The Transamerica Pyramid, a landmark in the skyline of San Francisco, is undergoing a revitalization project led by Foster + Partners and luxury real estate developers SHVO. Built in 1972, the 48-story Brutalist-style project was designed by American architect William Pereira, and was the tallest building in San Francisco for nearly half a century. The renovation will be the largest in the building’s 50-year history, will also see the expansion and upgrade of the adjacent Three Transamerica (545 Sansome).
For centuries and centuries we’ve built – and the diversity in our global built environment is a testament to that. The many different cultures around the globe have had different ways of building throughout history, adapting locally found materials to construct their structures. Today, in our globalized present, building materials are transported across the globe far from their origins, a situation that means two buildings on completely opposites sides of the world can be more or less identical.
In April 1782, just six years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Adams arrived in Amsterdam as the first U.S. Ambassador to The Netherlands. Three months later, a consortium of Dutch bankers provided a 5 million guilder loan (equivalent to $150 billion today) to the new republic, a clear sign of my country’s confidence in the U.S. While I can’t provide a loan, as a Dutch water engineer I can offer something else to Americans: my country’s five centuries of experience living, working, and thriving below sea level. This is surely knowledge and knowhow that the U.S. will desperately need as water levels continue to rise and countless coastal communities are threatened.
https://www.archdaily.com/977124/sea-level-rise-could-the-netherlands-polder-system-work-in-theJan H. de Jager
Over the past year, established practices have continued to champion the transformation of existing structures, with adaptive reuse and renovations increasingly becoming a defining aspect of contemporary architecture From the renovation of landmark structures to the adaptive reuse of obsolete facilities, the idea of giving new life to existing buildings has been embraced as the premise for a more sustainable practice, but also as a means of reinforcing the urban and cultural identity of cities. Discover 8 designs and recently completed projects that showcase a new common practice of reusing existing building stock.
The dawn of the Anthropocene has thrown the idea of adaptive reuse into the limelight: effectively the pinnacle of urban regeneration and revitalization. It utilizes the presence of existing buildings with historic and cultural value and re-purposes them to be functional. Essentially a form of architectural salvage; a sustainable and viable means of rebuilding.
Recent events such as the pandemic has highlighted inequalities in our cityscape, the inadequate segments in a state of disuse and disrepair. Adaptive reuse can replenish these areas and create new cultural hotspots, encouraging activity and creating vibrant and healthy mixed-use environments.
Below is a diverse selection of cultural hotspots using Adaptive Reuse
Rebar’s “walket” a prototype parklet system deployed in San Francisco’s Mission district in 2009. / Rebar. Image Courtesy of The Dirt
On a clear fall day in 2005, a group of friends and collaborators from the art collective Rebar commandeered an 8-foot-wide by 20-foot-long metered parking space in downtown San Francisco. This two-hour guerilla art installation evolved into Park(ing) Day, a global public art and design activism event that has been celebrated every year since. In 2009, Rebar and other design studios were approached by the City of San Francisco to prototype a more permanent version of Park(ing) Day. In response, we created one of the world’s first parklets in San Francisco (we called our version walklet), and through the diligent efforts of Andres Power in the Mayor’s Office and City Planning, San Francisco’s pioneering parklet program was born.
https://www.archdaily.com/968977/pandemic-era-street-spaces-parklets-patios-and-the-future-of-the-public-realmJohn Bela
The potential for mass timber to become the dominant material of future sustainable cities has also gained traction in the United States throughout 2018. Evolving codes and the increasing availability of mass timber is inspiring firms, universities, and state legislators to research and invest in ambitious projects across the country.
https://www.archdaily.com/905601/4-projects-that-show-mass-timber-is-the-future-of-american-citiesNiall Patrick Walsh
San Francisco is a city defined by its relationship to housing. Since the 90s it has faced an affordable housing shortage, and now, has some of the highest rents of any major US city. As planners and policy makers work to move beyond the city's past and find new paths forward, architects and designers are testing out diverse housing models. From dense residential towers to multi-unit developments, modern housing aims to strike a balance between economy and urbanity.
The world-renowned academic medical centre The University of California San Francisco has selected Snohetta and HGA to design the new Parnassus Research and Academic Building (PRAB). As part of a larger plan to renovate and expand the medical campus, the project will replace the 1917 UC Hall, creating a more collaborative research environment while also providing the city of San Francisco with an attractive public space.
As part of the Dogpatch mixed-use waterfront development, Foster + Partner'sPower Station extension has finally broken ground. The master plan will create multiple new residential, commercial, and recreational spaces, honoring its industrial past and reconnecting the community with the San Francisco Bay waterfront. The architecture firm's 2-building proposal provides the neighborhood with an ideal urban framework to help create a vibrant, healthy, and inclusive community.
Construction work began for Herzog & de Meuron’s transformation of a former power plant building in San Fransico into a mixed-use project. Designed in collaboration with California-based practice Adamson Associates, the adaptive reuse of iconic Station A is part of the Portrero Power Station project, the redevelopment of a 29-acre industrial site into an extension of the Dogpatch neighbourhood. Herzog & de Meuron’s design retains and repurposes various features of the industrial building while adding a lightweight, steel-framed structure on top, thus giving new life to one of San Francisco’s landmarks.
Courtesy of Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza & SWA Group
Matt Hickman reports on San Francisco's latest inclusive memorial, for the Architect's Newspaper, designed by SWA, a firm that operates two Bay Area studios (San Francisco and Sausalito) as well as offices in Texas, Southern California, New York City, and Shanghai. Selected by FHMP from a shortlist of four firms that submitted proposals, out of 17 invited offices, SWA shared their winning conceptual design for the memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza.
