The San Francisco Civic Center
The San Francisco Civic Center

Author: James Haas

Publisher: University of Nevada Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 194890814X

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San Francisco is known and loved around the world for its iconic man-made structures, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Transamerica Pyramid. Yet its Civic Center, with the grandest collection of monumental municipal buildings in the United States, is often overlooked, drawing less global and local interest, despite its being an urban planning marvel featuring thirteen government office and cultural buildings. In The San Francisco Civic Center, James Haas tells the complete story of San Francisco’s Civic Center and how it became one of the most complete developments envisioned by any American city. Originally planned and designed by John Galen Howard in 1912, the San Francisco Civic Center is considered in both design and materials one of the finest achievements of the American reformist City Beautiful movement, an urban design movement that began more than a century ago. Haas meticulously unravels the Civic Center’s story of perseverance and dysfunction, providing an understanding and appreciation of this local and national treasure. He discusses why the Civic Center was built, how it became central to the urban planning initiatives of San Francisco in the early twentieth century, and how the site held onto its founders’ vision despite heated public debates about its function and achievement. He also delves into the vision for the future and related national trends in city planning and the architectural and art movements that influenced those trends. Riddled with inspiration and leadership as well as controversy, The San Francisco Civic Center, much like the complex itself, is a stunning manifestation of the confident spirit of one of America’s most dynamic and creative cities.

Hella Town
Hella Town

Author: Mitchell Schwarzer

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0520391535

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Hella Town reveals the profound impact of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland’s built environment. Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its larger and more glamorous twin, Oakland has a fascinating history of its own. From serving as a major transportation hub to forging a dynamic manufacturing sector, by the mid-twentieth century Oakland had become the urban center of the East Bay. Hella Town focuses on how political deals, economic schemes, and technological innovations fueled this emergence but also seeded the city’s postwar struggles. Toward the turn of the millennium, as immigration from Latin America and East Asia increased, Oakland became one of the most diverse cities in the country. The city still grapples with the consequences of uneven class- and race-based development-amid-disruption. How do past decisions about where to locate highways or public transit, urban renewal districts or civic venues, parks or shopping centers, influence how Oaklanders live today? A history of Oakland’s buildings and landscapes, its booms and its busts, provides insight into its current conditions: an influx of new residents and businesses, skyrocketing housing costs, and a lingering chasm between the haves and have-nots.

Drawing Shortcuts
Drawing Shortcuts

Author: Jim Leggitt

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-06-12

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 047063913X

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The updated edition of a contemporary approach to merging traditional hand drawing methods with 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional digital visualization tools. Jim Leggitt?s Drawing Shortcuts shows how communicating with hand drawings combined with digital technology can be ingeniously simple, and this new edition makes an already popular technique even better. Completely expanded with new chapters and a wealth of supporting images, this Second Edition presents practical techniques for improving drawing efficiency and effectiveness by combining traditional hand drawing methods with the latest digital technology, including 3-D modeling with SketchUp. This book?s step-by-step approach will sharpen and streamline your techniques whether you draw for pleasure, school or your design profession. Easy-to-follow instructions cover every aspect from the basics of drawing?such as composition, color, shading, hatching, and perspective?up to the most current technologies Incorporates Google SketchUp, Google Earth, computer generated renderings, digital scanners and printers Features new visuals from accomplished drawing experts Special new ?Gallery? section highlights the creative process with step-by-step examples of drawings Complete coverage of the ?Overlay and Trace Method,? ?Simple Composite Method,? ?Advanced Composite Method,? and ?Digital Hybrid Drawings? New matrices show alternative drawing techniques for specific visual effects such as Linework and Shading, Selecting the Right Views, Perspectives and Paraline Drawings, Drawing Detail, Camera Lenses, and Drawing Tools Generously enriched with detailed process drawings, examples, and more than 500 full-color images, Drawing Shortcuts, Second Edition will have you creating top-quality drawings faster and more effectively.