Home & Garden

Parklet sprouting on California Street

Posted on March 2, 2012 by editors

Crowds gather outside Delfina Pizzeria on California near Fillmore nearly every day at noon and nighttime. They’re waiting for a table, preferably one of the coveted spots out front.

Soon the waiting may be more convivial — and the odds of snagging an outside table considerably improved — when the Fillmore Stoop is completed. It’s the first parklet in the neighborhood — and one of the few with a proper name — although the take-back-the-pavement mini-parks are already a big hit in North Beach, on Divisadero and especially along Valencia Street. They transform one or two parking spots into a public space, usually with tables and chairs and a bit of greenery.

The Fillmore Stoop is the creation of Jessica Weigley and Kevin Hackett, architects whose firm, Siol Studios, is at Fillmore and Clay. Their proposal takes the parklet idea a step further by creating sculptural benches and planters in two parking spots, with room for four or five tables from Delfina. They gained the endorsement of neighboring businesses and persuaded Chase Bank — coming soon across the street — to pony up $25,000 to cover construction costs.

The city has approved the plans and issued permits. Most of the work will be done off-site, with installation in late March or early April.

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Making a mark on Pacific Heights

Posted on March 2, 2012 by editors

John Field designed the six shingled row houses at 2641-63 Union Street.

ARCHITECTURE | JOHN FIELD

Although I’ve lived in Pacific Heights for many years and designed homes here, I never thought of myself as a Pacific Heights architect. When I was asked recently how many houses in the neighborhood I have designed, I had to stop and think. I’d never counted them.

There must be 20 or more, most of them published in Sunset or House and Garden. Alas, they aren’t easy to pick out. There’s no unique window style, no striking modern minimalism; San Francisco wouldn’t stand for such statements in the 1960s and 70s. I designed gracious modern housing, most of it blending in with shingles or hiding behind a Victorian exterior. Even then some of the matrons of Pacific Heights thought my designs were out of place.

They may have had a point. I used bay windows in designs that weren’t Victorian, shingle walls as if they were white plaster, and glass wherever there was a view. I turned a ballroom for a mansion into a three-story home and carved parking out of many existing residences, one of them still with a fireplace, mantle and marble trim in the garage.

The real art of designing in San Francisco has always been capitalizing on whatever view there is, while concealing the exposures that aren’t so good. That’s true for city living everywhere.

Within three blocks on Broadway, I designed three completely new houses that are visually related only by their proportions. On the surrounding blocks are eight or 10 irreverently remodeled Victorians, two of them for my own family.

Probably my best known local project is a group of six shingled row houses at 2641-2663 Union Street. The design provoked a storm of protest from neighbors, who feared their property would be devalued by these houses only 16 feet wide — not realizing their own Victorians were often no wider, although built on wider lots. The design was published in several magazines and won many awards, including a special governor’s award for contemporary California design.

As in all cities, the housing stock is limited in Pacific Heights. New owners want to make their houses their own, so they remodel. People live differently now than they did before, and their houses reflect the changes. But I still harbor a hope that some of the simple elegant spirit of the places I have designed will live on.

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You too can have a Victorian mansion

Posted on March 1, 2012 by editors

Photograph of John Gaul inside the Haas-Lilienthal House by Ramon del Rosario

Up the sidewalk to the imposing Victorian mansion at 2007 Franklin Street — the historic Haas-Lilienthal House — walks a group of senior travelers who call themselves road scholars. They are greeted by a gentleman in a vested suit and bowler hat, carrying a silver-headed cane, who welcomes them inside.

It’s not John Gaul’s home, although sometimes people think it is. From a passing car comes a shout: “Hey, are you Mr. Lilienthal?” He bows ever so elegantly and welcomes his visitors inside.

For more than a decade, Gaul has been one of about 50 docents who lead tours of the Haas-Lilienthal House, which was donated by descendants of some of the city’s most prominent families as a home for San Francisco Architectural Heritage, the historic preservation group. Heritage offers one-hour tours on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Docents guide visitors through the perfectly preserved wood-paneled rooms, most still with the original furnishings. They explain the distinctiveness of Victorian architecture and the privileged lives of the family that lived in the house from 1886, when it was built, until 1973.

“There was polite uplifting conversation in the front parlor,” Gaul says. “In the second parlor, maybe a little gossip while waiting for dinner. In the dining room, all was refinement, with good food, good wine and good conversation.”

WELCOMING NEW DOCENTS: Now Heritage is inviting new docents to join its ranks. A training program begins March 13 at 6 p.m. and includes eight sessions of lectures by historians and architects, plus tips from seasoned docents, including Gaul.

“Style is as important as substance,” Gaul says. “The facts alone don’t make it come alive.”

To learn more about becoming a docent at the Haas-Lilienthal House, contact volunteer coordinator Dorothy Boylan at 441-3000 ext. 24.

Filed under: Home & Garden, Landmarks, Locals, Neighborhood History | 1 Comment »

An exceptional year for mansions

Posted on January 2, 2012 by editors

The new home at 2845 Broadway has been reduced from $65 million to $38.5 million.

REAL ESTATE | Maria Marchetti

We had an exceptional year for mansion sales in 2011, with 15 homes selling for more than $5 million. And we still have a handsome selection of high-end offerings available, including eight mansions listed over $10 million and nine more listed between $5 million and $10 million.

Among them: The still-under-construction new limestone home at 2845 Broadway has been relisted at $38.5 million, reduced from its previous asking price of $65 million. It was withdrawn in January 2010 after nearly four years on the market. The elegant Hellman mansion designed by Julius Kraft at 2020 Jackson has been impeccably renovated, including solar panels, and is still available for $20 million. At 2808 Broadway, the 1927 home designed by Willis Polk is listed at $25 million, and offers a prime position for America’s Cup viewing from the pentroom. The completely restored home at 2701 Broadway, offered at $28.5 million, has a basketball court and unobstructed views. Two blocks west, towering over the heart of the Gold Coast and now listed at $38 million is 2901 Broadway, the stately mansion with a private tennis court that’s been on the market more than four years.

