Subdivision to Further Alter Parkmerced
in San Francisco
Parkmerced was designed from 1941 to 1951 by archi-
tect Leonard Schultze and Associates, with planning and
landscape architecture by Thomas D. Church with Robert
Royston, as “a city within a city” composed of individual om Fox.
housing units on pie-shaped blocks, integrated vehicu-
lar and pedestrian traffic and a large central circle cov-
Photo by T
ered by a lush tree canopy. Today, it is one of only four
remaining examples of post-World War II large-scale
urban planning in the U.S. Recent re-planting and the
redesign of its historic traffic circles, and plans by San
Francisco State University and a private developer to
subdivide the property, threaten the design’s original
integrity. For more information, visit www.tclf.org.
tesy of Aaron Goodman.
Cour
Pacific Design Center Courtyard
Suffering from Neglect
Minoru Yamasaki, noted architect for New York’s World Trade Center towers, designed what is
now the Pacific Science Center’s courtyard as the U.S. Science Pavilion for the 1962 World’s Fair
in Seattle, Washington. Yamasaki incorporated white “wedding cake” courtyard walls, sculpted
arches and concrete platforms floating in serene reflecting pools to create an abstractly classi-
cal space. Yamasaki’s design features ornate formations of cast concrete and high-tech materials
that are decorated with a modern gothic motif. While significant as the only remaining outdoor
space originally designed for the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, the Pacific Science Center lacks
funds for needed maintenance. For more information, visit www.tclf.org.
.
tesy of Seattle Center tesy of Richard Haag.
Cour Cour
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