Progress report: We've been watching this construction site since back in December, when a patch of destructoporn along Kearny first prompted our imaginations. Soon enough, we learned that the rapidly-rising 1 Kearny Street is the brainchild of architect Charles F. Bloszies, who conjured a mixed use, terra cotta-clad structure that, when complete, will serve as a "seismic bookend" to its neighbor, a French Empire-style earthquake survivor built in 1902 (A Charles Moore-designed annex, circa 1960's, flanks the other side.) The unfailingly bombastic modest Bloszies has characterized his addition as "one of a very few new architectural expressions in an architecturally conservative downtown historic district."
Curbed customer reviews have been mixed thus far: "This some weird love child of a mansard roof building with a Renzo Piano building," said one commenter during an earlier kvetch sesh on the project. Another chimed in: "The new additions to the left and right of the 1902 building are so fugly I thought that's what was being replaced! Ugly ugly ugly..." On a more uplifting note: "You know what, its better than the Ritz-Carlton add-on thing nearby." The optimism, it abounds.
· Charles F. Bloszies, AIA [website]
· Construction Watch: 1 Kearny Revealed [Curbed SF]
· Rumblings & Bumblings: Can We Get a Witness at 701 Market Street? [Curbed SF]
· Construction Watch: 1 Kearny Street [Curbed SF]