From the Curbed inbox:
I was riding the N Judah the other day and noticed a strange little pink windowless building between 32nd and 33rd Aves. What's the story there?What, you wouldn't want to live in a bubblegum pink house with no windows or doors? Yeah, we wouldn't either. But thankfully no one has to - that building at 2708 Judah is a MUNI substation.
The building itself was actually built as a commercial building in 1948. For many years it housed the General Radio Service Co. In 1973, MUNI went under a modernization effort that required a bunch of new transformer substations that produced higher voltage for the new rail cars. At the time, 2708 Judah was a one-story office building surrounded by multi-family buildings. MUNI (as the PUC) renovated the building to be soundproof solid masonry and concrete in an "architectural character compatible to the neighborhood," with "landscaping and an off-street parking space," basically blending it into the street. Bizarrely enough, the design had to be approved by the Art Commission - maybe they're the ones who chose the pink paint?
· Minutes of the San Francisco City Planning Commission regular meeting, March 7, 1974 [Internet Archive]
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