Sarah Palin Quits
Beware of Blind, Gargantuan Cyclists Roaming City Streets
Photo du Jour 448
Happy 4th of July!
SFist Drinks: The Rio Grande Cocktail at 15 Romolo
One of these things is not like the others/ One of these things just doesn't belong
The recently topped-out building at triple-eight Howard -- wow. When the sun hits the brilliant white wind vanes and the aqua-ish Azurlite glass just the right way you get kind of a Miami/Vegassy feel. Looks a little different than what people might have expected when it was going up.
Does the InterContinenetal San Francisco Hotel at 888 Howard fit in with top law school UC Hastings on the left and historic City Hall on the right? You make the call.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
looks photoshopped
I like the new Intercontinental! Very cool building.
It may not perfectly fit in but I don't see why it doesn't belong. No reason to keep SF in the dark ages (like Philadelphia before the "top of William Penn's hat" height restriction was lifted in the 1990s).
Well sure it looks Photoshopped, but it's really there. Took that photo last week.
"Americans suffer beneath their clown clothes and grotesque clown smiles. Malnourished by a diet of junk food, they live and work in clown buildings, drive clown-mobiles, and occupy recreational time with canned, trivial entertainment. "
http://www.tndtownpaper.com/Volume4/jim_kunstler_new_urbanist.htm
From an an essay by someone named Karen O'Keefe on Jim Kunstler, what a fun guy:
http://www.kunstler.com/
Being a huge fan of modern architecture, I want to like this, but this building is a nightmare.
That blue glass is nasty. The massing at the top is confused. I'll take the new Federal Building any day over this.
if I wear a pink shirt, white sport coat and loafers, will they invite me to the grand opening?
So what if it looks like it doesn't belong?!? Does everything have to look the god-damn same? Just because City Hall is a Beaux Arts structure, and the Hastings building is ancient, doesn't mean everything has to match.
Granted, the building isn't that great, but I'm excited when anything gets built in this city. If only the Sue Hestors and Bruce Brugmanns would just shut up, then we might actually get some good design.
MalcoveMagnesia: Only if you have the matching cocaine habit.
Wow. That building is... wow. Nothing wrong with variety, and if someone lives there it should be easy to direct people to your place.
I am not an anti-growth build everything in faux-Victoria style Sfian but I hate this building
If you look at the renderings the developer totally misrepresented what this thing was to look like
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/hotel/sfohb?_requestid=201628
I like juxtaposition of new and old building. I dislike this one based on it looking tacky
Yep, it looks BADLY photoshopped at that. Amazing.
I absolutely agree that this doesn't even come close to the sleek, futuristic design proposed in the mock-ups. And that's unfortunate.
But I'm looking at the Intercontinental through my window, and the color is nowhere near as garish as it looks in this photograph. With this shot, City Hall's gold leaf oddly muted in the foreground. It might just be a function of cloud placement, so I wouldn't evaluate the taste-level of the building on the strength of this pic alone.
Using Justin Herman Plaza as the worst architectural product San Francisco has ever produced, I'd say this falls right in the middle of the pack.
Eh. I can live with it.
It looks like some oversized lego building that a 5-year-old made.
Wow you are right, it looked sleek in those renderings, now it looks kinda square and stocky. And the blue parts look plasticly, rather than glassy.
Stop me if I get too technical.
I hope that it gets bombed in an air raid.
888 Howard looked a lot better in the fog today.
The "photo" (really it's a photo illustration) in question http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/hotel/sfohb?_requestid=201628 isn't really BADLY Shopped. Somebody used a perspective control lens and/or a software command that affects perspective.
Thusly:
http://www.f-stop.com/p-c.htm
However, it appears that the building is wider at the top than at the bottom. Some of this has to do with the lighting, some of it has to do with going a little too far with perspective correction.
And people, please, post your shots to the Flickr. Tag them "SFist".
And please don't forget about UN Plaza. It's terrible also. http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=910
Like MalcoveMagnesia suggests, let's all go to the opening dressed as characters from "Ocean's Thirteen".
I'll go as George Clooney, because I look just like him, except I'm 20 years older, 30 pounds heavier, have 60% as much hair, and I don't have any suits as nice as his.
Law schools come and law schools go, but the William Taylor Hotel and Methodist Church has a permanent address in our hearts.
We need more tall penis buildings that look like those in "Blade Runner"
hello- did anyone consider how this bldg would effect the integrity of the view of City Hall from the Fulton Axis?
This appears to be a major error in skyline sculpting. Is it too late to take it back?
It looks like something designed by Aquafresh.