Portfolio + Itinerary | Bay Area Modern
Last week was spring break, and my family flew out to San Francisco. We rented an apartment in the Marina, because I like the neighborhood’s proximity to Crissy Field and the waterfront, and spent the week exploring art, architecture and landscape. My goal was to pick locations that would be fun to explore for adults and kids: some design content, some outdoor experience, some interactivity. But for a visit to the De Young Museum that consisted only of a dash past the hall of Ruth Asawa sculptures and up the tower, we were all happy and got to see many things. (Coming from the East Coast, the beautiful weather certainly helped the mood.) What follows is our illustrated and annotated itinerary.
Day 1: Arrival, Crissy Field, Palace of Fine Arts. The area around the Palace of Fine Arts has been refurbished since the last time I visited, and there was a fair amount of wildlife to spot. Also nearby: a Richard Neutra house and lots of variations on two stories over a street front garage.
Day 2: The Presidio, the Walt Disney Family Museum, and Lucasfilm HQ. Even if you are anti-Disney, the WDFM is worth a visit: the emphasis is on the origins and early decades of Disney films. I find the process on display fascinating, as well as the concept art by people like Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle, always more elegant and suggestive than the finished product. The museum interiors, by Rockwell Group, are very theatrical, and feature some spectacular terrazzo floors. At Lucasfilm there’s the Yoda Fountain and a variety of memorabilia inside. I missed the exhibition on the planning for the new Presidio Parklands Project, designed by Field Operations.
Day 3: Alcatraz and the Embarcadero. We were there in time to catch the Ai Weiwei exhibit on Alcatraz, but I found the disused structures much more interesting. My 7yo loved the audio tour of the prison, complete with fake feet and daring escapes. After getting off the island, we walked down to the Ferry Building, bought lunch, and explored Embarcadero Center and the Hyatt Regency, both designed by John Portman (and others) in the 1980s. The glass elevators were like a theme park ride. Then we headed to Levi’s Plaza, designed by Lawrence Halprin, a highly playable combination of lawn, paved plaza, and fountain, screened from the road by a thick hedge.
Day 4: Golden Gate Park, California Academy of Sciences, De Young Museum. Golden Gate Park has what they claim is the first purpose-built playground in America (though I think Boston might argue with that). Few elements remain, but the Children’s Playground is a big fun space, with one of the largest rope towers I’ve encountered, along with a climbable concrete wave. My children were not impressed by the green roof at Renzo Piano’s Academy of Sciences, but the Aquarium and Rain Forest were a big hit. Looking at the De Young from the Academy of Sciences, I have never been drawn to the building’s overall form. But up close, and from the tower, the skin and raked angles draw you in, as do the wedges of landscape. Why oh why is the lobby so formless, so vast, and so sheetrocked?
Day 5: Muir Woods, Marin County Civic Center. There are less frequented hikes on Mt. Tam, but Muir Woods was easy, short, and redwood-centric. Get there early and beware the poison oak. Marin County Civic Center is the best kind of architecture to explore. You can go pretty much everywhere in the building and there’s even a public cafeteria, with outdoor terrace and fountain, where you can eat lunch.
Day 6: Berkeley Hills, Oakland Museum of California. I have been a fan of the Cheese Board in Berkeley for over a decade so we went there first and then hiked up, up, up to see houses by Maybeck, Wurster and others. House peeping is definitely not a child-friendly activity. I had never been to the Oakland Museum, designed by Roche Dinkeloo at the same time as the Ford Foundation and one of their first independent commissions. It has many problems relating to the streets around it, but once you are inside its landscaped, public terraces unfold and it is a stunning experience. The lowest floor, devoted to science, is great for kids, as are the giant koi.
Day 7: A day of (relative) rest. Quick stop at Pietro Belluschi and Pier Luigi Nervi’s St. Mary’s Cathedral, glorious inside, a travertine hulk outside, and then south to Palo Alto. We walked through Ennead’s Anderson Collection at Stanford, finished last year. It has lovely galleries, very similar to those in Ennead’s Yale Art Gallery renovation. The central staircase is a dull waste of space, and the exterior is quite conservative. Stanford has to stop making its architects build tan. It’s obviously not going to help the Diller Scofidio + Renfro art department building under construction on an adjacent site.
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