Big plans

The following are pictures of areas around San Francisco where City Hall is knocking around ideas concerning changes or improvements to. I’ll also include a few changes that have turned out for the better concerning the aesthetics of the city of San Francisco. (Thumbnail images)

 

First stop is the intersection of Sacramento and Front Streets, looking down from the Embarcadero Center: The older phot0 is from a slide picture I took during the 1980s. Last month, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article stating that San Francisco has plans to change this stretch of Front Street into an ‘entertainment zone’.

  

Next, we’ll head out to the ocean. There are proposals being pushed forward to close this portion of the Great Highway, seen in 1919 in the opensfhistory.org picture, to automobile traffic. I don’t know how I feel about this; it’s nice to get from the Cliff House to the zoo in five minutes!

  

This is a rendition from the Friends of the Great Highway of how the area will look if it’s closed to cars.

  

And what is happening to the Cliff House? It’s scheduled to reopen by the end of this year, but no one knows how it will look. It apparently won’t be called the Cliff House anymore, although it will always be known as the Cliff House to me, and many others.

 

Now we’re back on the east side of the City, looking down Vallejo Street to the Embarcadero. The top picture is a slide I took in the mid 1980s. I have problems with this next proposal.

I first became interested in this view after watching a scene from the 1956 film ‘Hell on Frisco Bay’, starring Alan Ladd. Ladd portrays a disgraced police officer who went to prison for manslaughter conviction that he didn’t commit. He hides in Hodges Alley, off Vallejo, and pursues a lady who may lead him to the real killer. The film stars Edward G. Robinson, so see if you can guess who the real killer will turn out to be. Notice the building with the rooftop parking in the lower right can be seen in the film captures.

  

The plan is to build this frightening looking thing where the old parking garage is located that will block out most of the view of the Bay from further up Vallejo Street. Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail. (Handel Architects)

  

This one scares me too. Since all of the major restaurants are closed now along what used to be called ‘Fish Alley’, I’m hearing from some of the people working in Fisherman’s Wharf that there’s talk of demolishing the buildings here for some type of a promenade. I don’t think that there’s anything to the talk, because, open or closed, this view of the area at sunset is one of the things that San Francisco is all about.

  

This rendering from sf.eater.com doesn’t look like the plan includes demolishing the building that separate Taylor Street from Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon.

  

Powell Street between Market Street and Union Square: Although it’s not as dismal as it’s made out to be, it could be made more pedestrian friendly.

  

This sketch from unionsquaresf.com shows what the area may look like with the changes; I’m all for places where you can just sit for awhile and watch cable cars pass by.

  

This drawing from Transbay Joint Powers Authority shows what the Salesforce Transit Center will look like when the Portal Project extends Caltrain to the Mission Street Terminal. This will be the first time trains have reached this spot since the old Key System was discontinued in 1958.

  

The entrance to the old Transbay Terminal and the new Salesforce Transit Center: Although, I have fond memories of the old terminal, the new transit terminal is nothing short of beautiful.

  

The rooftop of the Tranbay Terminal and the rooftop park of the Salesforce Transit Center. The park on top of the new transit hub is one of the finest things San Francisco has done in decades.

  

I’ll close with a slide picture I took in 1991 while they were demolishing the Embarcadero Freeway. I drove on it often. It made getting to Chinatown easier, it made getting to North Beach easier, but I don’t miss it at all.