Setting the Record Straight on SF Design

"This is a liberal city where anything goes. True in terms of sidewalk etiquette, lifestyle choices and the placement of tattoos - but not when planning a neighborhood or getting a building approved. Everyone in this city of 800,000 represents an interest group or wants the final say, from the Board of Supervisors to the neighbor down the block simmering with resentment at every change to the landscape since he or she arrived in 1968. And even someone with five lip piercings will swoon at the sight of a restored Victorian.

Everything new looks old. Still the case in more settled districts, but unapologetic modern architecture has made inroads in the blocks south of Market Street where the convention takes place. A few blocks farther south in Mission Bay, meanwhile, a 300-acre neighborhood is taking shape as a procession of flat boxes of varying quality, not a curved bay window in sight."