast City” was published, the local pro-growth movement had been hampered by increased political clout of neighborhood organizations seeking to preserve San Francisco’s special character. But with the rise of the movement known as “urbanism,” the rules of the game have changed.

“Now there is more of a shift to extract as much as possible in community interests and strike hard bargains,” DeLeon said. “The most radical force on Earth is capitalism. ... There’s something to be said for politically mobilized forces that challenge these market forces to eventually produce a deal that has popular legitimacy.”

In Hunters Point, developers proposing to build 10,000 new homes also promise to maintain affordable units in a city that badly needs such housing.

That was the deal hashed out by progressive former Supervisor Chris Daly in 2007, when he helped facilitate 360 rent-controlled units in South of Market’s Trinity Plaza. Daly also pushed for developers to pay into a community-stabilization fund for residents and businesses that would be affected by a Rincon Hill high-rise development in 2005.

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, whose district includes Parkmerced, said the more recent development includes more affordable-housing options than Trinity Plaza, which passed unanimously.

“The general concept of smart growth, development on transit lines, is starting to spread across the political spectrum,” Elsbernd said. “But development issues in San Francisco are never black and white. There are always other interests.” — Dan Schreiber


Treasure Island

2,800 Current residents

16,000 Projected population increase

8,000 New homes

2,000 Affordable housing units

2032 Projected completion


Transit options

Increased bus and ferry services are aimed at reducing car trips on and off the island, which is in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Planners want a ferry to downtown every 15 minutes and a Muni express bus every seven minutes in the morning and five minutes in the afternoon. A tentative plan would require drivers to pay a $5 fee to drive off the island on weekdays.

Source: Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development


Parkmerced

7,300 Current residents

13,000 Projected population increase

5,700 New homes (8,900 total)

3,200 Rent-controlled housing units

2031-41 Projected completion

Source: Stellar Management


Transit options

A realignment of Muni’s M-Oceanview line will take riders further into the redeveloped neighborhood, with a zero-to-low emissions shuttle bus that brings less-connected residents directly to the Muni stop. The M line runs northeast to downtown.

Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency



Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/05/new-politics-dense-development#ixzz1O4VwnXRx
 
#164 ·
A Bit Of Color On (And For) Salesforce's Campus In Mission Bay



From John King with respect to Legorreta and Legoretta’s colorful vision for Salesforce's 14-acre campus coming to Mission Bay:

The scheme that’s evolved has a wider range of colors and window patterns than the firm’s norm, and most building’s would come wrapped in stone or terra cotta rather than stucco. They’d also include brash twists – a corner fractured by stepped-back terraces here, a stone-clad canopy perched on a 90-foot-high column there. A stack of meeting rooms at the southwest corner of the campus is wrapped in a mesh-like purple skin.

At least three of the 14 acres would be publicly accessible at all hours, centered on a broad plaza leading from Third Street to a planned bayside neighborhood park. The office buildings along Third Street would include shops, a child care center and restaurants.

And the key concept, an open campus that embraces the evolving neighborhood.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
http://socketsite.com/
 
#165 ·
Nob Hill: Tonga Room Safe For Now as Half the Fairmont Hotel Hits the Market













by Philip Ferrato

As if we had any doubts about the power of progressive politics and labor unions in an election year, this past April San Francisco's Local 2 voted against plans to demolish the Fairmont Hotel's mid-century tower and replace it with condominiums. And now, the hotel's for sale. The half owned by Lew Wolff and Philip Maritz- the other half is owned by Saudi royal billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. No mention of price. The local duo threw in the towel when faced with union opposition to a loss of hotel jobs, plus some predictable local unhappiness about construction dust and noise. Plus everyone thought it was ugly.

Frankly, we don't see why the hotel union just doesn't start leasing hotel properties as an operator- the standard business model- and see how they like the margins. You may recall that Local 2's opposition to condominium conversions dates back to the heady days of 2005 when hotel owners all around were drooling over the thought of condos instead of pesky tourists and conventioneers-gone-wild. Above, a gallery of what might have been.
 
#167 ·
Silicon Valley Culture, but in San Francisco?

FREE lunch — heck, free breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus all the M&Ms and Red Bull you can stand — is a delicious perk of working in Silicon Valley.

Free or even subsidized food in corporate cafeterias makes eminent sense in such a suburban setting. Corporate campuses, built where fruit and nut trees once stood, are cut off by busy thoroughfares. To go out for lunch, you have to drive a mile or so, park, eat and then high-tail it back to work.

