Downtown Plan Showing Wear

"To put the age of San Francisco's once-vaunted Downtown Plan in context, consider this: The year it was approved, budding community activist Barack Obama rented his first apartment in Chicago.

It was 1985, and San Francisco approved an ambitious plan to strike a balance downtown between old and new. Major growth was steered away from Union Square and the Financial District. Height limits were lowered. Historic preservation gained clout.

But one era's innovation is the next generation's dated rulebook. That's why San Francisco needs to mark the plan's 25th anniversary next year by crafting fresh guidelines for the commercial core - ones that take into account how the city around it has changed."