San Francisco has an elegance.
Even as the city morphs and changes, there is a fusion of linear forces that vivifies.
We mourn the loss of the old places, and funky personality.
Economics, largely driven by tech, disrupts, it is true.
As in any city with real imagination, the architecture is a kind of code; who we have been, and who we are becoming.
It is not about architecture only though, at least to those of us with cameras. It is also how it all comes together; angles, spaces and the juxtaposition of style and line.
This post tries to celebrate those LINES AND RHYTHM.
Old and new, edged and rounded, light and space
creating feel and flow.
After a year and half of pandemic restrictions, we were excited just to see The City.
As a kid, when westerns were the fare on television, my midwestern sense of the West was Dodge City, Tombstone, Boot Hill and such, until Have Gun Will Travel changed all that.
Paladin, a sophisticated well tailored bon vivant, graduate of West Point, a Chinese martial arts specialist, president of the San Francisco Stock Exchange Club, chess player, and swordsman made his home a city that appeared as exotic as the problem solving hero. No Roy Rogers or Marshall Dillon, he.
In 1957 that was a mind blowing concept-a gentleman gun fighter private eye who quoted literature.
"Wire Paladin San Francisco."
After that the old west was, old and primitive, but San Francisco locked in my mind as, exotic, unique, a place where Asian and Western culture mixed and in a place that looked unlike anywhere else.
There is something else in this city that deserves a look,
Urban Alchemy. That is coming in a future post.
See you down the trail.
Richard Boone. bad-ass hipster cowboy 😎
ReplyDeleteTrue, that!
DeleteArchitecture that started as a drawing vs a CAD program. Especially lately, we're just building boxes.
ReplyDeleteThey seem less human, in some way, too.
DeleteHave Camera Will Travel...
ReplyDeleteGreat photos!
Even us old guys can still indulge our "wanna be a photographer" flight of fancy.
DeleteIv'e really enjoyed these last two posts; San Francisco has/had always been one of my two favorite cities in the US, and one of two that I could be transported to blindfolded, opened my eyes and tell you what city I was in...the other was NYC, at least Manhattan. I spent a lot of time there in the 70's and 80's and 90's...and I still watch 'Dirty Harry' once every year or so, not because I'm a nazi, but there are scenes of the city I loved, and Washington Park....my favorite hotel was Villa Florence, on Market just below Union Square. My, how Union Square has changed over the decades; my typical working morning was to get a cup of coffee to go, walk the half block to Union Square, open the Chron to first the Green Pages, then to see what Herb Caen had to say. I remember North Beach when there was a actual, discernible Italian District, and bocca ball was played in Washington Park across from the cathedral on Sunday mornings. Sand Dabs at The North Beach Restaurant, with Hogan (the token Irishman, as he referred to himself) as the waiter. He watched my youngest grow up from a 6 year old to a 20-ish woman. But I do carry on....thanks for the memories, Tom.
ReplyDeleteMike, thanks. I enjoyed your historical recap, invigorating some of my own memories and enjoying that sense of time and presence.
ReplyDeleteMY FAVORITE CITY; THE FIRST PLACE I LIVED ON THE WEST COAST (1970)
ReplyDeleteAnd thus the loyalty to those Giants! Good choice.
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