There's an art to converting an old building while keeping its soul

From John King's Urban Design column on SFGate,

The days are gone when old buildings were either torn down or gussied up. Now they're as likely to become fig leaves covering something that otherwise is entirely new.

Call it selective preservation. Purists might cringe, but the trend is gaining favor as cities try to make room for the new without entirely eradicating the old. It's especially popular in San Francisco -- and especially in such once-remote locales as Townsend Street near AT&T Park, where three former warehouses within a block of one another show the pitfalls and potential of the approach.

The one warehouse where work is finished is a textbook example of what not to do, while a proposal in the works next door shows how difficult it is to balance the old and the new. But the last of the trio is genuinely exciting -- a fusion of the present and past that has the potential to make both pieces shine.

Of the completed project, the less said the better. I reviewed 88 Townsend St. last year, and the details haven't changed: Five floors of condominiums shove against a wall that is all that remains of a one-story warehouse from 1882. The "addition" is cloaked in thin, yellowish bricks and arched windows that vaguely evoke nearby structures. But the result isn't respectful, and it isn't preservation. It's a cartoon. [more...]