Browsing: San Francisco

BAY Arc by SOM - Winning entry

When driving between SFO Airport and San Francisco on the edge of the Bay Area, I have always wondered what would happen when the sea level starts to rise.

Recently, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) organized an ideas competition (open to any professionals, not just architects) to address the sea level rise in the Bay Area, looking for innovative and creative  solutions to bring forward a  vision of a future estuarine shoreline applicable to the San Francisco Bay and beyond. 130 entries from 18 countries were submitted.

Six teams were announced as the winners, splitting a cash prize of $25,000. Among these entries we find interesting ideas, such as Faulders Studio’s laser light barrier that measures the sea level, powered by tidal energy,  Kuth Ranieri Architects’s ventilated levee to balance the sea/bay water levels, or SOM’s smart membrane under the golden gate bridge.

But, as usual in some competitions, the honorable mentions bring more disruptive ideas, embracing a vision on a post-flood city instead of preventing it. There’s also humor among the honorable mentions, “Failure: Bring your boots” or “About Rising Tides: It´s the Delta, you stupid”.

Will our future be amphibious?

All the awarded entries after the break:
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Architects: Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Client: Congregation Beth Sholom
Project team: Stanley Saitowitz, Neil Kaye, Markus Bischoff, John Winder, Derrick Chan
Structural Engineering: Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc.
Mechanical Engineering: Rumsey Engineers Inc.
Landscaping: Blasen Landscape Architecture
General Contractor: Overaa Construction
Constructed Area: 2,694 sqm
Budget: US $11,933,000
Project year: 2008
Photographs: Rien van Rijthoven & Bruce Damonte

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Architecture and design firm Group 41 Inc. is proud to unveil the H House, a modern architectural residence whose design is informed by the crisp language of modernism and shaped by the principals of sustainability. In a city like San Francisco where a moratorium on demolition limits most construction projects to being creative renditions of a renovation, a new, ground-up construction is a rarity. Rectilinear and angular, the H House is architect/developer Joel Karr’s first ground-up development property and represents a welcomed opportunity to express Group 41’s own distinctive brand of modernist design.

Photographs by Ken Gutmaker & Eric Rorer

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The last 2 times I went to San Francisco, I saw the progress of the new California Academy of Sciences building, by italian architect Renzo Piano. It was amazing to see how the 2.5 acre green roof took shape. The building is now complete, it was opened to public yesterday.

The building recovers two and mixes it with a whole new structure, which is actually very transparent, connecting it visually with the Golden Park, away from the old conception of dark museums. Shade will be provided by a canopy that goes around the bulding, with solar panels on it.

Sustainability was a key aspect of the design, as this project is one of the ten pilot “green building” projects of the San Francisco Department of Environment, aiming to get platinum LEED certification. Actually, the building will consume 30-35% less energy than required by code.

The project conserves two limestone walls from the previous building (1934), and houses a planetarium, a rain forest habitat and an aquarium, and several exhibition spaces to house the several Academy collections.

The planetarium and the bubble that contains the rain forest habitat are the two big spheres that shape the green roof. The roof becomes a landscape with California native species, that won´t need extra maitenance or water, attracting local species to occupy it. Thus, the green roof won´t be fully accesible to visitors, who can only walk through a small path.

All the pictures on this post are © Tim Griffith. Check out his website for great architecture photography.

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The Jewish Contemporary Museum by Daniel Libeskind we published some weeks ago opened this Sunday, and Fernando Herrera sent us a complete set of photos of the opening.

Now we can take a deeper look at the interiors and details of this remodelation of an old power plant adjacent to the Yerba Buena park in San Francisco, an area with great public spaces.

Photos and plans after the break.

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Sorry for the lack of posts this last few days, but before leaving to San Francisco my computer died. Now i´m back home with a borrowed computer, and will be posting some buildings i found in SF.

This two rotated cubes are part of the adaptation of the 1907 Jessie Street Power Substation, adjacent to the Yerba Buena Park in San Francisco, into the new Jewish Contemporary Museum by Daniel Libeskind Studio and local architects WRNS Studio. The project houses 63,000 sq feet for exhibitions and programs in visual, performing and media arts, and includes 3,500 square feet of space for education.

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