Idea: 106
Thursday, 16 April 2015
By. Samuel Daly

Extreme Makeover: Presidio Edition

— Futuristic Architecture For The Presidio Of San Francisco

Cheeky
Cheeky
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

You’ve seen Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?
This is the Presidio Edition.

Walking through The Presidio of San Francisco — which is federal land — you see lots of unused buildings.

Particularly around Fort Scott — which could be argued is some of the best land in the city. It’s near views of both the Pacific and the Bay, walking distance from the Golden Gate bridge, and is surrounded by the spectacularly beautiful forests of the Presidio.

When renovated, these unused buildings look like this. They are tasteful, large, practical spaces, done in Colonial Revival style.

Why not pitch The Presidio Trust on the lease or purchase of these buildings? Apparently, sometimes, the government sells property. But even if they won’t sell, they might agree to a long-term lease, if you had a convincing enough vision. So what might motivate them? George Lucas convinced them to let him build 1 Letterman. It is perhaps the most gorgeous corporate campus I’ve seen. And The Walt Disney Museum has done some impressive renovation work as well.

Something spectacular, no doubt. The next best co-working space in the city?

While we’re at it…

There is also Lime Point — this abandoned facility jutting out from beneath the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Spectacular location. So much potential. Can you imagine a restaurant directly underneath the Bridge?

And the Battery To Bluffs trail is full of old WWII bunkers. At the time, they thought the Japanese Navy was going to invade California and push all the way to Ohio, so they built this huge naval battery and bunker system to stop them. Why not renovate these facilities? They have a truly epic location, and I could imagine a bunker being turned into a very edgy, futuristic, almost cinematic environment. Like something out of a Marvel movie.

Assuming that it will be extremely difficult, but not impossible, to get government approval for a creative renovation…

? If you had to get approval, how would you go about it
? What’s the grandest, yet still theoretically feasible, vision you can come up with for these three sites: Fort Scott, Lime Point, and Battery To Bluffs
? Can you think of other locations that might be fit for a similar renovation / take-over

Cheeky: Ideas

Ideas make the world a better place.

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Cheeky

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Cheeky: Ideas

Ideas make the world a better place.

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