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"Google Barge...A floating data center? A wild party boat? A barge housing the last remaining dinosaur? Sadly, none of the above. Although it's still early days and things may change, we're exploring using the barge as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology."
Please forgive me, but if you decide to build what looks like quite a substantial structure out on the water, you might have some vague idea of what you're going to do with it.
— news.cnet.com
Previously: San Francisco's bay barge mystery: Floating data center or Google Glass store? View full entry
The mystery surrounding a large structure built on a barge docked in San Francisco bay is deepening. Is it a floating Google data center? A floating Google Glass store? Or something else altogether? — news.cnet.com
Meanwhile, (not-so-secret) construction boom at Google's fellow bay area competitors: Cupertino council clears huge Apple 'spaceship' campus for liftoff City Planners Approve Frank Gehry-Designed Facebook Campus in Menlo Park UPDATE: Google's barge explanation: Bilge? View full entry
A question I have heard a lot lately is “why can’t developers build housing for the people who need it most instead of for the rich.” Let’s look at what a typical multi-family development project in a reasonably central part of San Francisco would cost to build (in a very simplified way). I’m assuming an 800 square foot apartment in a five story 100 unit wood-framed building over a concrete first story (very common in San Francisco)... — markasaurus.com
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2013 Here on Archinect we recently launched "Get Lectured", where we'll feature a school's lecture series--along with their snazzy posters--for the current season. Check back regularly to stay up-to-date and mark your calendars for any... View full entry
BIG will get to design 950-974 Market, a new development in San Francisco's Mid-Market Arts District. Prevailing over strong competitors like OMA and Snøhetta, this will be the first project for BIG on the U.S. West Coast. The 446,000 sqf (42,000 sqm) mixed-use development will include residential units, retail, arts space and theaters. — bustler.net
This proposal seeks to demonstrate the potential for re-purposing the historic American bridge infrastructure as possible sites for sustainable urban housing and linear parks...an aerial garden, as the cities newest park through which you could walk and wander and enjoy the most spectacular views of the bay — Rael San Fratello/reThink Bay Bridge
With the recent completion of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the group reTHINK Bay Bridge, comprised of Rael San Fratello Architects (Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello), Frederic Schwartz Architects (Frederic Schwartz) and architect Marc L’Italien have proposed... View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2013 Happy Friday! Here on Archinect we recently launched "Get Lectured", where we'll feature a school's lecture series--along with their snazzy posters--for the current season. Check back regularly to stay up-to-date and mark your calendars... View full entry
The owner of Hill House is Scott Croyle, senior vice president of design at HTC. At two bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a study, the home is just large enough to share with his wife and son. Its modest scale allowed Bernstein to emphasize quality materials over quantity of space.
"It's almost a negative value in that (tech) community," said Bernstein of over-the-top homes. "There's a real emphasis on not seeking a mansion right away."
— sfgate.com
Take the public transportation provided by corporate shuttle buses from the likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. It’s not news that these shuttles, and the big digital tech companies that run them, are changing the fabric of San Francisco as we’ve known it. What feels new is that it’s not enough to say that change is coming soon. It’s already, very much here. — wired.com
Although the Bay is a natural entity borne of great rivers draining the entire Central Valley of California, every inch of its shoreline today is the product of human activity, by either intent or incident. — Center for Land Use Interpretation
On September 10, the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) will release Around the Bay: Man-Made Sites of Interest in the San Francisco Bay Region -- the second book in its "Man-Made Sites of Interest" series. Aimed to coincide with the historic opening of the Bay Bridge expansion, the book... View full entry
The Foundry Square, a four-part mixed-use complex in San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa) district, is currently in its final phase with the construction of Foundry III, which developer Tishman Speyer purchased in 2012. The target LEED Gold building will have 265,000 square feet of office space... View full entry
For 20 years, the Mexican Museum, longtime tenant of Fort Mason Center, has sought to open a dedicated building in the evolving Yerba Buena Cultural District as its 14,000-object collection long ago outgrew the present space's capacity. The wait to integrate the museum into the first four floors of a Millennium Partners luxury high-rise may finally be ending - in about five more years. — sfgate.com
If San Franciscans like to describe their city as “49 square miles surrounded by reality,” the visionary ideas that were too grandiose for even San Franciscans to consider remain some of the most fantastic designs for any city in the world. Imagine a grand casino on Alcatraz, the city wrapped in freeways and a subdivision covering flattened hills north of the Golden Gate Bridge. — Architecture and the City Festival
San Francisco is a small yet fierce city; its 7x7 mile girth is home to a rich history of social activism, tech start-ups, foodies, artists, composting programs and absurdist housing rates. Given its compact and hilly terrain, any addition or subtraction would drastically impact the city’s... View full entry
The eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was supposed to be the crowning glory of the bridge-builder’s art, gracefully echoing the rolling hills surrounding San Francisco Bay.
Yet as the project heads for a Labor Day opening after $6.4 billion and 15 years, the country’s most daringly iconic highway bridge stands as a poster child for those who think major infrastructure projects are wasteful.
— bloomberg.com
Previously: Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail View full entry
“What I find so fascinating about the Presidio is that, in the heart of this military machine, there was a huge planting programme,” Goldsworthy says, referring to the fact that the park’s 300-acre forest was planted by the US military between 1886 and 1900. “They had quite a sophisticated sense of landscape,” he says. “They read the landscape in the way that sculptors do—or at least the way I do.” — theartnewspaper.com