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The Burnham Plan, Telegraph Hill and North Beach (1905)
Tinted skyscrapers for San Francisco (Timothy Pflueger, left and Hugh Ferriss, right) 1920s
United Nations Headquarters
Vincent G. Raney, United Nations Headquarters in San Francisco (c. 1945)
Eight lane freewway to be cut through under Russian Hill, leading from the Embarcadero to Golden Gate Bridge (1958)
The Rise of SOMA
San Francisco in 2020, imagined in 2007 (source: unknown) with South of Market (SOMA) as the primary area of new growth
Hydro-Net
San Francisco as seen by the IwamotoScott Hydro-Net project (2008)
The Fastco Vision
Drones, Copters, Hyperloop and Apple Pyramid (Chris Dannen, Fastcolabs, 2014)
San Francisco in the 24th century, as imagined in Star Trek (2012)
A Simcity Version
Embarcadero Aviation Platform and Elevated Highway (Lewis Hobart, 1926)
The Waterfront with "Discopters"
The future look of San Francisco as imagined in 1975 by Alexander Weygers in 1950. The artist had received a patent for his "discopter," and pictured the city with wharf-side, and rooftop landing spaces for his futuristic vehicles
Videogame San Francisco Waterfront
Transbay Ferry Terminal (videogame), by Paul Rand Pierce, 2012
Earliest Plan for a New San Francisco City Hall
A plan by "Stewart" for a new city hall at Portsmouth Plaza, 1853
Competition designs for a new city hall following the 1906 disaster
Competition Design, San Francisco City Hall, 1912.
James Burnham's Athenaeum
The Burnham Athenaeum (1905) looking west over Lake Merced
"The Athenaeum, so called, should receive some few of the greatest works of art. It would consist of courts, terraces and colonnaded shelters. These latter would be arranged after the manner of the great Poecile of the Villa Hadrian. This consists of a wall so built as to collect the warmth of the sun and afford protection from the wind." -- James Burnham
Cliff Houses
Two proposals for a new Cliff House after the destruction of the previous building in 1907.
Visionary San Francisco State
Moshe Safdie's design for a new student building, San Francisco State College, 1968
Parkmerced
Parkmerced redesigned by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (2013)
The Presidio
The Lucas Cultural Arts Museum (2013)
The Bridges
Emperor Norton's Proclamation for Three Bridges
On August 18, 1869, Emperor Norton issued this proclamation for bridges to be built from Oakland to San Francisco, then to Sausalito, then to the Farallon Islands
First design for Golden Gate Bridge
Original 1922 Golden Gate Bridge Design Proposal by Joseph Strauss (final design based on work of Charles Alton Ellis)
BART and the Bridge
Plan to run BART on a new lower deck of Golden Gate Bridge (1955-1961)
The Bay Bridge Apartments
Proposed Bay Bridge design, with living apartments built into the towers, by Louis Christian Mullgardt, 1924
Transbay Transit Terminal
Transbay Terminal with elevated park, scheduled for completion in the fall, 2017 (Pelli, Ckarke, Pelli, architects)
High Speed Rail
California High Speed Rail Overview, scheduled for completion in 2029
Swig Stadium
Proposal by Ben Swig for a Ballpark in SOMA (date unknown)
Candlestick Makeover
Proposed 49er Stadium in Candlestick-Hunter's Point Area (2007)
Americas Cup Hopes
Americas Cup design for Piers 30-32 (2010)
Warriors Stadium in the Bay
Warriors Stadium (2013)
Alcatraz
Alcatraz, as proposed by the Global Peace Foundation, 2008
More designs for Alcatraz
Treasure Island
A "green plan" for Treasure Island, 2007: 6,000 housing units, 20 acre organic farm, "an ecological educational and art park" and more
Paypal Paradise
Three views of Paypal founder Peter Thiel's plan for a floating city off the coast of San Francisco, 2011 (Renderings: dailymail.co.uk)
The Reber Plan
“The Reber Plan was designed and advocated by John Reber, an actor, theatrical producer, and schoolteacher. His plan, in the late 1940s, was to fill in parts of the San Francisco Bay.
“Under the plan, which was also known as the San Francisco Bay Project, the mouth of the Sacramento River (from Suisun Bay) would be channelized by dams and would feed two freshwater lakes within the bay, providing drinking water to the residents of the Bay Area. The barriers would support rail and highway traffic and would create two vast freshwater lakes, supplying irrigation water to farms. Between the lakes, Reber proposed the reclamation of 20,000 acres of land that would be crossed by a freshwater channel. West of the channel would be airports, a naval base, and a pair of locks comparable in size to those of the Panama Canal. Industrial plants would be developed on the east.
“In 1953 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended more detailed study of the plan and eventually constructed a hydraulic model of the Bay Area to test it. The barriers, which were the plan's essential element, failed to survive this critical study. The scrapping of the Reber Plan in the early 1960s was one sign, perhaps, of the end of an era of grandiose civil works projects aimed at totally restructuring a region's natural environment, and the birth of the environmental era.” — Wikipedia
Farallon Fantasy
Farallon Islands Fantasy: Photo by Richard Von Trapp & John Duggan; Art by Kazumasa Uchio; Photoshop by Dr_Sequoia (2015)
Illustration for George R. Steward's The Earth Abides (1949)
Magneto re-routes Golden Gate Bridge! (2014)
San Andreas (2015)
