This year is looking positive for women in the architectural field in San Francisco.  As The Architect’s Newspaper reported, the city just sent out an RFQ to firms for its “as-needed work” list, a procedure which happens every three years.

This year, for the first time, all the preselected firms have female principals.  The four firms include two independent practices, Paulett Taggart Architects, Hamilton + Aitken, and two joint ventures with small firms, Tom Elliot Fisch with Knapp Architects and Mark Cavagnero Associates with Cary Bernstein Architect.

“With the slate of architects this time, it looks like they are looking more for good design rather than tons of experience in the public sector,” said Paulett Taggart, who made the list for the second time in a row.

This is not only inspiring news for women, but its also great new for the city.  San Francisco will largely benefit from over $4 million in projects which will be divided among the firms. Congratulations to the firms – we are looking forward to seeing your future projects.

© jay.tong via Flickr

Curbed SF previosuly reported on the shortlist for the 225,000sqf expansion of the SFMOMA. The unconfirmed shortlist of the 8 practices include David Adjaye, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Snøhetta, and Renzo Piano. The other 2 remained unknown, but they stated that there are no local firms included.

Our friends at the Architect’s Newspaper propose a list of local practices that should have been invited: Aidlin Darling, Anne Fougeron (works previously featured at AD), IwamotoScott (projects previously featured at AD), Ogrydziak/Prillinger and Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works. I strongly agree with their list, and would like to add Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects, with a vast experience in San Francisco, who recently completed the Tampa Museum of Art

Photo via jay.tong, Flickr.

© Craig Scott

Architects: IwamotoScott
Location: North Beach, San Francisco, CA, USA
Principals in Charge: Lisa Iwamoto & Craig Scott
Collaborators: Dan Sullivan & Blake Altshuler
Diagrams: Ryan Gollenberg
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Craig Scott

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San Francisco’s newest transit hub will centralize all the transportation in the city by accomodating nine systems under one roof.   Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects have designed a new terminal, a 1.3 mile extension of the Caltrain rail line, and the redevelopment of the surrounding area which will add 2,600 new homes, a 5.4 acre park roof and a retail street.  And a loan of over $170 million given by the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act has given the project an extra push foward.   Once completed in 2014, the terminal will include wind turbines, geothermal heating methods and a graywater recycling system.  The hub will be a strong message that green technology can successfully be combined with modern transportation.  “We are thrilled to be one of the first modern rail stations in the United States to achieve this historic milestone and look forward to continuing to make progress on the Transbay Project,” explained Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, Executive Director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA).

More images and a video of the project after the break. read more »

© Joe Fletcher

Architect: Fougeron Architecture / Group 4 Architecture
Location: San Francisco, USA
Client: San Francisco Public Library
Contractor: CLW Builders
Construction Manager: San Francisco Department of Public Works
Public Artwork: Eric Powell
Project Year: 2002-2009
Photographer: Joe Fletcher

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© Matthew Millman

Architects: Sagan Piechota Architecture
Location: Fort Mason Pavilion, San Francisco, USA
Project Team: Mike Eggers, Andy Payne, Vivian Hsu, Ben Frombgen, Jeremy Tsai, Rich Porter, Charlotte Hofstetter, Daniel Piechota, Loring Sagan
Client: Slow Food Nation
Project Area: 73.6 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Rendering: Andy Payne
Photographs: Matthew Millman

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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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