Treasure Island Plan Might Be Model for Cities Everywhere
From today’s Chronicle, “Whether or not it ever gets built, the most intriguing development proposal in America right now involves our very own Treasure Island. It’s got organic gardens and a 60-story tower, wind farms and glitzy hotels. Restaurants beckon beneath an enormous glass roof that doubles as a solar panel. You don’t need a car because everything essential is within walking distance, including a ferry straight to downtown San Francisco.”
“There’d be as many as 5,500 housing units on an island that now has 750 apartments built by the U.S. Navy before it closed a base there in 1997. There would be two hotels, a conference center and a commercial district near a proposed ferry terminal sliced into the west side of the island. There also will be five residential towers near the ferry. The model includes a central high-rise twisting 60 stories into the air, though Anthony Flanagan, president of Lennar’s urban division, stresses that everything being shown is conceptual: “What we’re trying to define is the character of the community, not the specific architecture.”
“The northeastern half of the island is treated, in the plan, as a landscaped world apart, a 120-acre swath with ball fields and marshes as well as conventional parkland and 20 acres reserved for organic farming.”
There’s also a great computer-generated model of how the island might look.
It would be a blessing if it were to employ modern architecture and planning. That is something that SF actually lacks.
J at December 16th, 2005 at 8:55 pm ( )