Nothing much, food-wise, has sprouted around those campuses. There is not a bite to eat within a half-mile of Hewlett-Packard’s midcentury modern lab building in Palo Alto, the model of tech campuses in the valley.

So when this cafeteria culture hits the big city, does the collision somehow stultify economic activity? Cities, after all, need people out on the sidewalks.

That was an important lesson learned in the 1960s and ’70s, after urban renewal advocates like Robert Moses in New York bulldozed neighborhoods in hopes of starting afresh. Buildings with no space for shops rose on the scraped earth, and it took years for people to return to the sidewalks.

All of this comes to mind because San Francisco is offering tax breaks to tech companies that relocate their offices to the city’s blighted neighborhoods. Twitter will be the first recipient of this largess when it moves into new offices in the Furniture Mart on a particularly desolate section of Market Street next year.

Twitter, which is competing for talent with Google and Facebook, gives its employees free food. The question is whether those urban employees will leave the building often enough to dramatically improve the neighborhood.

Gabriel Metcalf, the executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR, an urban policy research group, says the impact of corporate cafeterias in an urban setting has not been rigorously studied. But, Mr. Metcalf says, “You certainly get more life on the street if everyone is going out to lunch.”

Twitter may be a good test case. Market Street, a wide avenue that bisects downtown San Francisco, begins at the Ferry Building. Smart designers transformed that structure from a seedy and little-used transportation hub; it now teems with shops and restaurants that attract tourists and office workers alike. During the twice-a-week farmers’ market, people stand in line for a half-hour to buy ramen, exotic sausages or rotisserie pork sandwiches from food carts.

But a mile and a half up Market, in the shadow of the golden dome of City Hall, it’s a different picture. Boarded-up buildings. Empty, littered lots. Even in boom times, the area never improved.

This is where the city has encouraged Twitter to set up shop. To transform the area, though, people will have to get out on the street. When the people come, shops open. When the shops open, more people come. A virtuous cycle begins.

But what happens when people don’t leave the buildings — when the culture of the suburban campus drops into an urban center? Two places in the city offer laboratories of sorts for a possible answer.

In a former industrial neighborhood called Mission Bay, the University of California, San Francisco, built its medical center. The university stashed its cafeterias up off street level. As a result, the area has remained sterile and empty. Employees and students drive in, then drive out. The public stays away.

That is expected to change when Salesforce.com, a company that has thrived providing Web services to corporate sales representatives, finishes building a new headquarters nearby. It will consist of eight buildings over 14 acres — a suburban campus in the city. The architects, Legorreta & Legorreta, of Mexico City, have incorporated street-level retail space into the project that is open to the sidewalk. They say they want to invite the public in. Salesforce has never had a corporate cafeteria.

Then there is a no-name neighborhood, south of San Francisco’s financial district, that is home to a satellite office of Google. While the fare in that office’s corporate cafeteria isn’t as extensive as it is in the company’s home office in Mountain View, 40 miles to the south, it is still copious and free for employees.

The results are not surprising. In the time that Google has been in San Francisco, few establishments that draw people to the sidewalk have opened in its neighborhood. There is a new expense-account-set restaurant across the street, and a taco truck popular with the employees at the nearby Gap headquarters, which also has a corporate cafeteria, though meals there are unsubsidized.

EVEN a city like San Francisco, which in some ways likes to tell people how to live their lives — trying to ban McDonald’s Happy Meals, second-hand smoke outdoors and plastic shopping bags — is unlikely to start telling companies how to feed their employees.

“It’s not the kind of thing you can micromanage,” says Mr. Metcalf of SPUR. “It’s nice to have something that they leave alone.”

But he hopes that the executives who move into blighted city neighborhoods see a reason to encourage employees to get out.

“The city benefits,” he says, “when a company decides to integrate more with the public life of the street.”
NY Times
 
#168 ·
èđđeůx;80855746 said:
I had been wondering about this part of the "bring Twitter to mid-Market" plan. There doesn't seem to be all that much pedestrian traffic around their current office (4th and Folsom).

On the other hand, when Facebook was in downtown Palo Alto, they definitely contributed to life on the street (even though they have free food as well). Maybe that was because their offices were scattered across several buildings.
 
#172 ·
Maybe the larger size of Facebook vs Twitter explains that.

