building inspection broke browng session and building san francisco and today we're going to talk about odd or excentric erinteresting building in san francisco and i have with us a structural engineer san francisco pat and who has probably looked inside many of the buildings here and one of the great resources in san francisco and thanks for being with us today. you say unusual buildings and one of the first things that comes to people's mind and that's the one and here's one that is called the octagon house but in fact there is more than one in san francisco, so pat said this is around the horn. >> in pieces. >> i actually have a record says that it was constructed here in 1861 by william mc elroy and

moved across the street. let's see. these octagon houses were build by someone that said this was a better way and a craze swept the country and at one point there was five in san francisco. here is one of the two. here is another one. let's see. >> this is fung she. >> i think so. and here is one built in 1958 and it is occupied as a resident and you can take a look: green street and jones. >> across from one of the old fire houses. >> you folks chip in if you want

to speak. >> and it's also used as a residence. >> the fire house. we will see another one in a second and not only do we have those in san francisco. here we have a hexagon building and truly a oddity and someone should have checked it in san francisco architectural digest and recently built. what do you think? in san francisco we have other shapes and there was the triangle cafe. it's on 17th -- >> (inaudible). >> 16th and it's right near the new mission bay. now one of the things that i found interesting is the value of the building is not so much in the building but the gigantic pipe

and the base of a billboard which probably brings in an enormous income and the building is supplemental. >> because i work for people that rent in the range of 30 to $40,000 a month and i will take a guess that the net roug revenf the business is not that must have but the net revenue on the billboard is more than the business. >> and the business is a additional element. >> yes. >> and this is is the children's care sol play ground and in new york. anybody know where? moved four or five times across the country and ended up at the golden gate exposition and moved into the park and replaced an

old carosol that was built in 1888 and the stuff i read was a priprimitive one with horses any a steam engine. >> there are lots of interesting things in the golden gate park from that time. >> and still some left. here is another one of the round buildings in san francisco and these rectangle protrusions. >> tell everybody what the building is. >> calabery come come comes frod it's filled with the ashes of people who have been cremated and it's the last remaining operational useable one in the united states i understand. >> and the last cemetery in the

city except for mission delores and the other ones were excavate all the people. >> what is the word? >> disentur. so there are a few other people buried in the city and star up at the first unitarian church. there are people buried at the mission delores. there are a few people buried here and in the presidio and other than that if you look at the other cemeteries were disenturd and moved out but you have to go in there and take a look and walking through this building it's a big building. it's three stories tall and goes around and around and there are interesting -- >> call emmit2861181 and he said

give him a ring and he does tours. >> and they were going to tear this down and the people did something legally so it wouldn't be abolishes and not land grant but a technical term that prevented the city from tearing it down. >> it was abandoned in the 30's a society purchased it in ti terrible disrepair and emmit was there restoring it. >> it's by the cemetery and it's strange now but when it was built there was a huge cemetery around it. >> it's off of geary boulevard and lo rain court. >> geary and stanon. >> where the cornet theater is.

>> here is another circular building. this is the old built line engine house and built at this time and served san francisco waterfront and freight on to the fearies and operating throughout the 90's. >> i remember seeing it when there was a turn around in front. >> and chucking up and down the embark dareo and now converted to offices and in beautifully restored condition. it was restored in the mid80's and a city landmark. it points out the fact that these buildings at some point went on into disrepair and people wanted to tear them down and later generations have a different talk on it so when we think how much buildings are today and even today they might not meet

our needs or utility they might have great value in the future. another one and enormous billboard over this and this is at samuel at la contan cont ande cost of construction of $3,000 and joseph nevelo and the department has a tremendous record collection so i can actually pickup up the records for most of the buildings and here is the original building permit for this building, and it's an interesting and unusual fairy tale building which is also another one that we drive my and the atlas stairs building on 22nd street. >> in the mission. >> in the mission.

