Issue 527 to

Unbuilt San Francisco

Unbuilt San Francisco

Today’s urban landscape is shaped in profound ways by the buildings that never came to life, the plans that fell short.

The works on view in “Unbuilt San Francisco” show us how people defined the future, and why those visions in turn sparked resistance. It’s a parallel history of San Francisco and the Bay Area, for better and for worse.

The View From Futures Past

Presented by the California Historical Society and SPUR

This month, we are pleased to devote The Urbanist to Unbuilt San Francisco , an ambitious five-venue exhibition that provides an opportunity to confront visions for the region that never came to pass. Attempts to reconfigure San Francisco according to evolving notions of progress, beauty and justice have often proved controversial — and even traumatic.

Ambition and Imagination

UC Berkeley's take on Unbuilt San Francisco

The exhbition Ambition and Imagination views the unbuilt realm of San Francisco from five perspectives, some obvious, some not.