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  #341  
Old Posted Jun 28, 2020, 7:43 AM
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Pedestrian Pedestrian is offline
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^^Yeah, but even before Infinity.
     
     
  #342  
Old Posted Jul 14, 2020, 1:21 AM
timbad timbad is offline
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John King's take

Quote:
Twisty white Mira tower is dazzling on the skyline, but less so on the ground
John King July 12, 2020
Updated: July 12, 2020 4 a.m.


Even with today’s grim need for social isolation, San Francisco’s most eye-catching residential tower wants to pull you close.

From the Bay Bridge or the Embarcadero, the 39-story Mira at the corner of Folsom and Spear streets is a flowing stack of tightly wound white metal bays, frozen in motion. Fragmentary glimpses from nearby blocks defy expectations, whipsawed slivers amid the stodgy norm.

...

Though Mira has been in the works since 2014, the architectural show still feels fresh as the first residents begin to unpack. But this 392-unit residential complex was also conceived as a celebration of triumphant urbanism — a far cry from the mood of this troubled summer.

...

The basics of Mira haven’t changed: The compact tower is flanked by four- and eight-story wings that extend west to Main Street. In the middle of the three sections there’s a private courtyard for tenants.

Retail spaces line Spear and Folsom streets. On the north side will be a reconstituted Clementina Street, mostly for pedestrians, with ground-floor condos and an ample, landscaped landscape.

The architect is Jeanne Gang, who rose to prominence a decade ago for her 82-story Aqua, a statuesque slab in Chicago that was the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. Since her firm Studio Gang has made its mark both on skylines — an even taller Chicago high-rise is nearing completion — and in socially rooted projects such as libraries and community centers. In the Bay Area, the firm’s upcoming projects include an expansion at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and a San Mateo County government office building in downtown Redwood City.

Gang sees a wider role for Mira as well.

While the market rate units start at $1.2 million and climb much higher, a heartening 40% of the condominiums are reserved for buyers who make between 80% and 120% of the median income in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties. This translates to $79,000 to $118,000 for a couple.

The unusually high percentage came in exchange for the city allowing the tower to be increased in height from 300 to 400 feet. This upset some neighbors who already had homes in the clouds, but it’s good social policy.

...

A flat-topped corkscrew, so to speak.

As gimmicky as this sounds, what makes it work is Gang’s focus on details. Though she spent her early years at Rem Koolhaas’ often-provocative Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, her father was a civil engineer and she has described her younger self as “hard-core about math and science.” That underlying interest in structural substance, materiality and craft, sets Studio Gang apart from firms where actual buildings seem less important than their hyper-charged renderings.

That’s part of the reason for using metal panels rather than masonry for the skin, a system worked out in part with the facade fabricator, Permasteelisa. They’re lightweight, which reduces overall stress on the jagged concrete frame, while folded in a way that minimizes the number of seams where rainwater would run down to stain the facade.

This sharp but sleek approach also benefits the developer, Tishman Speyer. Those angled bays mean that every unit has at least one corner window — all the better to nab bay views that might lure potential buyers.

The benefit for the rest of us is the visual pop on the skyline — a voyeuristic kick made more satisfying by the thought that went into it.

The repeated sequence of “migratory bays,” for instance, adds a discipline beyond the random pop-outs or voids of other towers in the works here and elsewhere. You can look for the 10-story segments, unpack the pattern in your mind, or simply enjoy the odd shifts of glinting metal and folded shadows.

...

As for the wings, one is clad in red metal while the other wears sandy porcelain tiles. City planners pushed Gang to mix things up visually, and they were right, but the choppy forms down low feel like afterthoughts.

Cities like San Francisco are hardy — blows that look fatal in one era are all but forgotten in the next. The Embarcadero Freeway that once crossed a portion of Mira’s site was torn down after being damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Gang’s tower joins nearly a dozen nearby that have risen in the decade since the 2007-09 recession.

...
     
     
  #343  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2020, 12:06 AM
timbad timbad is offline
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we've got trees on the Folsom St side



     
     
  #344  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2020, 6:48 AM
timbad timbad is offline
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Folsom St sidewalk, which is now open, though fenced down to a lane down the middle while work continues



the Main St side has gotten additional plantings and has been more opened up now







     
     
  #345  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2020, 7:34 AM
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Ooh I like this. This is cool
     
     
  #346  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2020, 8:47 AM
timbad timbad is offline
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the sidewalk on the west side is open





work continues on the Folsom St side



and the east side is looking done

     
     
  #347  
Old Posted Sep 20, 2020, 11:12 PM
timbad timbad is offline
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more of the fencing is down, but otherwise I didn't see much difference since the last time I was by



     
     
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