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
There is a big, new 40-story building going up at the corner of Mission and South Van Ness. It is currently referred to as 1500 Mission (Related California is the developer) and, while it hasn’t been named yet, I’m thinking that it might be called the Coke Building, to the chagrin of everyone except those
Pass any construction site, and I bet you see a big sign that says something about SAFETY. While 181 Fremont might be the safest building in the U.S. (more about that later), what has always fascinated me about the building is not what it is but how it got to be what it is. I’m