The San Francisco Civic Center: A History of the Design, Controversies, and Realization of a City Beautiful Masterpiece by James W. Haas

Author:James W. Haas [Haas, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Architecture, Public Policy, City Planning & Urban Development, United States, Landmarks & Monuments, Buildings, Political Science, State & Local, West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY), History, General
ISBN: 9781948908146
Google: riyVDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 43572778
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 2019-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Because times were difficult, landscaping the memorial court between the two buildings was delayed until 1935, when it was designed by the well-known landscape architect Thomas Church, on Brown’s recommendation. The work was completed the following year.33

After twenty years of struggle, San Francisco finally had a magnificent municipally owned opera house—the only one in the country. The final cost was four times the original estimate. The War Memorial complex expanded the Civic Center district across Van Ness Avenue and left the originally proposed opera house location on Larkin Street a desolate parking lot. The alliance of opera house advocates with veterans groups proved useful but highly frustrating, if not toxic, for both sides. The establishment veterans, most of whom had been officers, subscribed to the idea of art and music as a component of the memorial emphasizing life and the future. Most of the veterans organizations, however, were composed of enlisted men and people with more ordinary tastes who had desired a building to serve as a clubhouse for social events and veterans gatherings. Brown couldn’t satisfy them with changes to the design of their building, which was not a typical American Legion hall: he could only offer them free office space and meeting rooms.

The veterans’ ire had focused on Kendrick, the alliance’s creator, who they felt had betrayed their interests in favor of the Opera House. Although they had demanded his resignation as a private trustee and had asked Rolph not to appoint him to the War Memorial board of trustees, the mayor had appointed Kendrick and other veterans with similar backgrounds as trustees because he needed them to secure funds for the complex.

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