A snip from the Planning Department's epic and interactive Google Map of SOMA plus other buildings from the survey, L to R: 7 Heron Street; 1098 Harrison Street; Flower Market Complex; 1107 Harrison Street; 117 Sixth Street. Credit: SF Planning Department The inventory of San Francisco's built environment marches on. Last week, the Planning Department released its monumental survey of historic SOMA during the massive baseball frenzy. Which they probably hadn't planned for. Planning began its monumental Historic Resource Survey in 2007, evaluating buildings that (in most cases) are over forty-five years old. We're going to assume that means buildings that were forty-five years old in 2007. Significance and integrity are the keywords. Significance dealing with who lived there or what happened plus it's place in architectural history. Is it a cultural resource? Then the building's integrity has to do with what's left of its physical characteristics. See the FAQs for just the right degree of almost-overwhelming detail.
What's really awesome is the interactive Google map they've assembled (above): click on a building and you get a balloon with varying amounts of information, from a brief caption like:
Assessment of the California Flower Market complex cannot be accurately completed without an appropriate culturally oriented context statement that addresses the roles of Chinese, Italian and Japanese merchants in the regionplus a .PDF on the property with details like ownership, condition and the history of the building along with it's characteristics. So we learn that the massive San Francisco Galvanizing Works was started in 1912 but got its Art Deco facade in 1929Architectural details include an incised sign that reads "San Francisco Galvanizing Works," concrete beltcourses, a stepped recessed bay, galvanized metal rivets, and a parapet.making the building supremely up-to-date when that proto-Fascist facade was added. Altogether, a fascinating look at what was once the working-class underbelly of San Francisco.
· SOMA Historic Preservation Survey[SF Planning]
· Historic Preservation Survey FAQs[SF Planning]
· SOMA Survey Map [SF Planning]
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