You were, in fact, wondering whether Curbed SF would slap up some "best of 2007" linkage, weren't you? Enter the 2007 Curbed SF Awards. From now until the moment we break for the new year— which is in a couple of hours, thankfully— we'll be honoring the best, worst, and most random of San Francisco neighborhood, real estate, and architectural developments.
Historically speaking, San Francisco is regarded as a city of ill architectural repute. (One acronym explains it all: MOMA.) 2007 gave us hope— at the very least, we've got more buildings to kvetch about. And so . . .
1) "Tell it Like It Is" Award: Props to Morphosis/ Thom Mayne's San Francisco Federal Building— or, moreover, Mayne himself: when rumors began to circulate that his building might not earn LEED accreditation due to its sup-par number of "tacked on" green features, Mayne delivered a wry takedown of the point system: "The point system doesn't scale. A bike rack and air conditioning get you the same point." Ballsy— or at least out of the ordinary. Bonus points awarded for the Brad "celebutect" Pitt-narrated PBS spot on the project.
2) Most Anticipated Building-in-Progress: A Pavlovian fervor surrounds Renzo Piano's California Academy of Sciences, which has left the entire city— and the green community, of course— foaming at the mouth in anticipation of its living roof, living rain forest, and world-class aquarium, to say the least.
3) Biggest Splash: Pelli Clark Pelli's design for the impending Transbay Terminal Towers has been quite the subject of discussion following its win of the hotly-anticipated commission. Here's one to watch: we can only imagine the hoopla to come!
4) Sleeper Agent: It seems like Daniel Liebeskind's Contemporary Jewish Museum has dropped off the radar a bit. Granted, the opening date has been pushed back a few times, but we're looking forward to more buzz in 2008.
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