San Francisco Hotel Project6

Dawn Over Taylor Street

^{APARTMENT BUILDING – 142 TAYLOR ST.}

1908. Architect: E.A. Bozzio. 4 stories, brick & galvanized iron facade, base stripped & stuccoed.

I like to go out in the early, early morning to take pictures. I love the light and the quiet. The building that is the central focus of this picture is an uncommon style of architecture in the Tenderloin, known as Italianate Rococo. It also happens to be one of my favorite buildings and I had photographed it numerous times, but was never satisfied with the results.

One morning, on my way home from a pre-dawn shoot, there was a light, drizzling rainfall. I was getting chilled, so I was more focused on getting home and getting warm than on my surroundings. I had walked a good hundred feet or more past this building when my subconscious finally managed to get my attention. It had recognized, through my peripheral vision, that the time to get the photograph I wanted was that very moment. I turned and walked back to find the right vantage point, took several shots, and continued home wetter but happier.

Stairway to Sunnyside

^{HOTEL SUNNYSIDE – 135 6TH ST.}

Photographing the interiors of residential hotels is much more challenging than photographing their exteriors. The managers of these old hotels are strongly, sometimes violently, opposed to any public exposure of themselves or their buildings. This forbidding stairway leads to the rooms in the Sunnyside Hotel, a place where ghosts linger in dark corners and on the landings.

McAllister & Market

^{INTERSECTION - McALLISTER, MARKET & JONES STREETS}

Before it was converted to a tourist hotel, the Renoir was a combination residential/tourist hotel named The Shaw, complete with street-level lounge and barbershop. On the right, glowing red in the sunset, is the McAllister Tower.

Rainy Day Sunset

^{CRISTOBAL APARTMENTS - 750 O'FARRELL ST.}

1913. Architect: August Nordin. 4 stories, painted brick facade, galvanized iron balcony.

The Cristobal's extravagant ornamentation was a hallmark of its designer, the Swedish-born San Francisco architect, August Nordin (1869 — 1936). The row of gargoyles, two of which can be seen on either side of the leftmost window, the dynamic cast-iron balcony supports and repetitive floral patterns combine to create a jewel box effect that is as delightful as it is unusual.

According to the January 1936 issue of Architect and Engineer, August Nordin designed over 300 structures, including single family residences, flats, apartment houses, the Altamont Hotel on 16th St. (1912), the Swedish-American Hall (1907) and the building that is the home of the famed Buena Vista Cafe (1911).

Late Afternoon Gibbous Moon

^{HOTEL HARTLAND & GEARY ARMS APARTMENTS - 909 & 925 GEARY ST.}

Hotel Hartland. 1913. Architects: Rousseau & Rousseau. 6 stories, brick & galvanized iron facade, milk glass base, entry remodeled.
Geary Arms Apts. 1913. Architects: A.F. & O.M. Rousseau. 5 stories, brick & galvanized iron facade, new door.

A waxing moon is visible just above the cornice of the Hartland in this unusual pairing of buildings, designed by the same architectural firm and completed in the same year.

Early Morning - Market Street

^{7th & MARKET STREETS}

The Grant Building and the Odd Fellows Hall are seen in this late autumn view of 7th and Market, taken around seven o'clock in the morning.

Furniture & Carpets #2

^{1017 – 1021 MARKET STREET}

I remember wishing I could levitate upward and in through the open window above me when I took this photograph of the "Furniture & Carpets" building. As often as I have photographed this building's exterior, I have never been able to gain access to the inside. The little, round holes in the struts that are the sides of the window frames are light sockets, which unfortunately have not had light bulbs in them for many years. Ever since the Eastern Outfitting Company went out of business, the building has been occupied by sweatshops.

Dawn - Rain's End

^{(VANTAGE POINT: SHREE GANESHAI HOTEL – 68 6TH ST.)}

One of the benefits of being an insomniac is that I get to see a lot of beautiful sunrises. I captured this one while seated at my computer one spring morning after a night of heavy rain. On the far left is a corner of the Hillsdale Hotel. The stacks are part of a PG&E steam plant on Jessie Alley.

SoMa Sunset

^{(VANTAGE POINT: SHREE GANESHAI HOTEL – 68 6TH ST.)}

Taken within minutes of the other two pictures, this image shows the western-most section of what is essentially a panoramic sweep that begins towards the east with Island Out of Time, My Back Yard being in the middle and looking north by northwest. The sunset captured in these three photos was one of the more remarkable day-to-night transitions that I saw from the rooftop of my hotel.

