Local politics has been boring the shit out of me lately, so I appreciate The Examiner’s tabloid instincts at trying to tart things up around here.
So I guess everyone’s allergic to right angles today?
“When construction began, hundreds of rats ran out into the neighborhood.
Now AT&T Park is a model for the new architecture of baseball stadiums and is the anchor of the first totally new neighborhood in San Francisco in decades. People howled at the idea of gentrifying the area. But the ballpark has turned out to be the rarest of urban concepts - a big idea done well. This is not only a postcard-perfect structure; it has helped to drive a tsunami of development that has transformed an urban wasteland into the city’s new hot address.”
My relationship with this building is bordering on unhealthy.
How you can make that hideous behemoth look pretty is beyond me. You’re like the stylist who made Khloe Kardashian seem hot for about 5 seconds during that one shoot.
But we wake up next to her, and it’s a tough sell.
You try and spend your Saturday afternoon doing the Oakland skyline, and what have you got? Nothing. You’ve got nothing. Oakland has all the distinctive architecture of San Jose.
You try to do the bridge, but the Eastern Cantilever Span—the one more associated with the East Bay—has about as much trust as a Trig Palin lego project. And it looks shitty when you try to render it in perspective. Actually scratch that, it looks shitty, full stop. The Western Span has San Francisco (or Yerba Buena Island, also SF) in every other picture, but fine, I’ll do it anyway. Yet another instance where we have to carry your slack. Now what am I left with? The Dellums building? The premature monument to the crappy mayor? The poor man’s Twin Towers? It’s barely a start. What next? Tribune Tower? WTF? That’s just fancy signage. And it’s not even that fancy. Yes, the Fox has fancy signage. But this is what we’re reduced to now? That’s like equating the Transamerica Pyramid with the side of the Ophreum. Shee-it, that’s San Francisco on a bad hair day. And no, I refuse to incorporate the Oakland tree logo. Oaks are to Oakland as green is to Greenland: fucking false advertising. The construction cranes? Sure, the AT-ATs are apocryphal but whatever, I’ll throw em in. I’m that desperate. You’ll forgive the color palette. It screams “Oakland”.
What? The cop copter was a joke. Jeez. Oh like you’re never seen a cop copter in Oakland before. Bitch please.
Les Galeries Lafayette (à Paris) 4 months ago and San Francisco Shopping Centre this past weekend
think4yourself: indieandyy:Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Once a year, when the cherry trees have blossomed, the Jefferson Memorial is the most beautiful monument in Washington DC.
But the Vietnam Memorial is a close second. And for nearly antithetical reasons.
Daily Distraction: The Clingstone Mansion and its 23-rooms calls a Rhode Island harbor home.
via Sutanto
See, this is how it’s done.
What’s building is that, you ask?
The French Embassy? In London?
No, that’s San Francisco’s City Hall. It’s how we roll.
When people point to the city’s legendary collective ego, I point to this building. Cause it ain’t braggin’ if ya done it.
How does it stack up?
- Los Angeles? I’m embarrassed for you. As always.
- Chicago? That flashy haircut can’t mask a NYSE knockoff.
- New York City? Staid. I expect more from the modern-day Rome.
- Dallas? Seriously, are you fucking kidding us, Dallas?
Thank god for Philadelphia. You’d think civic architecture was dead in America.
And you know what San Jose? Thumbs up. It’s not a choice I would have expected from you, but you pull it off. It’s chic. You look sexy, girl.
