Welcome to Year in Curbed, wherein we close out 2014 by asking local design, real estate, and media luminaries to reflect on the highlights and lowlights of a year's worth of development in San Francisco. The answers are in no particular order; all responses have been cut and pasted unabridged, below.
Q: What building trends do you want to see crushed in 2015?
Allison Arieff, editorial director at SPUR: Twee ad campaigns (I'm talking to you, NEMA) even though I really love the satires that result. Generic ground floors—can we figure out a way to keep the Flaxes of the world in business and not build another Starbucks/drugstore/bank? The encroaching McMansion-ization of single-family homes in Noe/Mission/Castro/Glen Park.
Kevin Ho, broker associate at Vanguard Properties: LED fireplaces. Why are we turning our houses into Quickly/boba tea bars with 'optional' heat to accompany the simulated fireplace show?
John King, urban design critic at the San Francisco Chronicle: The black building thing? It's over, stylistas!
Anne Fougeron, principal at Fougeron Architecture: All those cylindrical high-rises with blue glass and white trim. Can't think of a single decent example anywhere in the world.
Brock Keeling, culture editor at 7x7 magazine: Boring, staid modern architecture aimed at pacifying the ostensibly creative progressive sect members (who, at heart, hate anything new or different).
Denise Cherry, principal at Studio O+A (and Curbed Young Gun): That teal green glass that transforms buildings into monstrosities.
Marc L'Italien, principal at EHDD: Slats, curtain walls, facades that are treated similarly regardless of their orientation, and dark chocolate-colored buildings.
Cliff Kuang, articles editor at WIRED: Tech campuses in the valley.
· Year in Curbed Archives [Curbed SF]
Loading comments...