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Re:Why New York City Stopped Building Subways by wahern on Monday April 16, 2018 @06:56PM (#16853672)
FWIW, the Crown Zellerbach Building, completed in 1959, was "controversial due to the decision for the building to face Bush St. instead of Market St., Market St. being in decline during the time it was built."[1][2] 1959 was years before the Market St subway construction began.

Aside: I'm not a student of architecture, and Modernist (and especially International Style) architecture didn't really click for me until someone explained the design of that building. All building services (restrooms, stairwells, elevators, etc) are located in the giant, black, windowless monolith. To my mind that feature is most descriptive of the style and its motivations, particularly regarding the relationship between form and function and the emphasis on the latter. Its shape and materials are, at least superficially, almost entirely dictated by its pure function. Yet it's the defining characteristic of the form of the building and clearly intentionally imposing.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Bush_Plaza [2] https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf183.asp

EDIT: You can't see the monolith from the Wikipedia or Wikimedia photos. Which is actually sort of strange given how imposing it is in real-life. Here's a better photo, https://www.som.com/FILE/16472/crownzellerbachhq_788x900_gab... , from the SOM website (see https://www.som.com/projects/crown_zellerbach_headquarters).

Re:Why New York City Stopped Building Subways by jwilliams on Monday April 16, 2018 @09:56PM (#16854773)
> FWIW, the Crown Zellerbach Building

I've always loved that building.

Very different neighborhood from Civic though -- even though they're only 20 minutes walk apart.

During and post-war that end of town was much less desirable. That changed significantly when the shipping moved. Also that building marks arrival of modern building techniques suitable for an earthquake zone. That triggered a construction boom in FiDi.

Mid-Market on the other hand was in a post-War retail boom. Civic was a major hub of retail and Theaters -- and was impacted a lot more by the BART construction.

All that said, the arc of San Francisco neighborhoods does baffle me at the best of times.