Maybe the fact that Facebook is a better match for Palo Alto than Twitter is for either Folson or Mid-Market.

However, the sky-hi financial valuations of these social networking sites as compared with their actual employment explains a good deal of why the US economy hasn't exactly rebounded!
 
#170 ·
FiDi's Hallidie Building Upgrades Get Approved

Thursday, July 7, 2011, by Sally Kuchar



Willis Polk designed the facade of the Hallidie Building (circa 1917-18) using a sheer glass "curtain wall"— the first example of this style which, as we know all too well, has since come to dominate commercial architecture. San Francisco Historical Landmark no. 37 sits at 130-50 Sutter Street between Montgomery and Kearny Streets. The question remains: do its Gothic details prevent avian crash landings?

Located at 130-50 Sutter, The Hallidie Building was designed in 1918 by Willis Polk, and is the first building in the country to feature glass curtain walls. It's also San Francisco Historical Landmark no. 37, which means all exterior and interior tinkering must first be approved by the city's Historic Preservation Commission. And approved they were! Flaws in the design have allowed rainwater to collect and corrode ornamental metal on the exterior of the building, reports SF Gate. The commission, noting the historic importance of the building, approved the refurbishment as long as the work doesn't alter the "visual condition and perception of the building."
 
#171 ·
The Mission: Public Comments Open For the Park at 17th & Folsom



More news of that proposed- and opposed- park at 17th and Folsom Streets in The Mission: in September the Board of Supervisors will vote to give jurisdictional control of the current parking lot to Rec & Parks. The rendering above is a proposed design with the final planning to start later in the fall, but now's the time for public comment- even just a simple electronic yea or nay to recpark.commission@sfgov.org - with public meetings about the plans and design scheduled (after the jump) for those with time, inclination, and stamina.

Recreation and Park Commission-Capital Committee
City Hall, Room 416
Date: July 6th, 2011
Time: Hearing begins at 2:00 pm.

Recreation and Park Commission-Full Commission
City Hall, Room 416
Date: July 21, 2011
Time: Hearing begins at 10:00 am.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
City Hall, Room 400
Date: July 28, 2011
Time: Hearing begins at 1:30, please check the agenda to see where this
item falls on the calendar.

Recreation and Park Commission
Mail should be sent to:
San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission
501 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Ph: 415.831.2750
Fax: 415.221.8034
email: recpark.commission@sfgov.org
 
#173 ·
I think anytime you can bring a growing company to a depressed part of town it's a win. Maybe everyone there will eat lunch in the cafeteria, but before they get there and after they leave they might want to get something as well. Plus it's the little things that count. 500 to 1000 employees on the street at various times definitely will add a texture that isn't currently there. Plus I think eventually some of their employees will want to move closer to work and you have Hayes Valley, Tendernob and especially SOMA and the Tenderloin right there. Plenty of apartments and future entitled condo/apartment developments approved.
 
#177 ·
Film crews get more discounts from S.F. businesses

Television and film crews shooting in San Francisco can now receive discounts on video equipment and editing services from nearly a dozen local companies.

The San Francisco Film Commission announced Monday that it is expanding its Scene in San Francisco Vendor Discount Program to include 10 new companies that offer equipment rentals, post-production and audio services at reduced prices. The program, launched in January with the goal of luring productions to the city by the bay, also offers discounts at hotels, restaurants, fitness clubs, entertainment venues and car-rental companies.

The newly added businesses are Crescendo! Studios, Outpost Studios, Polarity Post Production, Beyond Pix Productions, Media One, pix+stones, Video Arts, First Camera Video and Videofax, according to filming coordinator Christine Munday. Participating vendors provide discounts of, at minimum, 10 percent.

Susannah Greason Robbins, the commission's executive director, said in a statement that the expansion gives "another solid reason to film in San Francisco and stay in San Francisco every step of the way."

TV shows and movies that have filmed in San Francisco this month include "Dirty Jobs," "Curb Appeal," "The Nine Lives of Chloe King," "Phobias" and "The Five-Year Engagement."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=93430#ixzz1Sf1hdEc2
 
#178 ·
Metreon Remodel Facts: What You Need To Know



Here's what you need to know about Metreon and the remodel: it opened in 1999, was purchased in 2006 by Westfield and Forest City, and in 2010 Westfield acquired ownership from Forest City. Now Westfield is investing $30 million in its revitalization. "Westfield has always believed that the property could be re-imagined to be better integrated into the neighborhood. The enhancements will celebrate beautiful Yerba Buena Gardens, improve the visitor experience, and complement nearby cultural and entertainment activities," said Anthony Ritch, regional senior vice president of Westfield.