>> (inaudible). >> this is one of the alleged mets in check so shra vackia and in some of the history books and especially midevil europe and means to leave the window. >> he tossed out the window. >> throwing out the window. this is a piece of art by briin gargan. >> and howard street. >> were you involved -- >> no but i stood there talking about the next big earthquake. >> and you can see the grandfather clock falling out the window and wardrobe and chairs and tables. >> this building has been vacant since the quea 89 earthquake anm not sure if they know what to do

with it. >> if you go by and part of the art work shy di he did fake carl advertisements and looks like graffiti but carnival ads and graffiti. and the city has a bunch of old gas stations. >> rarer. >> and this is bay shore boulevard. >> (inaudible) next to the plant. thank you. and these are something whose time is come and gone. you don't see too many of these unless you are driving in rural idaho driving and i like this and who is the designer? the designer is it owner's son and we have permanently recorded. >> in the good days you didn't need to be an architect to

design something. >> that's right. owner's son. >> he didn't even have a name. >> he didn't need one. >> here is another one. >> portero. >> and built for $600 and a steel frame building and used as a shop. they don't sell gas there and but it's there and according to the records and we have all these old records. let's see where do we go? and this one -- >> and that's the best one. >> okay. this is down at howard field. what's up dog? >> used to be on pacific and they wanted to tear it down and everyone went up in arms and they cut off the bottom and dragged it underneath the freeway and abandoned it -- >> temporary storage. >> and now it's a hot dog stand.

>> and down there is a wonderful black smith building and one of the things i like about this building it has elevated roof on the section behind and ventilate and no chimneys. >> right next to it isn't there a copper smith building? >> up the block. >> fo fol sum. >> this is in fact a san francisco landmark and 1911 and as a black smith shop and so many change. a rarity. tools, manufacturers, general black smith. still used as a black smith shop. one of my favorite buildings in north beach area is the sheet metal shop and the shop -- this entire building, facade is made of sheet metal.

as we get closur closer you cane somebody tail piping to the building and it's sheet metal. >> and made to look like break. >> the letters are made of sheet metal and the eave over the door and every piece of this thing. the glass is i guess not. the door is sheet metal. the door jam. fantastic. >> maybe they got a special price for the sheet metal. >> and here's a permit to put it on the building and cost $700 to put the minor editions to the front of the building and a new cement floor 1921. >> do you think they put the correct amount down back then? >>im sure of it. >> one of the fewer buildings in san francisco.

>> which is not wrong for the city. >>i understand someone wants to replace it with new development i heard stories about these buildings and these are two others and there is in the mission at 20th and shot well and ares that were used when they were dwfing the cancer drug laitral and duplicated it there. >> wait -- that they acquired it from the military -- >> it was moved on to the site but in the permit when it says who designed it -- you will like this too. it's not the owner's son here. it says prefabricated steel building plans drawn in the east. the creek bridge and it's a lift

bridge and recently refurbished and reopened two years ago. >> and renamed. >> what's the new name? >> nishkin. >> really and also a structural engineer. >> yes. >> this was opened in the 50's and replace a bridge from 1915 and apparently inside a art decko and the rack and the pinion gear that operates the bridge. >> it's a draw bridge. >> and double leaf bridge. >> the old oriental house. >> and this survived the earthquake. >> and the fire. >> and the fire as well. it was made a landmark in 97 and damaged in the 89 earthquake and

in an attempt to fix it or replace it and we have a building inside and some ways the new building structure is supporting the masonry of the old warehouse and you can see it and it's fantastic how it's done and called facadism and in our world and just save the outside but it's better to save that than nothing i think, and here is the little sign on it and the oriental warehouse and all of that remains of the pacific steamship company. designate thdesignated alandmark in 1997 y street. >> a lot of the buildings were landmarked of the 200 year

anniversary of the u.s. and 1976 we started landmarking buildings and what i think set it off was the demolition of the fox theater and people got up in arms and no more of the demolition and celebrating 200 years of the country and 200 years from now we want some left. >> there was a historic survey done i believe in 76 by the planning department. is that accurate? >> junior league. >> the survey was done by the planning department. that's right. we have some planners here and by planners and interns and planning stuff and we have the complete record and including the photographs from that survey here. the next one is destined it's a classic structure in san francisco and the coke bottle at pac bell and

pat you were involved with that and the responsible party? >> i am the responsible party for this thing, yes. i spent three months designe designing it's made out of hundred thousand pounds of alaskan cedar. and finally we're going to get a nam plague with our nan it and it can hold 100,000-gallons of coke and they were curious how much you could put in there and all made of alaskan cedar and fabricated in petaluma and one of the amazing things is every time one hits a

