Unearthing the 'Secret City' - Page 2

S.F’s annual Architecture + the City festival fills September with tours, films, exhibitions
By Dan Smith
Fridays on the Homefront
Fridays on the Homefront
Sections showing two houses on the festival home tour: the Cut Out House (top) by Anne Fougeron Architects; the Hidden House (above) by Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects (OPA). Photos courtesy respective firms.
Fridays on the Homefront
Another interesting film to be presented by the festival is ‘Lost Landscapes of San Francisco,’ built from rare footage of the city.

One of the festival's most unusual features, says Udo-O'Malley, offers guests a "very informal" chance to "tap into that creative part" of their personalities. Dubbed Sketchy Tuesdays, it invites participants to gather on a series of San Francisco rooftops and join a group of architects, designers, and artists in sketching cityscapes.

The spokeswoman said Sketchy Tuesdays will expose said participants to "areas that you might not notice, hidden in plain sight." She said it stemmed from a casual pastime of the designers at Arterra Landscape Architects.

"It just became popular, and somehow got folded into the festival," she explained. "There's been some really nice work that comes out of that."

Another noteworthy festival event is the September 29 tour of the new San Francisco Art Institute campus at Fort Mason Center. The tour will be led by two of the people who directed restoration of a 67,000 square-foot pier 'shed' at the center, architect Ryan Jang and Heather Hickman Holland of SFAI.

"That one's going to be rather interesting," said Udo-O'Malley of the restoration, which is just wrapping up this summer. "Looks like that's quite a project."

For tickets or more information about the 14th Annual Architecture + the City festival and events schedule, visit www.archandcity.org.

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