The block-long Federal building at the base of United Nations Plaza hosted a ribbon cutting last Wednesday after a four year, $122 million renovation job, funded through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The building was the final Beaux Arts masterpiece in the Civic Center neighborhood of local architect Arthur Brown, Jr. after he had already designed City Hall, the War Memorial Opera House and the Veterans Building, which is currently going through its own retrofitting and renovation.
The original structure was completed in 1936 in the midst of the Depression where it housed an entire alphabet of federal agencies.
When World War Two arrived, the entire building was requisitioned by the military, and Fleet Admiral Nimitz even had his own oval office above for ceremonial duties until his death in 1966. The building continued being used by a dwindling number of federal agencies over the decades until it was completely vacated in 2007, leaving yet another rotting architectural jewel in downtown San Francisco.
The building has not only been retrofitted for earthquakes, but there are new electrical, heating and plumbing systems in place that are designed to be more efficient and comfortable, and the new roof has been reconstructed to be an environmental showcase of solar panels and a living garden for stormwater abatement.
The bright, airy offices will be the new headquarters for the GSA Pacific Rim Region's approximately 500 employees, with the top floor to house a federal agency to be named later.
The ribbon cutting was preceded by speeches, starting with Pacific Rim Regional Administrator Ruth Cox (not pictured) who divided her remarks between praising President Obama and quoting from Saint Steve Jobs on dreams and innovation. She was followed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (above left), who went on to praise San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (above right) for completely renovating the neighborhood, which for those of us who actually live here is something of a bad joke. GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini (above middle) continued with praise for Mayor Lee, who possibly needed it after the shellacking at the polls he received a day earlier when voters rejected Propositions B and C. Lee spoke about how much San Francisco appreciated the federal money in the neighborhood. "If you give us Stimulus, San Francisco goes all the way with it," he stated at one point. Whether he meant that as a double entendre or not, it was still a very odd remark.
The best speech came from Michele MacCracken from HKS Architects above. She admitted that their original design for the renovation was "perfect" until they actually brought it to Hathaway Dinwiddie, the local construction contractors who told them their plans would push the cost $40 million over budget. "After a huge amount of back-and-forth, we ended up going with Plan 7C, and the result in its simplicity and beauty has been a revelation. We're very proud of the work."
Since I am a bit critical (cue for laughter), I try to make a point of avoiding concerts and cultural events that don't sound like my cup of tea, particularly if writing about them later. For instance, this week's program at the San Francisco Symphony was definitely on the cusp. While not a fan of music director Michael Tilson Thomas' way with Beethoven and Mozart, there were also two modernist pieces on the program at which MTT and the orchestra tend to be great. The tipping point this evening was the prospect of listening to Jeremy Denk playing a Mozart piano concerto, because the last time that happened six years ago at a Summer in the City pops concert, I unexpectedly burst into tears (click here).
The concert started with Beethoven's Leonore Overture #3 where Tilson Thomas overemphasized the contrasts in the music at the expense of its essential fabric, one of his signature faults conducting early 19th century music.
This was followed by a huge concerto for orchestra called Eating Greens by Steve Mackey. The composer sounds like he was the Mason Bates of 1994 when the piece was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing as it does with recorded sound, samples, and a precisely nebulous program with a driving beat. Tilson Thomas recorded it with The New World Symphony, and is obviously a fan, but his introduction to the piece was reductive and gave away the ending. This was too bad because the music has aged well, and the large orchestra sounded great in it, particularly the new timpani player who was dancing about. This was the first piece I've heard by Mackey and made me want to hear more of his music over the last couple of decades. He even has a blog.
Speaking of blogs, the pianist Jeremy Denk started one about the same time Civic Center began, except he graduated to writing for The New Yorker and recently received a MacArthur "genius grant" Fellowship. (I cannot be the only person in the world who reads the annual list and thinks, "Screw these people! Why aren't they giving me one?") Over the years at the SF Symphony, I've heard Denk play Mozart's 23rd with the great young Mozartian James Gaffigan conducting, Cowell's Piano Concerto at the American Mavericks festival where he seemed to be out of his musical element, and Liszt's showy First where he was unexpectedly poetic.
