What is going on in this area? I hear things here and there, but I'm not sure if the west coast is as forum active as the midwest here on archinect. Anyway, I saw in the paper today that Toyo Ito is doing the new art museum for UC Berkeley, and the Renzo building opened just this past month. Anyone else want to contribute anything at all, maybe a beer run somewhere?
Went to Renzo Piano's Cal Academy of Arts this weekend - unbelievable!
Truly innovative green roof, beautiful (though sparse) building integrated solar modules that were custom made for this installation, interesting space inside, the tropical rain forest and planetarium are housed in domes (the green roof follows their forms), not to mention the aquarium has interesting creatures, such as the leafy seadragon which is very cool to see in person.
Is this just about all that we've got here. I've gone through the berkeley campus a little bit, and it appears to be organized in a very typical college campus manner, with quads and courts. I actually live in emeryville, its a souless gentrified yuppie area that deserves all the slum and blight it will receive once the retail businesses begin to fail in the area, but hey I've only been here for a few months.
I was expecting the architectural climate to be a little more open and cutting edge, due to the liberal political scene, but its really quite conservative. What do you guys think?
both san francisco and the east bay are plagued with micro-managing planning and building departments. getting anything built at all can be a challenge. getting something controversial built? nye impossible.
don't speak poorly about emeryville. e-ville's got some great things going for it, unfortunately the shellmound catastrophe isn't one of them.
there are areas of well-scaled bungalows and little mini-communities, however blighted and downtrodden they may be. if you speak of yuppies and gentrification in e-ville, you must be near shellmound. the rest is kind of ghetto-lite.
the real problem with e-ville is that over the years they've continued to court corporate parks instead of infrastructure so there's still no BART, minimal bike-lanes, and a weird sense of community.
it could be much more than it is. but then again, people have been saying e-ville is the next big thing in the bay area for decades.
-----
i went to the academy of sciences a couple of months back - found it a little disappointing actually. the penguin feeding was kickass though. i thought the building itself was beautifully detailed but poorly planned. it was not very human scaled at all. bathrooms are terribly laid out and way undersized for a building that big. for all the hpe about the green roof, and it is a marvel to look at, it's all so small. you expect it to be massive and it's actually kind of modest. the whole building is kind of modestly sized actually.
we did the whole thing (except the planetarium and rainforest) in 3 hours, including lunch. the planetarium was sold out and the line for the rainforest dome was another 90 minutes.
the food was better than expected, but the traffic flow through their little kiosk system in the cafe was abysmally planned.
i will go back once things have calmed down and probably enjoy it more, but it is definitely not prepared for capacity crowds.
Yeah that's emeryville in a nut shell. i was surprised to see that the city budget was massive relative to the population, but I suppose that tax money from the industries made up majority of it. The City Council is looking into adopting LEED certification standard for all new construction, but I think this will just increase the cost of housing.
I don't think the job market has gotten so bad yet, there are still some people hiring here and there, but those numbers are diminishing. The big thing that helps us as architects is the healthcare standard change in the couple of years, that's why healthcare projects are running rampant, but that's about it.
Has anyone been to the Pier Luigi Nervi church in San Francisco. I remember it being at the top of a hill, but I can't remember the cross streets. I haven't been there yet, but I'm hoping its similar to his other projects. I've seen some of his other structures, and they basically look like structure diagrams. Very nice.
Where's the good food? I've only come across bad japanese food, cooked by chinese people.
Are you kidding: "where's the good food?"-- its all over, open a paper/magazine, look online, ask a friend...And the Nervi church is on Geary near Japantown
SF & East Bay Skinny
What is going on in this area? I hear things here and there, but I'm not sure if the west coast is as forum active as the midwest here on archinect. Anyway, I saw in the paper today that Toyo Ito is doing the new art museum for UC Berkeley, and the Renzo building opened just this past month. Anyone else want to contribute anything at all, maybe a beer run somewhere?
the new york times did a good article on the new toyo ito building:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/arts/design/25ito.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1
and yes renzo piano just finished the new academy of science in sf.
liebeskind also finished the new jewish contemporary museum in sf sometime this past summer.
