ABSTRACT
In San Francisco, the movement toward self-realization has reached such heights of indulgence that it is leveling the creation of inspiring urban design. Since the early 1980s, in a city that celebrates individualism, the collective discipline of architecture has taken a pounding. Here on the western shores of the North American continent, the American dream has taken a turn into activism bred on affluence and adversity. San Francisco’s public planning process is lousy with naysayers. At the initial whiff of a new project, opponents spring up like oxalis, a prolific weed with yellow flowers that carpets the ground here after the first winter rains. These not-so-laidback Californians, who stymie architectural innovation in this once innovative city, defend a medley of values premised on history, esthetics, cultural politics and, most of all, an impossible-to-generalize set of self-interests. They fight to keep precious vistas and exclude new buildings – new building that add cars to the streets, new buildings that look different, any structure of monolithic stature, steely materials, odd angles. Strange that in a place distinguished by progressive politics and an artistic spirit, the reactionaries stand out when it comes to urban design.