Ritch said the new Metreon is nearly 100 percent leased, with a few more tenants to be announced in the months ahead. Street level and Dining Terrace offerings announced include: La Boulange Bakery; Best of Burger; Massage Envy; So Green Yogurt; Chipotle; San Francisco Soup; Mixt Green’s; Brandy Ho’s; Sorabol Korean BBQ; Firewood Grill; Jillian’s (existing); Buckhorn Grill (existing); Sanraku (existing tenant). Additional retailers include: National University/San Francisco Campus; and, Chronicle Books (existing).

The second floor is where the 85,000 square foot CityTarget store will go. A two-story glass entrance on Mission Street will take visitors directly into the new CityTarget. The third floor AMC Theatres and IMAX will undergo a remodel, and they're stay open for business during that time. And the fourth floor will be an event space.

The project is on track to completion in late 2012.
 
#182 ·
Walgreens To Add Electric Car Charging Stations To SF Stores

We've come a long way, SF. Just last year, the Bay Area Quality Management District approved $5 million to fund a regional electric vehicle charging infrastructure program. The funds support the development of 3,000 home charging stations, 2,000 public, and 50 stations near highways. And one of those charging stations might be coming to a drug store near you.

As public charging stations became more available, companies started getting the hint and last November marked the installation of the first commercially-owned electric charging station in the city, at Priority Parking's lot on Pier 27.

But while SF's lack of parking spaces and garage space is hindering many of SF's electric car charging efforts, the Chicago Tribune reports that Walgreens might be swooping in to fill the gap. The drug store chain plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at 800 of its locations nationwide, including in San Francisco and LA.

According to Green Biz, "drivers who want to recharge their cars at a Walgreens will find one of two types of devices: a high-speed direct current charger, which can add 30 miles of range in roughly 10 minutes, or a Level 2 device that adds as much as 25 miles of range per hour of charge." In either case, enough juice for electric car drivers like Mayor Ed Lee to get around town.

Walgreens has yet to specify which of SF's many Walgreens locations will get the chargers, which are expected to start to appear at the drug stores next month.

They also haven't said what they'll be charging to use the stations -- while SF's city owned charging stations will be free for use until 2013, privately owned stations' fees are set by their owners.

http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/07/walgreens-to-add-electric-car-charging-stations-to-sf-stores.php
 
#183 ·
Video: Revitalizing Hunters Point Shipyard



Center for Creative Land Recycling, a nonprofit based out of San Francisco that's focused on "creating sustainable communities and encouraging environmentally conscious and socially responsible development" via land recycling, recently produced this video to help spread the word about the Hunter’s Point redevelopment project. Ever since the shipyard closed in 1974, the land and neighborhood has more or less economically died. CCLR's video shows some members of the neighborhood "sharing their vision of new hope and opportunity that the Hunter's Point mixed-use redevelopment will bring."
 
#184 ·
Gary Meyer leaving Balboa Theatre











The Balboa Theatre, one of the last independent movie houses in San Francisco, is losing its leader.

Balboa Theatre operator Gary Meyer said Wednesday that this summer will be his last at the Richmond District movie house, leaving the future of the scrappy independent theater in doubt.

The news comes as the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco is in its last week of screenings, one of several locally owned theaters in the Bay Area that have closed in recent years.

The Balboa opened in 1926, and was operated until 2001 by the Levin family, which still holds the lease, which, in turn, they granted to Meyer. The theater was remodeled after fires in the 1940s and 1970s. After the latter blaze, the single-screen theater was split in two. Meyer, who had co-founded the Landmark Theatre chain before leaving in the 1990s, took over the Balboa in February 2001.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/20/BAAK1KD5RI.DTL#ixzz1TCm4YGVi
 
#185 ·
S.F. federal building plaza draws neighbors' ire



The new Federal building has grand city views to the east. Residents living nearby the new federal building at Seventh and Mission Streets in San Francisco, Calif. say a lack of security in the area has created a lawless haven.

Neighbors of the eye-catching federal building at Seventh and Mission streets say its public plaza has become a lawless haven for the South of Market homeless, rather than the pleasant open space its builders intended.

