San Francisco

Wedgeguy
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San Francisco

Postby Wedgeguy » December 2nd, 2012, 3:21 pm

Was talking with an architedt friend in San Fran that gave me the heads up on there Urban site. Check out socketsite.com to see what we are missing for great apartment tower looks.

John
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Re: What's up in San Fransico.

Postby John » December 10th, 2012, 10:04 pm

Was talking with an architedt friend in San Fran that gave me the heads up on there Urban site. Check out socketsite.com to see what we are missing for great apartment tower looks.
There's a much higher expectation of the quality of design in architecture there. It's as simple as that. It's a "given" there. That's what differentiates a truly great city from a mediocre one. Minneapolis is getting some good new projects such as 1368 Lasalle and 222, and yes , even Nic on 5th will be great ( as seen from the new renderings). We are making progress, however I think we are still a little weaker in our self confidence than SF . Our city should expect more from developers and demand more attention to detail and quality materials when a proposal comes forward. Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful cities in the nation and our architecture should always reflect that.
Last edited by John on December 10th, 2012, 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Nick
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Re: What's up in San Francisco

Postby Nick » December 10th, 2012, 10:19 pm

This is old but I recently stumbled across it when a friend posted it on FB. It's definitely a good read:

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news ... n-the-u-s/
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John
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Re: What's up in San Francisco

Postby John » December 10th, 2012, 10:26 pm

^^^Lol! One of my best friends lives there and he says the city government is extremely dysfunctional. But he also says it's the prettiest city in the world and he's traveled all over! I tell him I feel lucky because I live in a city that's both beautiful and well run!

MNdible
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Re: What's up in San Fransico.

Postby MNdible » December 10th, 2012, 11:49 pm

There's a much higher expectation of the quality of design in architecture there. It's as simple as that. It's a "given" there. That's what differentiates a truly great city from a mediocre one. Minneapolis is getting some good new projects such as 1368 Lasalle and 222, and yes , even Nic on 5th will be great ( as seen from the new renderings). We are making progress, however I think we are still a little weaker in our self confidence than SF . Our city should expect more from developers and demand more attention to detail and quality materials when a proposal comes forward. Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful cities in the nation and our architecture should always reflect that.
The price that a developer pays for a piece of land and the amount of money that they'll invest in developing it are directly proportional. Have you ever noticed that the cities with the highest land values have the most intensive, highest-quality projects? It's not a coincidence, and the cost of land is the driver.

Demands from Mayor Rybak, the City Council, and this board will have little effect on the quality of development.

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Re: What's up in San Francisco

Postby John » December 11th, 2012, 12:12 am

^^^ I agree with you to some extent. And that's good because our downtown is losing a lot of vacant land these days. Downtown property is going to be more valuable in the future. But I also think SF has a strong record of good architecture because the community itself expects quality development as a condition to build there. It's part of their culture. I think Minneapolis is actually fairly strong that way too, but it needs to be more consistent and assertive.

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Re: What's up in San Fransico.

Postby ECtransplant » December 11th, 2012, 12:16 am

The price that a developer pays for a piece of land and the amount of money that they'll invest in developing it are directly proportional. Have you ever noticed that the cities with the highest land values have the most intensive, highest-quality projects? It's not a coincidence, and the cost of land is the driver.

Demands from Mayor Rybak, the City Council, and this board will have little effect on the quality of development.
Sounds like all the more reason to tax land at a higher rate than the buildings!

Wedgeguy
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Re: What's up in San Francisco

Postby Wedgeguy » December 20th, 2012, 2:21 pm

We in Minneapolis are blessed by the years gone by to have had an era when developers took pride in what they built and knew tthat in the end the betteer the quality thee better the selling price and the higher the reents they could charge. We have towers by Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Gunner Burkett, Pelli, to name just a few. Others I'd have to look up for spellings. But you get the point. 25 years ago this city had a great pride in itself. HAte to say I don't know what happened to that pride.

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Re: What's up in San Francisco

Postby John » December 21st, 2012, 12:36 pm

^^^I think there is a possibility we may be entering a new era in skyscraper building in Minneapolis. There is so much momentum right now in our downtown with the housing boom, new stadium, Ryan blocks... the list goes on and on. If all goes well, it may be the new convention center hotel that will be the first tall tower to be announced. I suspect there will be more.
San Francisco also has a much stronger retail core than Minneapolis , and a major factor for this is the large affluent population that lives in or near their downtown. Downtown Minneapolis is growing rapidly in that sense, and retail is going to take off here in the next few years. All this talk about the demise of upscale retail downtown is really premature. The problem is the impending dramatic growth in our downtown population is not clearly visible yet. Most of the current projects going up are still just holes in the ground or only partially completed. Just wait and see in a few years! It will be remarkable.

