Shalom

Following my previous post describing what I see as a good looking and correctly scaled neighborhood in Europe (good looking where ever it might be), I now come to an American mid-term abortion:



In the context of the traditional row houses on this San Franciscan street, this recently commissioned Jewish synagogue is a fucking eyesore.


Beautiful blank walls at the street level, eh? This is the sort of building, like my own building where I work at SMUD, that could hang tapestries of Marx, Lenin, Kim-Jung Il, Pol-Pot, Pinochet, or Chairman Mao on its blank exterior and it would liven up the community:



Back to the synagogue. Notice also that there are seven newly planted trees in front of the neighborhood half-pipe. Vegetative architectural embellishments that don't continue down the street. The formal tree lined street extends only as far as the first row house. I would think that the people living across the street, in their own row houses, can't wait until those trees are tall enough to masquerade this "best new building in San Francisco."

The thing is, this building's architects received accolade after accolade from other architects, all hoping that someday they, too, will be able to build their own monolithic incorrectly-scaled testaments. That they, too, would be able to garner praise from their peers for being "forward looking," and "adventurous."

Regardless of what you might think of this building...you might find it appealing, yes. You might find it bold and adventurous, yes. That really isn't my point. You ought to agree with me that this building does not celebrate the sidewalk, the public realm. It doesn't celebrate the two hundred year architectural history of the immediate surroundings. All it celebrates is itself.

Shalom.