home run the tv camera pans over and subliminally "home run coke" the best advertisement i have seen. >> and this is another building and two identical side by side. >> designed by the u.s. m marine corp. >> and this was base isolated in the year 2000 and that means they basically cut the building off underneath and put in these big separators with a rubber plate that allows the building to slide back and fourth so the building is intended to function after a earthquake and high level of functioning. >> it's a server building and

generators on the top and they promise it will survive any earthquake and fine afterwards. are you going to show them the joints around the building? >> this is one. you can see next to the building in this shot and piece of walk way and that's a sacrificial slab and as the building moves will slip up and the building it can that distance of 4 feet and look around the side and you see this and that is where the building is isolated from the foundation and we have a question? >> in an earthquake the building will stay where it is and the author will move back and 40. >> i'm sorry if i restated that. >> actually earthquake causes and the isolaters allowe allow o

that. >> and city hall and the library are base isolated. they're not keep to do but you're able to shift the period of the building out of a range if the building doesn't see the earthquake because the earthquake is moving underneath the building and the building is staying put and it's a particular good idea for museums where you have statures and you don't want them falling over so you base isolate the building. >> and to the issue of how do we want our buildings to perform in san francisco? and i want my building to be repairable and usable and fully occupiable after the expected earthquake and you might with no interpretatiointerruption and om

willing to 2 $20 million. >> and there is the building behind and used by the u.s. marine corp and sure wall building and this is base isolated and i would speculate the difference in the cost is -- but i mean if you're puttin -- and this is what an interesting point is the building might be worth 50 mil u have all that high-tech communication inside or if the telecommunication goes down for one hour you lose a billion dollars and some of these buildings get to the super high levels or they require double and triple redundancy. >> question in the back. >> base isolated to what

intensity earthquake? >> we design for the maximum - well, the code looks at design base earthquake which is 500 year event and that is 1906 and the code looks at the maximum credible earthquake and which is a thousand year and looking at these people and what they did and i suspect they did to maximum credible which is 40 percent higher than the base or 1906. >> yeah hold on a second. lou we have harvey here. >> i have a question. i do understand what you just said there are two similar buildings and one is base isolated and one wasn't? >> yeah back to back. >> so we get to compare their performance. that will be a wonderful -- >> they're both designed by the u.s. marine corp. i actually

have plans for one of the buildings. not the one that i worked on. i got the other plans and when i found out i had the wrong plans i gave them to the owner of the other building and similar and built for world war ii and one of the fascinating things instead of stairs in the buildings they have spiral slides so in an emergency you didn't run down the stairs and told the guy to hop in the slide and out the building and that was their emergency e aggress. >> and they're designed if there an explosion it doesn't blow the walls out. and one of my favorite is the old pump station and now used as the headquarters of the fire department and one

thing that makes this -- dare i say odd building and has live tidal sea water from the cove. >> the bu bay used to be right about there. >> the bay was about a couple hundred yards away -- maybe 800-yards away and so there is now an under ground i have duct that -- via duct that brings this here and can take water from the bay and into the high pressure system for most earthquake or fire protection. >> if they ran out of regular domestic water. >> or if the pipes broke and that happened in 1906 and might happen. a couple of other things that make this building

interesting and turning it into the firefighter headquarters and they have complicated occupancies and i look at these things and hard to have fuel storage next to the big assembly but they did that. they have fuel storage and parking and right above that the assembly room and lunch room and offices and medical suite. they have visitors and visitors guess rooms and it's the most complicated building of interlocking uses of i have ever seen and if you can get in. >> it's open to the public. >> or you can see one of the old fire horse drawn wagons in the lobby. >> and what the marina degowsing

station. this is scheduled -- well okay what is it? this is a building -- we will go to this. it's a magnetic silencing device and cable in the buy and ships could line over it and see what kind of signals they are sending out and used in especially world war ii it hasn't been used in a long time and intended to be restored as the harbor's master master oe and it's on the marina green and it has this thing on the top and do you notice this and the second town building did and the bigger ones were called monsters. isn't that right? and they call it a monitor and

hampon roads and chesapeake bay in the civil war and a lot of these had monitors to let in light and sky light and the old marina station and i can tell you about this building and the side of telegraph hill and built by mr. gonya and a friend of ours and great uncle and personal residence out of concrete and this is an opening dome in the living room and large room ceiling. >> transamerica building. >> definitely unusual. cost $19 million to build this and 853 feet tall. 48 stories. >> and it's on the bay mud and did something novel and