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San Francisco development

Postby John » July 3rd, 2013, 11:13 am

Just got back from a trip to SF. It is a booming city fueled by the growth of high tech industries and start-ups. SF Planning Department web pages showing the location of different neighborhood plans and development projects throughout the city. Very impressive:
http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=1691
http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=2673

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Nick
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Re: San Francisco

Postby Nick » November 25th, 2013, 7:36 pm

Good read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/us/ba ... rc=me&_r=0
SAN FRANCISCO — If there was a tipping point, a moment that crystallized the anger building here toward the so-called technorati for driving up housing prices and threatening the city’s bohemian identity, it came in response to a diatribe posted online in August by a young Internet entrepreneur.

The author, a start-up founder named Peter Shih, listed 10 things he hated about San Francisco. Homeless people, for example. And the “constantly PMSing” weather. And “girls who are obviously 4s and behave like they’re 9s.”

The backlash was immediate. Fliers appeared on telephone poles calling Mr. Shih a “woman hatin’ nerd toucher.” CheapAir offered him a free ticket back to New York. Readers responded that what they hated about San Francisco were “entitled” technology workers like him.

[...]
And can I just say, thank God for the New York Times. I'm so happy that the StarTribune is trending in that direction and away from dumbing themselves down for clicks.
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mattaudio
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Re: San Francisco

Postby mattaudio » November 26th, 2013, 9:31 am

As "The Gated City" pointed out, SF's lack of affordable housing is self-inflicted because NIMBYs have prevented expansion of supply to meet demand. I hope Mpls avoids this same fate.

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Re: San Francisco

Postby John » November 26th, 2013, 10:44 pm

One of the great contributors to the lack of affordable housing in SF has been the demolition of low income housing in "The Tenderloin" and the semi-industrial "SOMA" districts just west and south of Downtown.Thousands of low income people who lived packed in cheap hotels and tenement apartment buildings were displaced from these neighborhoods. These areas were plagued by crime, drug dealing, and very squalid living conditions. It was dramatically gentrified ( especially in the late 80s, 1990s, but still continuing) with a very pro-development mayor and Board Of Supervisors. The city had financial problems and officials were attempting to increase the tax base with the issue of so little open land to develop. Also, they were concerned these districts were causing a negative public perception and affecting the tourism / convention industry which are such big players in their economy.

go4guy
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Re: San Francisco

Postby go4guy » December 9th, 2013, 12:38 pm

Good read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/us/ba ... rc=me&_r=0
SAN FRANCISCO — If there was a tipping point, a moment that crystallized the anger building here toward the so-called technorati for driving up housing prices and threatening the city’s bohemian identity, it came in response to a diatribe posted online in August by a young Internet entrepreneur.

The author, a start-up founder named Peter Shih, listed 10 things he hated about San Francisco. Homeless people, for example. And the “constantly PMSing” weather. And “girls who are obviously 4s and behave like they’re 9s.”

The backlash was immediate. Fliers appeared on telephone poles calling Mr. Shih a “woman hatin’ nerd toucher.” CheapAir offered him a free ticket back to New York. Readers responded that what they hated about San Francisco were “entitled” technology workers like him.

[...]
And can I just say, thank God for the New York Times. I'm so happy that the StarTribune is trending in that direction and away from dumbing themselves down for clicks.
Not as long as Souhan is writing for the Strib.

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Re: San Francisco

Postby mulad » July 31st, 2014, 1:43 pm

It's down in San Jose, but I thought this was a surprising redevelopment site. Zoom in a notch to see what used to be there (45-degree view). The buildings just to the north are part of the vast Cisco campus, so I think the old buildings here were probably part of that company.



It's too new to have Street View, but here's another area just to the northwest that does: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.40330 ... 97,,0,4.11

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Re: San Francisco

Postby mulad » November 12th, 2014, 5:13 am

The new Apple headquarters in Cupertino is a big donut-shaped hole in the ground as they work on the foundation. Someone shot some video of the site with a drone. I suspect Apple security is going to be digging a drone out of the bushes once every few days in the years after this opens...

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/app ... rk-begins/

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Re: San Francisco

Postby mulad » January 23rd, 2015, 10:01 am

A movable "zipper" barrier has been added to the Golden Gate Bridge. It's supposed to improve safety by preventing head-on collisions, though it has had the effect of significantly increasing vehicle speeds even as the signed speed limit was lowered.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/G ... 034315.php

mattaudio
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Re: San Francisco

Postby mattaudio » January 23rd, 2015, 10:08 am

Yikes. That was just championed as a reason to narrow lanes, since IIRC the lanes are down to 9.5' due to this barrier. 9.5' + faster traffic doesn't sound like an improvement, though.

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Re: San Francisco

Postby twincitizen » June 15th, 2015, 12:35 pm


mattaudio
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Re: San Francisco

Postby mattaudio » July 28th, 2015, 3:54 pm



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