Walk around Mission

One of the things I like about heading to the city to return/check-out new books, (besides the books part!) is walking around and seeing something new..

Friday I needed to make a side errand to Costco before the library opened.. so I got to see this:

untitled mural by Meagan Spendlove just off 10th Street and Sheridan.


St Joseph's Church on 10th Street..


faded building with nice lines next to Harrison Drywall on 10th St.


SF Coffee Company at 13th & Isis..


A 2006 community mural project.. "Precita Eyes Muralists" (youth mural project)




a really large mural, there are more panels in my flickr set.. the mural runs the length of 13th Street from Bernice to Isis Streets.

I had hoped to meet up with an internet friend to walk with her, but the weather forecast sounded questionable.. So I extended my walk from the Civic Center BART to 10th Street.. to Costco, then South to 13th (where I ran into a freeway) and walked along 13th and back up Mission to 8th, then turned back to Market St and across to the Main Branch Library. Not a lot of walking*, but a nice addition to the 1mile (1/2 mile each way) walk to and from Ashby BART.

*I actually created my route on 'map my walk' and it measures it at about 2.4 miles when I include the walk from the library back to the BART station, so with the 1mi to & from my local BART station, that's not bad for a short trip to the city.

Center Street

How many times do you walk down a street and forget to look up and notice the interesting aspects of the architecture around you? (rhetorical question there) I often forget and then am taken by the little bits: the pieces of old Berkeley (or older Berkeley) that remain hiding away due to our getting on with our business of going to and from places.

Normandy Village Apts

On the enthusiastic advisement of an acquaintance of mine, I wandered over to the area just north of campus where Normandy Village Apartments still exist after almost 100 years.. Originally built in 1927, then expanded to encompass about 2 or 3 blocks on one side of the street.. the studio apartment 'homes' still look charming and inviting.. and even better in person, viewed from the street.

Please note.. people live here and I tried my best to be discreet about how I shot my photos (with my iPhone rather than the Nikon) and made a point to try and not have too much identifying information in the images other than architectural details and an address or two related to the street..















You can view my entire set (HERE) if you like (I took about a couple dozen images.)

You can learn about this area from the BAHA (Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc.) site
HERE

I'm very glad I took the time to wander and check the area out, and owe that good someone grateful thanks for the suggestion!

Cal Day 2014

I didn't take near as many photos for Cal Day this year.. and the few I took you can see HERE

Instead I wanted to share some of the images I took of South Hall which for whatever reason, is my favorite building on campus.. Built in 1873.. it is the oldest (and only building remaining of the original campus structures.) I love how it looks like part of the exterior is corroding on itself. ;)

LA History: Cross Roads of the World

LAist has a history expose on architectural original "Cross Roads of the World" (one of the first LA shopping malls). This Art Deco Icon still stands in Hollywood, one of few originals to LA that hasn't been torn down or remodeled into condos.

What I found interesting is how,(as reported by Lindsay Williams-Ross of LAist), the Cross Roads came into being from a murderous past:


"While the Cross Roads was a spectacular shopping complex and tourist attraction, how it came to be is very curious. Mrs. Crawford was the widow of an infamous man named Charles Crawford, known as anything from a prominent West Coast brothel and casino operator nicknamed "Goodtime Charlie", to "the Gray Wolf of Spring Street," to a prominent local politician, to an organized crime boss, or as the "model for some of Raymond Chandler's juicier villains" (Rasmussen). According to a detailed articled about Crawford by Cecilia Rasmussen published in 1999 in the LA Times, "[Charles Crawford's] notorious viciousness and cunning helped take public corruption to a new level in Los Angeles city government in the 1920s." Crawford, however, became most well known in 1931 as a corpse; he and newspaper man Herbert Spencer were shot and killed by former Deputy District Attorney David Clark. The incident took place in Crawford's real estate office, which just happened to be located at 6665 Sunset Boulevard."

READ THE WHOLE LAist ARTICLE