1140 Harrison Street

 Posted by on August 4, 2016
Aug 042016
 

1140 Harrison Street, San Francisco

This nondescript industrial building is about to be torn down for a giant condominium project.  I thought it time to get it documented before it disappeared.

Part of the SOMA Light Industrial and Residential Historic District, the building has been marked historical due to its age, but that does not prevent it from being torn down, it is simply a designation.

Built in 1907, the building is a 75,625 square-feet, 1-story, brick masonry industrial building in a modified Renaissance Revival style. The rectangular-plan building, clad in smooth stucco on the primary façade and brick on the secondary facade, is capped by a series of 6 multiple-gable roofs.

The building was originally built for the Metropolitan Laundry Company an interesting company with an interesting history.  The building wass first listed in the San Francisco City directory in 1907, just one year after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Today, the most significant thing about it is the wall on Berwick that has been the home to significant tagging and interesting murals, including one that has been recognized around the world and is included in most circulated shots of great graffiti around the world, a man holding an umbrella with a rainbow of rain.

Rainbow Rain Umbrella Man

The building was built in 1907 and designed by Frederick H. Meyer.

Frederick Herman Meyer (1876-1961) was born in San Francisco. Although he had no official architectural education he began his career working as a draftsman with Cambell and Pettus. He eventually joined the architectural firm of Samuel Newsom, making partner.

The portion of the building on Berwick closest to Harrison Street.

The portion of the building on Berwick closest to Harrison Street.

With Newsom, Meyer designed homes in the Pacific Heights area.

Meyer eventually joined forces with Smith O’Brian in a partnership that lasted 6 years. During this time they designed the Rialto Building , as well as a few residences, again in Pacific Heights.

On his own Meyer designed the Humboldt Bank Building on Market Street, where he eventually moved his offices.

In 1911, after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, Meyer was appointed to the team that laid out the plan for the new Civic Center

Over the years Meyer joined with many others in partnerships to design homes, schools and office buildings such as the one at 1140 Harrison.

The portion of Berwick Place at Heron

On Berwick Place at Heron. The side of 1140 Harrison Street

This has always been a large single parcel.  Before it was the Metropolitan Laundry it was a storage area.

This is from the 1905 Sanborn map, showing the building as storage.

This is from the 1905 Sanborn map, showing the building that sat there pre-fire and earthquake as storage.  Mariposa Terrace eventually was renamed Berwick Place.  Harrison Av was renamed Hallam, and Bruce Pl. was renamed Brush.

The building that stood before the ’06 quake and fire was most likely brick as well.  Often brick from previous projects was scavenged for the newer construction, this can be seen with the use of the black bricks and the lack of a unifying pattern in the brick laying.

This is the wall on the backside of the building. Notice the lack of a regular pattern and the black bricks throughout.

This is the wall on the backside of the building. Notice the lack of a regular pattern and the black bricks throughout.

NYCHOS

 Posted by on March 30, 2015
Mar 302015
 

500 Geary
Lower Nob Hill

Nychos

 

Austrian street artist NYCHOS is in town for the opening his show “Street Anatomy” at Fifty24SF Gallery on April 18th. In conjunction with the show, he has been putting up a few pieces around town.

According to his facebook page the Austrian urban art and graffiti illustrator Nychos was born in 1982 in Styria, Austria where he grew up in a hunting family. Getting confronted by the anatomy of dead animals at an early age and being an 80’s kid with an interest for cartoons and heavy metal ended up being some of the ingredients which inspired him when he started graffiti and painting at the age of 18. Over the years he developed a distinctive style which stands out – his dissections and cross sections of human and animal bodies are easily recognized. The focus and reinterpretation of dissected motives in a combination of colorful outlines can be seen as his branding. He is well known for his huge and technically outstanding art pieces in the urban environment as well as several gallery exhibitions. Nychos is the founder of Rabbit Eye Movement:

Rabbit Eye Movement (REM) originally started as a street art concept, created by the urban/graffiti artist and illustrator Nychos in 2005. It fueled and defined the artwork Nychos spread on the streets for the next seven years, and in 2012 he acquired a home for REM to live. Located in the heart of Vienna, the Rabbit Eye Movement Art Space is now a full time gallery and agency dedicated to pushing the same movement that created it.

“I created the ‘Rabbit Eye Movement’ as an homage to all the “Rabbits” out there who are active in the Urban Art Movement. It doesn’t matter what kind of mission they are following.”
– NYCHOS

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