The Great Quake: 1906-2006 – Grand S.F. plans that never came to be
From today’s SFGate,
San Francisco’s most tantalizing “what-if” after the 1906 earthquake came when civic leaders turned their backs on one of the most ambitious plans ever crafted for an American city.It conjured alluring images of a gracious metropolis radiating from a vast Civic Center. Reservoirs cascaded west from Twin Peaks through sculpted greenery covering nearly five times as much land as Golden Gate Park. Market Street concluded in a formal Grecian retreat, and Telegraph Hill was topped by a spacious park.
But the plan also had an elevated bayside road that foreshadowed the loathed and now-gone Embarcadero Freeway. Forests were cleared for the sake of manicured views, and San Francisco’s poorhouse was banished to a site near the county jail.
The design was the work of one of America’s best-known architects, Daniel Burnham. It was embraced by civic leaders, and the devastation of April 1906 seemingly cleared the way for work to start. Instead, it was never to be — but it left a mark on San Francisco’s map and spirit just the same.
Graphic: The city that (never) was [SFGate]
Make no plans [San Francisco CITYSCAPE]
