Looking toward downtown, Ms. Carpinelli has witnessed the advance of the shiny, boxlike structures of the Mission Bay biotechnology hub on her neighborhood.

Now the Port of San Francisco is embarking on an ambitious development plan for the massive Pier 70 that involves restoring the old shipyard buildings and constructing 2.5 million square feet of new office space.

But as San Francisco officials court tech companies for what they call the “innovation corridor,” extending from Mission Bay to Pier 70 and beyond, neighbors and urban planners are asking how the architectural sensibilities — or lack thereof — of Silicon Valley will weave themselves into the urban fabric.

“The suburban tech campuses, they seem to be designed by engineers and not architects,” said Ms. Carpinelli, a graphic designer who heads up the Dogpatch neighborhood association. “I think the pressure is on to come up with something interesting for Pier 70.”

The city has thrown in with Forest City Development California, the firm behind the Westfield Center mall and the continuing transformation of the San Francisco Chronicle building, to meet that challenge. Forest City was recently chosen to plan and develop a 25-acre chunk of the 65-acre Pier 70, and envisions “a new model of innovation campus” alongside the restored historic buildings and a waterfront park.

With construction starting in 2015 at the earliest, the plans are short on detail. But the concept is a place featuring a mix of tech companies and arts organizations, public places that encourage the intermingling of people and ideas, and building designs that draw on the industrial history of the neighborhood.

Alexa Arena, a local Forest City executive, said the key was to think “beyond the physical buildings” to the tenants who could bring the space to life. That includes allowing development on the site to occur more organically and less through heavy-handed, top-down planning. It also means designing buildings that interact with their surroundings. “It’s a development that’s contextual,” Ms. Arena said.

Although vague, the ideas appear to be aimed at avoiding what everyone, from city officials to neighbors, does not want: a repeat of Mission Bay. That 303-acre development, anchored by the new hospital and research complex of the University of California, San Francisco, stretches from ATT Park to the edge of Pier 70. Formerly an industrial railyard, Mission Bay grew up quickly over the last decade, with offices for biotech companies, parking structures and condos in the sanitized, suburban look and feel that dominates Silicon Valley.

While Mission Bay has been a success from a real estate and economic standpoint, its architectural style strikes many as out of place.

“It’s a great economic base and it’s great for San Francisco, but it doesn’t look like San Francisco,” said Lou Vasquez, a longtime San Francisco developer. “If the Bay Bridge wasn’t there, I’d completely lose my bearings.”

Indeed, tech-company architecture developed explicitly as a counterpoint to the urban-industrial fabric that San Francisco wants to preserve, said Alan Hess, a prominent California architecture critic.

“There are many good reasons why Hewlett Packard settled in suburbia,” said Mr. Hess, a California architecture critic. “It was a new concept of the factory with lawns and recreation areas, which was the exact opposite of the dirty, smelly factories with their belching smokestacks from the industrial era.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/us/14bcpier.html

Looking toward downtown, Ms. Carpinelli has witnessed the advance of the shiny, boxlike structures of the Mission Bay biotechnology hub on her neighborhood.

Now the Port of San Francisco is embarking on an ambitious development plan for the massive Pier 70 that involves restoring the old shipyard buildings and constructing 2.5 million square feet of new office space.

But as San Francisco officials court tech companies for what they call the “innovation corridor,” extending from Mission Bay to Pier 70 and beyond, neighbors and urban planners are asking how the architectural sensibilities — or lack thereof — of Silicon Valley will weave themselves into the urban fabric.

“The suburban tech campuses, they seem to be designed by engineers and not architects,” said Ms. Carpinelli, a graphic designer who heads up the Dogpatch neighborhood association. “I think the pressure is on to come up with something interesting for Pier 70.”

The city has thrown in with Forest City Development California, the firm behind the Westfield Center mall and the continuing transformation of the San Francisco Chronicle building, to meet that challenge. Forest City was recently chosen to plan and develop a 25-acre chunk of the 65-acre Pier 70, and envisions “a new model of innovation campus” alongside the restored historic buildings and a waterfront park.

With construction starting in 2015 at the earliest, the plans are short on detail. But the concept is a place featuring a mix of tech companies and arts organizations, public places that encourage the intermingling of people and ideas, and building designs that draw on the industrial history of the neighborhood.

Alexa Arena, a local Forest City executive, said the key was to think “beyond the physical buildings” to the tenants who could bring the space to life. That includes allowing development on the site to occur more organically and less through heavy-handed, top-down planning. It also means designing buildings that interact with their surroundings. “It’s a development that’s contextual,” Ms. Arena said.

Although vague, the ideas appear to be aimed at avoiding what everyone, from city officials to neighbors, does not want: a repeat of Mission Bay. That 303-acre development, anchored by the new hospital and research complex of the University of California, San Francisco, stretches from ATT Park to the edge of Pier 70. Formerly an industrial railyard, Mission Bay grew up quickly over the last decade, with offices for biotech companies, parking structures and condos in the sanitized, suburban look and feel that dominates Silicon Valley.

While Mission Bay has been a success from a real estate and economic standpoint, its architectural style strikes many as out of place.

“It’s a great economic base and it’s great for San Francisco, but it doesn’t look like San Francisco,” said Lou Vasquez, a longtime San Francisco developer. “If the Bay Bridge wasn’t there, I’d completely lose my bearings.”

Indeed, tech-company architecture developed explicitly as a counterpoint to the urban-industrial fabric that San Francisco wants to preserve, said Alan Hess, a prominent California architecture critic.

