The board of directors for the American Institute of Architects voted this week on the top 25 Architectural Gems of the City. Among the newer constructed buildings on the list are the Federal Building and the de Young Museum. The Federal Building with its green architecture has gone up with some controversy. I happen to like the design of the sleek exterior but some do not. It’s rumored that more tweaks need to be done to make the experience of working inside this green building more comfortable. The glare from the windows makes it difficult to read computer screens and the noise from the street pentrates the open air windows. All in all however, this is a great building on the forefront of green technology. What are a few tweaks, anyway?
The de Young Museum is also a sleek building, quite a departure from the traditional architecture in San Francisco. It’s very appealing to those with modern tastes. Personally, I am quite excited to see the diversity of architecture in the city and enjoy this building.
Here is the list of the top 25!
Religious
Grace Cathedral, 1051 Taylor St., 1928, Lewis Hobart
St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1111 Gough St., 1971, Pietro Belluschi, Pier Luigi Nervi and McSweeney, Ryan & Lee
Temple Emanu-el, 2 Lake St., 1926, Arthur Page Brown
Swedenborgian Church, 2107 Lyon St., 1894, Arthur Page Brown
First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin St., 1888, George Percy/1970, Callister Payne & Rosse
Residential
Plaza Apartments, Sixth and Howard streets, 2006, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Paulett Taggart Architects
Curran House, 145 Taylor St., 2005, David Baker + Partners, Architects
3200 block of Pacific Avenue, houses from 1900 to 1913 designed by architects including Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, Willis Polk and William Knowles
Russell House, 3778 Washington St., 1952, Erich Mendelsohn
Haas-Lilienthal House, 2007 Franklin St., 1886, Peter R. Schmidt
Commercial
San Francisco Federal Building, 90 Seventh St., 2007, Morphosis/SmithGroup
1 Bush St. (former Crown-Zellerbach Building), 1959, Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Hertzka & Knowles
Hallidie Building, 130 Sutter St., 1917, Willis Polk
Transamerica Pyramid, 600 Montgomery St., 1972, William Pereira
JPMorgan Chase Building, 560 Mission St., 2002, Cesar Pelli
Historic
Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery St., 1909, Trowbridge and Livingston
Circle Gallery, 140 Maiden Lane, 1948, Frank Lloyd Wright
Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon St., 1915, Bernard Maybeck
War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, Civic Center, 1932, Arthur Brown Jr. and G. Albert Lansburgh
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, 1878 (restoration architects, 2003: Architectural Resources Group)
Civic
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, 2005, Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan Architects
City Hall, Civic Center, 1915, Bakewell & Brown
Yerba Buena Gardens: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 1994, Fumihiko Maki; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 1994, James Stewart Polshek; Metreon, 1999, SMWM, Gary Handel + Associates
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., 1995, Mario Botta, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum
Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, 1916, George Applegarth
Source: American Institute of Architects
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