-
35 Years In San Francisco
At the end of June, I retired from Architectural practice. It has been 40 years since I started my first job as an intern in Colorado. I moved to San Francisco in 1989, and the time since has been split equally between San Francisco and Berkeley/Oakland. But San Francisco was…
-
Life On The Rocks
On the north end of Palm Springs, before one exits the vast Coachella Valley and heads east towards Los Angeles, one passes beneath mighty Mount San Jacinto. At 10,834 feet , it towers over Palm Springs, and along with Mount San Gorgonio, forms a formidable pass , one that spawns…
-
We Are All From Somewhere Else- A Walk Through West Berkeley
I moved to the Bay Area in 1988, securing a job with an Architectural firm in San Francisco. The firm of 50 was probably 90% Asian, and for the first time in my life, I was the minority. Every Friday, a large group of co-workers would head to lunch in…
-
Collections – A Salute to the Branch Library
They sit quietly on tree-lined neighborhood streets. Often surrounded by single family homes , small apartment buildings and bits of retail, the branch library tucks itself gently into these neighborhoods, elegant public buildings at home in these more modest settings. San Francisco and The Bay Area are blessed with many…
-
“The Doom Loop “- Walking Through Downtown San Francisco
Downtown San Francisco, we are told, is in a “doom loop”. You probably have heard. Everyday, the San Francisco Chronicle, publishes the latest report on employers leaving downtown, retailers closing their doors, wasted public money on poorly managed programs (2 million dollar toilets!), the latest staggering statistics on homelessness, and…
-
Neighborhood Stories- 3 Houses
At some point every day, I go for a walk in my neighborhood in Berkeley. It is a modest neighborhood of mostly one-story bungalows , an occasional apartment building, and a scrappy commercial district . But every few blocks, there is a larger house or building that isn’t part of…
-
100 Years of Houses- Walking Panoramic Hill
One of the conundrums of life during the pandemic has been getting meaningful exercise, something more than a neighborhood walk. Fortunately, in Berkeley, there are some very steep hills, and these walks have provided the necessary heart rate elevation. In fact, one in particular, at Claremont Canyon, is so steep…
-
Welcome to The Dollhouse- In Praise of the Bungalow Court
Back in the late 80s, I was living in Colorado, having just received my Master’s Degree in Architecture. Colorado was in the grips of a terrible energy related recession , and it really couldn’t have been a worse time to hit the job market. My first job ended after…
-
Two Modernists In Connecticut.
As an Architecture student way back in the 80s in Buffalo, one’s introduction to contemporary Architecture had two threads. First, the late 19th and early 20th century’s seminal works, many of which were in our back yard thanks to Buffalo’s incredible treasures of Wright, Richardson, Sullivan, and Burnham. The second…
-
Travelogue – 10 Stops Through The American West
At the end of last year, the pull of the wide open spaces of the American West was too great, and I once again undertook what has become an every 2 year ritual, a road trip through part of the American West. North of Palm Springs, and home, the tiny dot…
-
Roadkill-Ode To The Summer Job
From the Series- “Misadventures of a Working Stiff” Having recently retired, I am temporarily, staying near where I grew up. And I find myself reflecting on the early days of my working life, and in particular, the dreaded summer job. My favorite year of college was my sophomore year. The…
-
The Green Seam- My Pandemic Therapist
If one were to draw a cross section through the cities east of San Francisco Bay it might look like this. First of course, there would be the Bay itself. Then to the east, the gradual rise of the “flats”, peppered with modest bungalows and apartments, then the sharp climb…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
urban ambles 