I love Mozart's piano concertos beyond reason, but the final one (#25) has always struck me as a bit overscored and uninteresting compared to the others. Not after this performance. Denk made sure you heard the birth of Romanticism in this music, and by the end the concerto sounded brand new, which is the ultimate compliment. There was another piece on the program, Copland's 1920s stab at modernism called the Symphonic Ode, but we left, wanting to keep the glow of Mozart in our brains. There are two more performances on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. According to the Symphony's hotline, $20 rush tickets are available to anyone at the box office starting at noon tomorrow for Saturday evening. Highly recommended if you are in the mood.
The San Francisco Planning and Research Association (SPUR) urban planning think tank group has a checkered history, acting as the intellectual arm for M. Justin Herman, San Francisco's first Redevelopment Agency Director in the 1950s. Herman came from the federal government and knew how to successfully apply for the millions of dollars that the U.S. was spending on "urban renewal" after World War Two. The Redevelopment Agency, with SPUR as its justifier, was responsible for destroying thousands of Victorian homes in the Western Addition and evicting their black residents to nightmarish high-rise projects. Thousands of poor people who lived in single hotel rooms South of Market were also evicted for the Yerba Buena Center development which took about thirty years to build while a huge empty lot stood for decades in rebuke.
Herman also created the Diamond Heights development and the Golden Gateway/Embarcadero Center area which did not injure quite as many people. To be fair, most of this information can be found on SPUR's website, and they have acknowledged that "mistakes were made" during some of these historical redevelopment projects. Now they have new, improved projects in mind such as the densely built apartment and condo complexes that are currently rising everywhere in San Francisco along transport lines.
SPUR moved into new offices on Mission Street near Yerba Buena Center in 2009. On the day after every municipal election, in their fourth floor conference room, they have been hosting a voting trends lecture for devoted wonks by local political consultants David Latterman and Alex Clemens.
I arrived late for the beginning of Latterman's remarkably ugly PowerPoint presentation with a University of San Francisco logo on the top right. Rather like the SF Chronicle and Ed Lee and SPUR itself, who all eagerly supported Propositions B and C on Tuesday, Latterman was quick to dismiss the issue and the moment of citizen pushback towards San Francisco's de facto rulers. "This was not about growth and development, Lennar won the last election by the same margins as this lost." Most of the audience thought his "YAWN" bullet points were amusing rather than offensive. I wasn't one of them.
Latterman seemed more interested in talking about the elections next year, and how none of the incumbent supervisors needed to worry about any challengers, nude or not. It was another reminder that we don't have a city government, we have a "City Family." The majority of our current San Francisco politicians are appointed into incumbency by their predecessors to ensure the "correct" results in an election, and the con just goes on.
The SF Conservatory's Chamber Music Masters series involving veteran guest musicians was given a new wrinkle this year, with part of the program devoted to recent alumni performing a chamber piece at their alma mater. Last Wednesday, it was the newly formed Prometheus Quartet (they might want to Google that name to check out their similarly named competition) playing Henry Cowell's String Quartet #4, United.
Cowell wrote in his original program notes, "The Quartet should not only be easy to understand without following any known pathways, but it should be understood equally well by Americans, Europeans, Orientals...or by anybody from a coal miner to a bank president." These utopian words were written while Cowell was in the Redwood City Jail prior to going to San Quentin on a morals charge in 1936. The five-movement piece fully justified Cowell's hopes for it and the music was so remarkable that it eclipsed the rest of the program. I cannot imagine a better, more exact or more committed performance than was given by (l-r above) Joseph Maile and Eric Chin on violins, Jeremiah Shaw on cello, and Pei-Ling Lin on viola.
The Conservatory brought back the 87-year-old pianist Menahem Pressler (above right) for a week of master classes and a concert with faculty and students. With violinist Ian Swensen, the two played the late Beethoven Violin Sonata #10, but it was a dud, and not just because they were following the Cowell quartet. Having heard Swensen play brilliantly before, it was weird seeing him turn his butt to the audience for most of the performance so he could make eye contact with Pressler on the piano behind him. This had the odd effect of making the piece sound like a wan piano sonata with incidental violin accompaniment.
Perfect balance was restored in the Schumann Piano Quintet after intermission where Pressler expressively guided the ensemble of three students and one faculty member in a vibrant, lively performance. Performers above were (l-r above) Douglas Ku Won Kwon and Joshua Peters on violin, Menahem Pressler on piano, Natalie Raney on cello, and Jodi Levitz on viola.
