After an eight-hour drive from Palm Springs through the San Joaquin Valley, we returned to the "marine layer" of San Francisco...
...which had a "Blade Runner" air about it, partly because of the mixture of fog and the tinted windshield, but also because of the looming monstrosity being erected on Rincon Hill overlooking the Bay Bridge.
The building will be a perfect complement to the proposed new San Francisco museum which will house the billion-dollar modern art collection of Donald Fisher, the patriarch of one of San Francisco's premier gangster families who haven't seen a redwood tree or public school or starving worker without feeling the need to exploit them for further gain.
Mr. Fisher, in yet another charming gesture at screwing the public, wants to plop his paean to exploitation-alchemized-into-art into the middle of a national park, the Presidio, which somehow seems perfect, since nothing says "natural beauty" to me more than the works of Warhol, Richter, Lichtenstein and Serra.
Geat pictures! Terriddic comparison to Blade Runner.
ReplyDeletewelcome back sf mike,
ReplyDeleteyeah that giant metal-concrete dick standing right next to the highway is indeed puzzling, but so many other things in our Simpson's land.
I was actually pleased about the gap-boy museum idea....
Oh and you have to let me read the Tezuka's graphic novel.
xau
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Ditto the SF Rincon and Fisher comparison. The Chronicle's coverage of the Fisher story was so biased in favor of Fisher it was almost comical. What about environmental impact, for God's sake?
ReplyDeleteHave to agree it's a back-handed gift to our city, as audacious as the Tower (or her Dede-ness's de Young battleship in the park), here's hoping that people will come to their senses and not allow Fisher to put his museum in the Presidio.
Here's a thought, maybe Fisher could put the art up in one of the many Gap retail spaces that have been closing around town. For instance on Haight and Masonic, think this would be much better suited to the needs of such a public space.
More articles about the kindness, generosity, wisdom and above all, good taste of the insanely wealthy. Now they want to build a monument to themselves. Where better than public land?
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures!
ReplyDeleteDid you see the Sunday Chon and the hymn of praise for the proposed designs for the Transbay terminal? Another steel-and- concrete monster!
ReplyDeletenamastenancy
Thanks for the comments everyone, and yes, I did see John King's absurd analysis of the three grotesque building designs. It sorta gives you the feeling that the fix is already in, doesn't it, just like Don Fisher's looming monstrosity in the Presidio is basically a done deal. He wants it built and open within three years, by the way, and has enough money and power that it will definitely happen.
ReplyDeleteThe museum should be sited in the Bay View Hunters Point Redevelopment Area that Lennar is building.
ReplyDelete