Went to Renzo Piano's Cal Academy of Arts this weekend - unbelievable!
Truly innovative green roof, beautiful (though sparse) building integrated solar modules that were custom made for this installation, interesting space inside, the tropical rain forest and planetarium are housed in domes (the green roof follows their forms), not to mention the aquarium has interesting creatures, such as the leafy seadragon which is very cool to see in person.
I can send you some pics if you want!
oooops, I meant Cal Academy of Science
Please tell me you went to the de Young Museum while you were there. I love that building!
Is this just about all that we've got here. I've gone through the berkeley campus a little bit, and it appears to be organized in a very typical college campus manner, with quads and courts. I actually live in emeryville, its a souless gentrified yuppie area that deserves all the slum and blight it will receive once the retail businesses begin to fail in the area, but hey I've only been here for a few months.
I was expecting the architectural climate to be a little more open and cutting edge, due to the liberal political scene, but its really quite conservative. What do you guys think?
both san francisco and the east bay are plagued with micro-managing planning and building departments. getting anything built at all can be a challenge. getting something controversial built? nye impossible.
don't speak poorly about emeryville. e-ville's got some great things going for it, unfortunately the shellmound catastrophe isn't one of them.
there are areas of well-scaled bungalows and little mini-communities, however blighted and downtrodden they may be. if you speak of yuppies and gentrification in e-ville, you must be near shellmound. the rest is kind of ghetto-lite.
the real problem with e-ville is that over the years they've continued to court corporate parks instead of infrastructure so there's still no BART, minimal bike-lanes, and a weird sense of community.
it could be much more than it is. but then again, people have been saying e-ville is the next big thing in the bay area for decades.
-----
i went to the academy of sciences a couple of months back - found it a little disappointing actually. the penguin feeding was kickass though. i thought the building itself was beautifully detailed but poorly planned. it was not very human scaled at all. bathrooms are terribly laid out and way undersized for a building that big. for all the hpe about the green roof, and it is a marvel to look at, it's all so small. you expect it to be massive and it's actually kind of modest. the whole building is kind of modestly sized actually.
we did the whole thing (except the planetarium and rainforest) in 3 hours, including lunch. the planetarium was sold out and the line for the rainforest dome was another 90 minutes.
the food was better than expected, but the traffic flow through their little kiosk system in the cafe was abysmally planned.
i will go back once things have calmed down and probably enjoy it more, but it is definitely not prepared for capacity crowds.
THERE'S PIXAR STUDIO IN EMERYVILLE... I might try out for internship there soon if i fail to find a job in few months.
Yeah that's emeryville in a nut shell. i was surprised to see that the city budget was massive relative to the population, but I suppose that tax money from the industries made up majority of it. The City Council is looking into adopting LEED certification standard for all new construction, but I think this will just increase the cost of housing.
I don't think the job market has gotten so bad yet, there are still some people hiring here and there, but those numbers are diminishing. The big thing that helps us as architects is the healthcare standard change in the couple of years, that's why healthcare projects are running rampant, but that's about it.
Has anyone been to the Pier Luigi Nervi church in San Francisco. I remember it being at the top of a hill, but I can't remember the cross streets. I haven't been there yet, but I'm hoping its similar to his other projects. I've seen some of his other structures, and they basically look like structure diagrams. Very nice.
Where's the good food? I've only come across bad japanese food, cooked by chinese people.
Are you kidding: "where's the good food?"-- its all over, open a paper/magazine, look online, ask a friend...And the Nervi church is on Geary near Japantown
her fried chicken sandwich is fuckin' phenomenal...the pot pie as well, shit everything is good.
http://www.bakesalebetty.com/
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