When the federal building empties out at 5 p.m. on weekdays, street people know they can set up camp, deal drugs and do whatever else they want at night and on weekends, with almost no threat of retribution from building security, according to the residents of SoMa Grand, a swank 22-story condo building across from the plaza, who wrote a letter to federal authorities.

"The federal government spends hundreds of millions on improving neighborhoods throughout the country," said Claude Gruen, a SoMa Grand resident. "Part of that effort should be to simply maintain and police their own space."

Gruen and his wife, Nina, who led an effort to collect almost 170 signatures from building residents, said the unsavory and often illegal activity on the small plaza was dragging down any economic revitalization in the area.

"You really don't feel the place is at all pleasant," said Nina Gruen, who, along with her husband, runs an urban-development consulting business. "When it creates these kinds of negative problems for the neighborhood, they should be addressing it."

Federal authorities are aware of their neighbors' concerns and have already added extra security from the Federal Protective Service, the police arm of the federal government, said Traci Madison, a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, which maintains the building.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/24/MNND1KBBC6.DTL#ixzz1TJbsqzEv
 
#186 ·
Dangerous Rincon Hill Intersection Gets New Crosswalks







SFMTA crews have installed new continental crosswalks at the intersection of Harrison and Main streets, seven years after pedestrian advocates in Rincon Hill began lobbying the agency for changes following the death of retired SF State journalism professor Beverly Kees. In addition, the pedestrian countdown signals have been timed to give pedestrians a four-second head start.

“I’m so happy to see the continental crosswalk stripes at Main and Harrison,” said Jamie Whitaker, whose relentless advocacy helped get the SFMTA to move. “I hope it will give drivers a visual indication to be aware of pedestrians walking home, walking from BART to AT&T Park, or walking to their cars parked on Port seawalls and nearby piers.”

As we wrote last month, Harrison and Main is the kind of place that’s so dangerous by design, it’s easy to see how drivers can lose their sense of humanity. Harrison serves as a four-lane westbound arterial (there is a fifth eastbound lane) that carries 12,600 drivers daily, most headed to the Bay Bridge. Drivers routinely speed and block the crosswalk. Since 2003, three people have died there, including Kees, and many more have been injured.

According to Whitaker’s Rincon Hill blog, the improvements cost about $15,000, a “a relatively cheap solution while we await buildings to go up in the neighborhood and provide funding for capital improvements, including corner bulbouts, to our streetscapes in Rincon Hill.”


Last week, the SFMTA approved a plan to lower the speed limit on Harrison from 30 to 25 mph. Whitaker was especially grateful to the SFMTA staffers who made the changes happen. Advocates were originally told that the problem at the intersection had more to do with enforcement, and it “was not a viable candidate for traffic calming measures.”

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/07/2...rincon-hill-intersection-gets-new-crosswalks/
 
#187 ·
CityPlace project on hold, awaiting new financing

Andrew S. Ross, Chronicle Columnist
Thursday, July 28, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO -- So, what's up with CityPlace?

Tenants are lined up and work should have begun this spring on the 265,000-square-foot retail complex, seen as key to revitalizing San Francisco's blighted Mid-Market area.

"Yes, people keep asking me, 'Where's the project?' " said Vikki Johnson, president of San Francisco's Johnson Hoke Ltd., the retail development consultant handling lease negotiations on the designated properties, between Fifth and Sixth streets.

The project is waiting for new financing to replace the money that was lost in the wake of the near-collapse of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. The bank, since taken over by the state, held more than $9 billion of loans on U.S. real estate, including one held by CityPlace's financier, Commonfund Realty Investors, which subsequently defaulted.

"That stopped everything in its tracks," said Johnson.

This month, Bloomberg News reported that a number of private-equity firms, including KKR, TPG Capital and BlackRock, are looking to bid on the bank's portfolio of 248 outstanding U.S. loans, including the one on CityPlace.

Bids are due on Aug. 9, according to Bloomberg.

While not privy to whatever financial discussions are going on, Johnson said she is hopeful "we can get something done in the next week or two." Letters of intent have been signed "with an amazing list of tenants, but they need to know it's going forward," she said.

The project's developer, San Francisco's Urban Realty, which, I'm told, has more knowledge of the financing situation, did not return calls requesting comment.

Assuming the financing comes through, "we would break ground right away," said Johnson. "We have to get this done."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/27/BUN11KFENS.DTL#ixzz1TRX2QNkK
 
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