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Pacific Heights estates at Sotheby’s

Posted on December 6, 2011 by editors

Furniture from Dodie Rosekrans’ home at 2840 Broadway is coming up for auction.

Luxury items from two favored members of the Pacific Heights social aristocracy will be offered at auction this week at Sotheby’s showrooms in New York.

On December 8 and 9, property from the collection of Dodie Rosekrans will be auctioned, including furnishings and artwork from her home at 2840 Broadway designed by Willis Polk, one of San Francisco’s most esteemed 19th century architects. Much of the interior and furniture design was by superstar 20th century designer Michael Taylor. Rosekrans was a daughter of Michael Naify, founder of the movie chain that became United Artists, and married into the Spreckels family, benefactors of San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor. Also included in the auction are items from Rosekrans’ “Indian Jewel Box” apartment in Paris and her palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice, both designed by one-time neighborhood resident Tony Duquette.

A day earlier, on December 7, Sotheby’s will offer “The Elegant John Traina — A Portrait in Style,” featuring jewels and personal items including dress sets and cufflinks, watches, cigarette cases and Faberge-like objects. Traina, a shipping executive and vintner who lived in the neighborhood, was the author of Extraordinary Jewels in 1994 and The Faberge Case: From the Private Collection of John Traina in 1998. He was married to Dede Wilsey and later to Danielle Steele.

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Broadway homes sell for $30 million

Posted on November 6, 2011 by editors

The home at 2950 Broadway sold for $29.5 million — $10 million less than the original price.

REAL ESTATE | Maria Marchetti

Recent single family home sales in Pacific Heights are highlighted by the sale of 2950 Broadway, the 11,000-square-foot mansion on one of the largest parcels on the Gold Coast formerly owned by swashbuckling attorney Melvin Belli. The vast north and south facing formal gardens create an elegant foreground to the magnificent bay view, perfect for the new owner, humanist Peter Baumann, a musician formerly with Tangerine Dream and the founder of the Baumann Foundation.

But it’s only the second-most-expensive home ever sold in the neighborhood. Also changing hands recently was 2840 Broadway, the unlisted home of society doyenne Dodie Rosekrans, which reportedly sold for $33 million to neighbors just down the block.

‘Mini-Versailles’ hits the market

Posted on October 29, 2011 by editors

Herbst Manor in Pacific Heights was home to the late Lee Herbst Gruhn, who passed away in 2010. Think Herbst Theater and San Francisco society. Her prominent brick home with carousel horses in the windows on the corner of Pacific and Divisadero — designed in 1899 by esteemed architect Ernest Coxhead — is now for sale. Don’t miss the link to author Jennifer Huffman’s story of accidentally getting a tour of the gilt-edged home by none other than Lee Herbst Gruhn herself.

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Now available on Billionaire’s Row

Posted on September 13, 2011 by editors

The original listing price for 2901 Broadway was $65 million.

Curbed SF visits four pedigreed properties now for sale on Billionaire’s Row, the stretch of Broadway between Lyon and Divisadero that’s home to some of San Francisco’s grandest homes and wealthiest occupants.

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A modern planting gives way to tradition

Posted on September 4, 2011 by editors

Photographs of 2500 Steiner Street by Erik Anderson

GARDENS | DEMI BOWLES LATHROP

At the crest of Steiner and Jackson Streets rises a 12 story cooperative apartment building — each floor a full flat — designed in the Mediterranean Gothic Revival style in 1927 by prominent San Francisco architect Conrad Meussdorffer. Crowned with a penthouse at the top and a maisonette with a separate entrance on the ground level, the apartments overlook their neighbor, Alta Plaza Park, and offer sweeping views in all directions.

A small garden surrounds 2500 Steiner, running north toward the bay along Steiner Street, then around the corner down Jackson. To fix the building to its site, a simple, traditional garden of small trees and evergreen shrubs was installed when the tower was built, and it remained unchanged for nearly 80 years.

Then, in 2006, star landscaper Topher Delaney — who bills herself as a creator of “dynamic physical installations” — was commissioned to design a new garden. Her creation was radically different: 19 angular steel planters ranging from 30 inches to four feet in height that marched in both directions from the corner, each carefully calibrated to compensate for the slope of the street so that every tree was planted at a uniform height.

The modern makeover became a subject of considerable discussion among the residents of 2500 Steiner. Earlier this year, they decided they’d had enough. The modern garden was removed and traditional evergreen trees that mimic the original planting returned. “It was fun while it lasted,” said Michael Lazarus, president of the building’s board of directors, “but it didn’t match the architecture of the building.”
(more…)

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Thriving in the neighborhood

Posted on March 13, 2011 by editors

ORNITHOLOGY | Monte Travis

When I saw a golden crowned hummingbird up at Alta Plaza Park near the tennis courts, I was confused. I was unaware of any species that sports a golden crown. But then I watched as she dipped her bill into the long red tubular-shaped flowers adorning the bushes and witnessed the way the stamen pressed down on her head as she sipped nectar from the bottom of the flower. That was pollen on her head! It would travel with her to another flower, completing the plant’s sex act. I waited till she landed and took the shot above.

She’s actually a female Anna’s Hummingbird, the species that stays in San Francisco all year. Below is a male Anna’s I photographed at Lafayette Park last April. Note the vermillion, iridescent head. These little guys are amazing creatures, on so many levels, and they thrive right here in the neighborhood.

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