Through multiple earthquakes, misguided urban renewal schemesand changing economic conditions, the Ferry Building has stood at the foot of San Francisco’s Market Street since 1898.In his book, “Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities,” John King, the urban design critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, tells Unfrozen what we can learn from the indefatigable icon, and what that might mean for the future of downtowns in this uncertain era.

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Intro/Outro: “Ride Captain Ride,” by Blues Image

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Discussed:

A Trip Down Market Street

The City Beautiful Movement

A. Page Brown

California Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition

Embarcadero Freeway

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

The Key System

Alameda Ferry

Golden Gate Bridge

Dianne Feinstein

Ballot measure 1986 – tear down the Embarcadero Freeway?

Art Agnos

Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1989

Ghirardelli Square

Lawrence Halprin

Faneuil Hall

Wilson Meany (Sullivan)

Chez Panisse

Hallidie Plaza

The Doom Loop

Union Square

Hayes Valley

Dogpatch

Parklets