Given all the bad news emanating from the recent COVID-19 outbreak, I thought I would focus on something uplifting and enduring this month, like the Palace of Fine Arts. But first, an image from Craftinga to (hopefully) bring a smile to your face: The original post from @CraftingaCom on Twitter reads, "Behind the doors of
For some unknown reason, I thought I would look into San Francisco’s 10 most popular tourist attractions--after all, I am told that tourism is the city’s biggest industry. While I was not shocked to find that the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz made the list, I was surprised to see “high tea at the Westin St. Francis,” in the top 10…with no
20 years ago, had you asked a San Francisco resident where Dogpatch was, you probably would have received a blank stare. That’s about to change. One popular theory about the Dogpatch name origin is that the neighborhood was named after cartoonist Al Capp’s classic comic strip Lil Abner, which ran in newspapers nationwide from the 1930s
25 years ago, I was awakened by the Northridge earthquake at 4:30 AM. It sounded like a locomotive making its way through my condo in west LA. Although it was not my earthquake baptism, it stands out as being the loudest and the most “shaky,” probably because my son and I were only about 25
In 1984, two railroad powerhouses, Santa Fe Industries and the Southern Pacific Company, merged to form the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corporation, later renamed Catellus--the owner of some 300 acres just south of the Channel, popularly known as Mission Bay. It has some of the best weather in the City, walking distance to the Financial
5 M! How’s that for a catchy name? I’m pretty sure it stands for 5th and Mission, the 4-acre development conceived by Forest City Realty Trust and sold last year to Brookfield Properties, which is partnering with Hearst Corporation, owner of the Chronicle Building, built in 1914. This iconic building is across 5th Street from
Constructing a building in San Francisco (or any other big city) is not easy: with the planning department and neighborhood specifics, there are always unforeseen issues that arise once the City gives its green light. Issues faced by general contractors, unforeseen and otherwise, are a core part of the LISA game, to be launched in
There is probably no building more iconic in San Francisco than the 48-story Transamerica Pyramid. It was completed in 1972, and until Salesforce Tower’s completion in 2018, stood as the city’s tallest building. The general contractor was the Dinwiddie Construction Company, now known as Hathaway Dinwiddie, and the architect was William L. Pereira. While the
I initially viewed the new Apple Campus from behind a chain link fence in early 2017 while it was under construction. Then two things happened. First, I read an article in the New York Times about “base isolators” (more on that later). Then, I experienced the 7.1 earthquake on the evening of July 5th while visiting my
I am fascinated with all things construction, and, in this instance, with the ubiquitous concrete trucks that we see at construction sites. So, I invited myself to visit Mira--Tishman’s 40-story condo development (aka “The Twisty Building”) on Folsom at Spear. I was taken on a tour by two gents with Pacific-Structures, the development’s concrete structure