“There are many good reasons why Hewlett Packard settled in suburbia,” said Mr. Hess, a California architecture critic. “It was a new concept of the factory with lawns and recreation areas, which was the exact opposite of the dirty, smelly factories with their belching smokestacks from the industrial era.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/us/14bcpier.html

“You know how normally you have a desert, and in the desert you have a little oasis?” said Matt Henry, president of the Belle Haven Neighborhood Association. “With us, it’s just the exact opposite. We’re here in Silicon Valley, which is absolutely wonderful. But we’re the little small desert in the middle of something great.” Now, Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is moving in to the neighborhood.

Facebook has grown to more than 750 million active users and is on the verge of an initial public offering projected to value the company at $100 billion. After outgrowing its Palo Alto headquarters, the company is moving to Belle Haven, where it is creating a campus large enough to accommodate nearly 10,000 employees. The move is to be completed by the end of the year.

Residents of Belle Haven and its neighbor East Palo Alto, which is also entrenched in an urban malaise, hope Facebook’s arrival signals their long-awaited integration into the Silicon Valley economy. They picture the company’s wealth and dynamism spreading across the freeways, bringing better housing, services and schools.

“The table is being set for some really great things to happen,” said Charley Scandlyn, executive director of the Ravenswood Education Foundation, which aims to bring East Palo Alto schools up to the same standards as those in neighboring communities.

“The whole Facebook mission is about connecting people,” Mr. Scandlyn said. “Sometimes our kids in East Palo Alto don’t feel like they get to be a part of the good dreams in the world. Here is Facebook, that actually gets to live out its mission in its own neighborhood.”

It may not be that easy. Across the Bay Area, cities continue to hope that tech companies will provide the spark for a renaissance in low-income communities. Earlier this year, for example, San Francisco granted Twitter a six-year tax holiday to lure the company to the blighted mid-Market district.

But there is no conclusive evidence that the presence of a technology company can turn a neighborhood or a city around. Google’s hometown, Mountain View, still struggles to pay its bills and is threatening to lay off employees, despite the presence of several tech companies, including Google, with a combined value of well over $200 billion. Belle Haven’s hopeful uncertainty underscores the growing disconnect between a technology boom fueled by the explosive growth of social media companies and the continuing struggles of the communities in which those companies are located.

According to economists and public officials, the divide is related to the nature of the tech economy, much of which takes place in cyberspace, removed from the world of cash registers, low-income jobs and sales taxes. Companies like Google and Facebook pay property taxes, but cities draw little direct economic benefit from their core businesses. Their highly skilled, highly educated employees commute to lavish, insular campuses where most of their needs are met.

“A social networking company doesn’t have as much revenue-generating material,” said David Johnson, Menlo Park’s business development manager.

Still, Mr. Johnson said he was pleased to have found a company to fill the vacated one-million-square-foot property once occupied by Sun Microsystems.

“How can you not be excited about Facebook coming to town — it’s a potential game changer for that whole part of town,” Mr. Johnson said. “They are showing all indications of being a great corporate neighbor.”

Menlo Park officials said that as Facebook expanded, the city would have leverage to negotiate additional compensation. The site is currently zoned for 3,600 employees. Once Facebook outgrows that number, “the city will be looking for something in exchange,” said Justin Murphy, Menlo Park’s development manager.

In its recent approval of a hotel project, the city agreed to alter zoning requirements in exchange for a guarantee that the developer would spend $1.25 million on capital improvements and lock in the amount of revenue the city would receive from a hotel transient tax.

hadsrobinson@gmail.com

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/us/12bcfacebook.html

Berry has been in the real estate profession for more than 12 years. He also has an award-winning background in graphic design. He is an active volunteer and fundraiser for his daughter’s school and several other Bay Area non-profit organizations, including Project Inform, an advocacy agency representing people who are HIV-positive.

Berry’s first column debuted in the Spring Edition of the Glen Park News, which is out now. The article charts homes recently bought and sold in the neighborhood, listing vs. selling prices and how long the properties were on the market. He shares his perception of the market, comparing the energy of the economy to last month, last quarter and last year. Advice is offered on how and when to put a home on the market, how to set expectations, how to prepare the property and an overview of interest rates, tax cuts and other factors to be considered. Even more interesting are the market trends and economic forecasts he offers.

Glen Park is in the central portion of San Francisco, just south of Noe Valley. Known as “The Village” among locals, the neighborhood has a small-town feel with an active neighborhood association (http://www.glenparkassociation.org/) as evidenced by the quarterly newspaper.

“We are proud of Bill and his contribution to the community in his professional capacity and in his volunteerism,” Randall Kostick, Chief Operating Officer of Zephyr, commented. “His contribution to the News will be an invaluable tool for buyers and sellers alike,” he added.

Berry is a member of the San Francisco, California and National Associations of REALTORS®. He can be reached at: billberry@zephyrsf.com or 415-378-7300.

About Zephyr Real Estate
Founded in 1978, Zephyr Real Estate is San Francisco’s largest independent real estate firm with $1 billion in annual gross sales in 2010 and a current roster of more than 200 full-time agents. In 2010, Zephyr launched its new website, which has earned two web design awards, including the prestigious Interactive Media Award. Zephyr Real Estate is a member of the international relocation network, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; the luxury real estate network, Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate; and the local luxury marketing association, the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco. Zephyr has six strategically located offices in San Francisco, a business center in Marin County, and serves a large customer base throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit www.zephyrsf.com.

Article source: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/glen-park-news-debuts-zephyr-agent-bill-berry-as-new-real-estate-columnist-1507742.htm