THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD Moscone Center/Howard Street Project, San Francisco, CA 1991
Located two blocks south of Market Street, the site is the space between two Convention Centers – six lanes of traffic, with two sets of three lane bus and taxi drop-off areas. To unify the site both visually and conceptually the entire block of Howard Street is addressed to create a sense of gateway, of arrival and welcome; effecting the x, y and z coordinates as well as the 4th dimension: the length, breadth, verticality and time of day. Four Word Bridges span from one sidewalk to the other defining three outdoor ‘street’ volumes, during the day the dominant words are in English as three story sculptures, at night neon floats in Chinese in one direction and Spanish in the other. Five Continent/Earth Poles give verticality while responding to existing flag poles and enhancing the central volume between the two Convention Centers. Enlarged Street Stripping changes the proportion of the street at the pedestrian/vehicular level to a more human scale while at the same time causes the entire blacktop to graphically pop-up between intersections as viewed from the surrounding hotel and office skyscrapers. Hundreds of multi-lingual Text Phases embedded in the sidewalks in 3” high letters reflects facts about the city interspersed with interior/private thoughts which speak directly to the individual pedestrian at the most intimate level: one on one. Forty foot high Roman Cypress Trees give verticality, softness and regality the entire length of the block.
MARTINEZ PETROPOULOS WHITE
THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD Moscone Center/Howard Street Project, San Francisco, CA 1991
Located two blocks south of Market Street, the site is the space between two Convention Centers – six lanes of traffic, with two sets of three lane bus and taxi drop-off areas. To unify the site both visually and conceptually the entire block of Howard Street is addressed to create a sense of gateway, of arrival and welcome; effecting the x, y and z coordinates as well as the 4th dimension: the length, breadth, verticality and time of day. Four Word Bridges span from one sidewalk to the other defining three outdoor ‘street’ volumes, during the day the dominant words are in English as three story sculptures, at night neon floats in Chinese in one direction and Spanish in the other. Five Continent/Earth Poles give verticality while responding to existing flag poles and enhancing the central volume between the two Convention Centers. Enlarged Street Stripping changes the proportion of the street at the pedestrian/vehicular level to a more human scale while at the same time causes the entire blacktop to graphically pop-up between intersections as viewed from the surrounding hotel and office skyscrapers. Hundreds of multi-lingual Text Phases embedded in the sidewalks in 3” high letters reflects facts about the city interspersed with interior/private thoughts which speak directly to the individual pedestrian at the most intimate level: one on one. Forty foot high Roman Cypress Trees give verticality, softness and regality the entire length of the block.
MARTINEZ PETROPOULOS WHITE