The multidecade plan to remake Parkmerced has been in the spotlight a bit recently — what better time to look at the man behind the curtain, SOM architect Craig Hartman? The Wall Street Journal has a profile of the guy who was also the mind behind Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light and SFO's International Terminal. He's not as well-known as "so-called starchitects," says the article, though perhaps only for the reason that he's hidden deep within the SOM megabrand. Still, Hartman has his fingerprints all over a number of Bay Area projects, and has done so well with them that he was the youngest person ever to receive the lifetime achievement Maybeck Award in 2001, at the age of 51 or so. That was presumably before he and SOM even started on ambitious neighborhood-building plans at Parkmerced and Treasure Island. There's still more to come, including the airy, glassy, 27-story tower at 350 Mission.
· Wielding Light as a Tool to Shape the Cityscape [WSJ]
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