Dusk - The Lafayette

^{LAFAYETTE DINER - 250 HYDE ST.}

When the Lafayette Coffee Shop had its neon sign repaired I, of course, had to re-photograph it. If you compare this photograph to Lafayette at Night, you will notice that the original hand-lettered signs at the bottom of the windows have been painted over with stenciled lettering. Alas, sic transit gloria mundi!

Taylor & Eddy

^{HOTEL WINDSOR, ALEXANDER RESIDENCE, HOTEL RITZ - 238, 230 & 216 EDDY ST.}

Hotel Windsor. 1909. Architect: Charles R. Wilson. 6 stories, painted brick, base totally altered.
Alexander Residence (formerly Olympic Hotel). 1928. Architects: Clausen & Amandes. 13 stories, stucco facade, base & entry altered, new marquee.
Hotel Ritz. 1910. Architect: Ralph Warner Hart. 5 stories, brick facade, new marquee, base & entry altered.

All three of these hotels have been rehabilitated and converted to supportive housing. Most recent was the Alexander Residence, by the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Sunset - The Empress

^{EMPRESS HOTEL – 144 EDDY ST.}

(formerly Langham Hotel) 1907. Designer unknown. 6 stories, brick & galvanized iron facade, restored & remodeled entrance & lobby.

Now that it has been restored, the Empress Hotel is one of the most beautiful old residential hotels in San Francisco; a building that exemplifies the value of preserving the architectural integrity of a neighborhood.

Late Winter - The Hobart Building

^{HOBART BUILDING - 582-592 MARKET ST. (1914)}

I had taken a walk down Market St. to my favorite tobacco shop to buy a handful of cigars, and on my way back home I stopped at a sidewalk cafe to have a double cappuccino. A glorious morning on the first day of March seemed like a good time to give myself some treats. While seated at one of the sidewalk tables, I was admiring the surrounding architecture and noticed what was happening with the shadows that played across the facade of the Hobart Building. It was Pythagorean poetry.

The 500 block on Market Street contains two structures by Willis Polk, 564 Market and the Hobart Building at 582 Market, which is thought to be his favorite commercial building. Polk was the most active architect during the reconstruction of the city after the earthquake & fire, designing 106 buildings between 1906 and 1914.

Furniture & Carpets

^{1017 – 1021 MARKET STREET}

The “Furniture & Carpets” building has for a long time been one of my favorite commercial buildings in San Francisco. It is located on Market Street, close to where it intersects with 6th Street, Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street. The upper stories of the building in the foreground are the San Cristina residential hotel; an excellent Persian restaurant occupies the street level. It is also the building where Christian Slater interviewed Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. It is shaped like a long, narrow triangle in order to fit the acute angle of Market Street intersecting Golden Gate Avenue. What appears to be a turret-like structure is actually just the narrow tip of the triangle.

Storm Season

^{FLOOD BUILDING & ALBERT S. SAMUELS CLOCK - 870 & 856 MARKET ST.}

James C. Flood (1826-1889), one of the Silver Kings of the 1870s, was the financial mind behind the Consolidated Virginia mine, which yielded the largest mineral strike in U.S. history. The grandiosity of the building that bears his name reflects his tremendous wealth. Truly a monumental edifice, its facing is entirely of hand carved stone and the elaborate ornamentation looks like an architect's holiday. The four-faced clock, now a historical landmark insured by Lloyd's of London, was built by jeweler Albert S. Samuels in 1915.

Before the Flood Building, there was the Baldwin Hotel; photographed during the fire that destroyed it in 1897. The thick, black smoke on the left is from S.F. Fire Department pumping engines!

Henry

^{HOTEL HENRY – 106 6TH ST.}

The sign for the Henry Hotel hearkens back to a time when 6th Street was a thriving, though transient, part of San Francisco's downtown entertainment scene.

Joy of Life

^{CRYSTAL HOTEL – 130 EDDY ST.}

(formerly The Gotham Lodgings, later Belva Hotel) 1908. Architect: Charles R. Wilson. 4 stories, painted brick, beveled glass fanlight.

I was captivated by these walls long before I had a camera to photograph them. What a feast for the imagination! The two archaic, painted advertisements are wonderful enough, but the peculiar, tin-covered room that hangs on the back of the hotel is a real enigma. I often wondered why it was built and if it was still used. Then I met someone who knew a person who once lived in the room to which it is attached. They had used this strange appendage as an extra bedroom of all things. It is only wide and long enough to contain a folding cot, with little room to spare. All very good, but the question of why it was originally built remains unanswered and continues to stir my imagination.

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