by cg on September 17, 2007
SFGate.com is reporting that this building, proposed by developer Hines and architects Pelli, Clarke, Pelli is the currently the leading contender among 3 proposed projects, according to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. It seems that the developers’ $350million offer for the land – $200 million more than other entrants – is key.
I like the look and feel of the Skidmore Owings & Merrill offering, but it, apparently, is 3rd on Transbay JPA’s list. The number 2 project didn’t really capture my imagination. You can offer your opinion, by the way, at this site. The Hines/Pelli building is all office space: the other 2 projects include condos and hotels, as well.
Which raises the question, how ultimately do communities make decisions about vast projects like this? We’ve already seen the huge debate New Yorkers went through trying to decide on the new World Trade Center, which stucture(s) were a foregone conclusion.
By contrast, the new Transbay Terminals will be the first ‘big town’ buildings for San Francisco: the Hines/Pelli building will be 350 feet taller than the Transamerica Pyramid, currently San Francisco’s tallest building, and flies in the face of all of S.F.’s ’small neighborhood’ policy. It also exceeds the 30-story ‘Richter limit’ that is thought to be prudent in earthquake-prone places like San Francisco. All of these projects will take years to build… I’m still thinking about a condo in S.F., house in south of France as an option… photo courtesy Transbay JPA, Pelli Clarke, Pelli Architects, WRNS studio and Hines…
by cg on September 17, 2007
So, we’ve blogged before about our embrace of GTD – Get Things Done – which seems to be the most straightforward (and least expensive) personal organization and time management program. Many in Silicon Valley use it, and I took the course (stored on my iPod Shuffle) as part of my return to Adobe last January.
Now, in my ‘new life’ (I am officially on short-term disability as I write), I’m continuing with GTD as I pursue the myriad details of wrapping up ‘old life’, the whole disability process (which is complex and full of deadlines – a good GTD project), dealing with chemo and lab schedules, physical therapy, getting hobbies and interests sorted out, overseeing our patio refurb et al.
Key to GTD is the concept of the inbox – a place where everything goes – and is reliably dealt with – every day. My physical inbox, seen above, is kind of overflowing onto the desktop, which is not good. Everything isn’t getting done every day. To help order this mini-chaos, I use a program called Ghost Action to manage my physical and virtual inboxes. Ghost Action understands GTD’s concepts of Contexts, Projects and Actions: this morning there are 24 items awaiting my attention, everything from ‘Learn CSS’ to ‘Blood Lab at 9:00 AM.’
Friend Brad Schrick worries Ghost Action isn’t being maintained (he needs a time card feature and hasn’t gotten a response from the developer), but it works fine for me. I think there is another program, Journler, which also has GTD features, should Ghost Action go by the wayside. Week 2 of new life kicks off a major GTD commitment…
