New Businesses Open in The East Cut! While Neighborhood Favorites Expand Under Yellow Tier

Home Designs That Define Our Global Cities

Cities are often defined by the people and the culture that they encompass, and sometimes by their aesthetic however, a lot can also be said from a city’s home design. More specifically, floor plans of homes can actually help explain the way people in a city live and how they have shaped the design and architecture of the surrounding neighborhood. Or, perhaps even vice versa: how the design and architecture in a city have shaped the way its people live.

Digging even deeper, the interior architecture and floor plans of homes can also work to reflect a city’s history. One example is the steep staircases in Amsterdam that reflect the city’s long history as a merchant port, in which maximizing floor space to store goods was common. That being said, in most places, specific floor plans tend to recur again and again; this gives a city its character and even helps in molding the concept of what a home should look like in a certain area.

In the same regard, San Francisco can be defined and characterized by its city pattern and home designs. Along with the city’s well-known architectural styles, such as Victorian townhouses and Gothic Revival skyscrapers, the interior plan of these buildings can also point to the city’s history as an earthquake-prone location from the way buildings are structured, among other things. Overall, San Francisco and other cities definitely have distinct and telling features both from the outside and from the inside.

Seven Examples of Placemaking in San Francisco and the Bay Area

Placemaking is the fine-grain detail cities deploy to create a stronger sense of community and identity, one the Bay Area leverages in many forms. From signage that provokes curiosity and street art that incites change, to urban greening projects and parklet programs that rapidly flourish in a neighborhood, San Francisco and surrounding Bay Area cities continue to evolve and form unique identities.

The parklet program, one great placemaking example, was born in San Francisco and is now a staple of streetscapes across this city and others around the globe. Parklets not only alter the city’s look but also provide another means of community engagement. Similar to the parklet program, another placemaking initiative is Sunday Streets: events where parts of streets are closed off and turned into temporary public spaces for walking, cycling, and other community activities. This initiative is yet another great example of how placemaking can be used to encourage movement and cohesion in a community; closed-off streets are now not only an expected physical aspect to see throughout the city but also a way that the city promotes the well-being of its residents.

The East Cut, with its own Sunday Streets blocks and an expanding parklet program, still sees a great opportunity at the now-vacant Temporary Transbay Terminal site. We envision activation on the block that will infuse new vibrancy into our neighborhood. Moreover, these initiatives deepen community bonds and facilitate community building, support local residents and retailers, and strengthen the overall identity of our district.