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Emerging Objects is a self-described 3D Printing MAKE-tank founded by Ronald Rael, an Associate Professor of Architecture at University of California Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an Assistant Professor of Design at San José State University. They are trailblazers in the 3D printing... View full entry
Making the case that infrastructure itself can be exclusionary is hardly straightforward. Many of the worst decisions in US planning were made decades ago to intentionally disenfranchise, marginalise and separate communities; policies such as redlining and “blight clearing” are well-documented embarrassments. But many decisions that segregated communities were unintentional. The stop sign and one-way street might seem benign, but they shape our lives in ways we sometimes don’t even realise. — The Guardian
Through focusing in on 5 case studies where communities have been obliterated by infrastructure decisions, the direct impact of highways and walls take on greater levels of meaning and urgency. The power of city planning also comes into greater consideration presently as the US takes on a massive... View full entry
Fougeron Architecture, who recently completed the 400 Grove mixed-use in Hayes Valley, has left their mark again in the Bay Area in designing the new Kapor Center for Social Impact headquarters in downtown Oakland. The Kapor Center needed a new collaborative workspace to carry out their mission... View full entry
"We’re trying for one tower that seems like two from some angles...to create a much more vertical expression, and not just be another slab," said Mark Donahue of Lowney Architecture — San Francisco Chronicle
Pinnacle RED Group announced today submittal of plans to the City of Oakland for a high-rise mixed-use building, 1261 Harrison, with a dual-tower look in a single structure. At 440 feet to the roof-deck (460 when adding the architectural screening element) and 36 stories in height, it would be... View full entry
Leaseholder Derick Almena and tenant Max Harris each were charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the December fire at Oakland's Ghost Ship warehouse, said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley. — cnn.com
Back in December, tragedy struck as a blaze broke out during a show at Oakland's Ghost Ship—a DIY-venue located in a two-story warehouse. One of the two exits had been blocked, leading to chaos as party-goers attempted to exit to safety. The incident lead to the devastating loss of 36 young men... View full entry
“If you don’t understand anything about this world, or what that space was, or who these people were, your first reaction is going to be: ‘Why don’t you just bring this place up to code?’ And it’s a very quaint notion, and it would be good if that’s how the world worked [...]”
“There are so many interlocking problems that are fundamental, it’s hard to know where to begin. In almost every case, there are existing code violations to the building before they even move in.”
— GOOD
Related:DIY Space, After Ghost Ship: Safety, community and informal venues after Oakland's tragic fire, ft. S. Surface and David Keenan on Archinect Sessions #91 View full entry
Last Friday night, a fire broke out during a concert at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, California, killing (at present count) 36 people. While the precise cause of the fire is still unknown, the building was rife with code violations that accelerated the fire's damage, many related to its... View full entry
The subject of a thousand think pieces and endless dinner table conversations, the considerable changes unleashed on the Bay Area by the tech industry over the past few decades are pretty undeniable. An influx of money – and its attendant culture – has remade San Francisco and the valley to... View full entry
Luke Iseman, 31, leases a 17,000-square-foot warehouse in Oakland in which he has built 11 micro residences out of cargo containers, Bloomberg reports. He charges $1,000 per months for each of the makeshift homes, which aren’t legal, strictly speaking. [...]
“We have an opportunity here to create a new model for urban development that’s more sustainable, more affordable and more enjoyable.”
— businessinsider.com
More news on shipping containers and the Bay Area's residential market:The Emergence of Container UrbanismForget Big-Box Stores. How About A Big-Box House?Airbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco housing stock, report saysNo room for affordable housing in SF? Build it in OaklandLooking to buy a... View full entry
This relatively low-tech method is among a battery of tests that materials scientists are using to determine why several anchor rods securing the newest portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the region’s busiest, failed their earthquake inspections. The first alarms sounded in 2013, when seismic tests found 32 faulty rods. They’d been sitting in a large pool of water, corroding. — wired.com
Previously:Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path failAfter $6.4 Billion, San Francisco Bridge Remains a MessTime-Lapse of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Construction View full entry
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tossed out an idea that she admitted might sound a bit crazy: What if San Francisco housing developers could fulfill their affordable housing requirements by building some of that housing in Oakland? [...]
The idea is for San Francisco residents who qualify for below-market-rate housing to live in affordable units that would be built in Oakland. [...]
The foundation for the partnership is already being prepped in Oakland
— sfgate.com
The vertical-farming movement continues to grow with the recent unveiling of FARM-X's modular vertical-farming concept, which the Oakland, CA-based organization developed with Zurich-based Conceptual Devices founder Antonio Scarponi and an agronomy team led by University of Bologna Professor... View full entry
Friday, August 15Farewell to the Old Okura: The famous Hotel Okura, built in the 1960s in a distinctive fusion of modern and traditional Japanese styles, is closing in response to prohibitive earthquake retrofits and larger, newer hotels in the area.Samsung Acquires SmartThings, A Fast-Growing... View full entry
Oakland has earthquakes, droughts and a host of other resilience problems to tackle. Now it has a Chief Resilience Officer to lead the charge.
Today, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Michael Berkowitz, president of The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, will jointly announce that Victoria Salinas has been tapped as the city’s first Chief Resilience Officer, a position being created in other cities across the world, as well.
— nextcity.org
Related: Resilience on the fly: Christchurch’s SCIRT offers a model for rebuilding after a disaster View full entry
For 76 years, the gray steel eastern span of the Bay Bridge was cursed and reviled but mostly just taken for granted. [...]
At least two groups of artists and architects have mounted campaigns to spare some of the steel from the recyclers so that they can transform it into artworks that might include a home, a public gathering space and an Airbnb rental space - with a view of the new Bay Bridge.
— sfgate.com
Related:Winners of the Bay Bridge House Student Design CompetitionRethinking The Bay Line View full entry
