Lecture Series

2011 Series Wrapped in November!

Heritage’s annual Lecture Series wrapped up on November 17 with a wide-ranging, illuminating presentation on Bay Area Modernism by author, historian, and San Jose Mercury News architecture critic Alan Hess at the Nob Hill Masonic Center. We had a stand-out series with well over 100 people attending the final installment. This year’s five lectures sought to reach out into the city by selecting historic venues thematically related to the topic. The 2011 series focused on the future of preservation, covering cultural landscapes with J.C. Miller in August and digital archiving with George Oates and Raj Kumar in September. In October, Heritage Board member Chris VerPlanck provided a retrospective on Heritage’s 40-year history, followed by a stellar 1970s-themed anniversary party at the San Francisco Art Institute. Kudos to all of our speakers and to HeritageYP and DOCOMOMO-NOCA for co-presenting the September and November lectures, respectively. Thank you to the Port of San Francisco, the Presidio Trust, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Nob Hill Masonic Center for hosting us. We also appreciate the unprecedented attendance and enthusiasm of our members!

Alan Hess: San Francisco Modernism

Thursday, November 17, 6 p.m.
Nob Hill Masonic Center
1111 California Street

Co-presented with DOCOMOMO-NorCal. San Jose Mercury News Architecture Critic and author Allen Hess will explore the unique Modern architecture of San Francisco and its legacy.

“Alan Hess [is] a prominent California architecture critic who has written extensively on roadside strips,” notes the New York Times. As a practicing architect and historian, Hess documents the emerging suburban metropolises of the West. As an architecture critic, he has written a column for the San Jose Mercury News since 1986. Hess has also been active in preservation initiatives for post-war architecture. He received a 1997 Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for his efforts to preserve the country’s first McDonald’s (Downey, 1953) and a 1999 President’s Award from the California Preservation Foundation. Hess has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc) and UCLA.

About the Nob Hill Masonic Center
In 1947, the California Freemasons purchased the Nob Hill property at 1111 California Street as the site for a new temple.  The Modern-style building was formally dedicated on September 29, 1958. Several unique aspects of the building are the Memorial Sculpture topping the east end of the California Street wall. The sculpture is dominated by four huge figures, each 12 feet high, representing branches of our Country’s Armed Forces. Adjoining these a frieze of 14 smaller marble figures depict a titanic tug-of-war in the global struggle between the forces of good and evil. Below this portrayal is a dedicatory inscription, dedicated to Our Masonic Brethren Who Died in the Cause of Freedom. This relief was crafted by renowned California artist Emile Norman.

Chris VerPlanck: 40 Years of Heritage

Thursday, October 13, 6 p.m.
San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street

Board member and one-time staffer Chris VerPlanck will present a retrospective on the 40-year history of Heritage, including the victories and losses that have shaped the organization and the city’s preservation movement.

A 1970s-themed party will follow the lecture to celebrate Heritage’s anniversary. The party is free with the purchase of a lecture ticket. Come dressed in your 70s duds!

A native of the Bay Area, Chris VerPlanck has extensive experience as an architectural resources consultant and historian. He’s a leader in architectural history and preservation in Northern California, writing National Register nominations and spearheading preservation of threatened resources such as the Dogpatch neighborhood, the Shipwright’s Cottage in Bayview-Hunters Point and the Tonga Room. In the past, VerPlanck served as Heritage’s lead architectural historian.

George Oates: The Future of Archiving

Thursday, September 15, 6 p.m.
Pier 1, The Embarcadero
Port of San Francisco

HeritageYP is proud to present this exciting lecture about the Internet Archive, a local nonprofit organization founded to build an internet library. Libraries exist to preserve society’s cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it’s essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world. To this end, the Internet Archive has acquired an impressive collection of digital media, offering researchers, scholars, and the general public permanent access to many facets of San Francisco’s history. The Archive also sponsors other projects such as OpenLibrary.org, an open, editable library catalog committed to building a page on the web for every book ever published.

Come hear from the Internet Archive’s George Oates about how digital archiving works, see highlights from their San Francisco history collections, and learn about how these resources will influence the future of preservation. Perhaps even Heritage’s own collection could be digitized in the future…the possibilities are endless!

JC Miller: Thomas Church’s Fay Park

Thursday, August 18, 6 p.m.
Golden Gate Club
135 Fisher Loop, The Presidio

Landscape architect and U.C. Berkeley-extension professor JC Miller will provide an overview of the recent restoration of master landscape architect Thomas Church’s Fay Park.

The 1957 park is a Church garden, distinguished by its unique use of twin gazebos.

Landscape architect JC Miller opened Miller Studio after a dozen years of professional practice. His project experience includes public parks, historic landscapes, educational environments, civic spaces, and residential gardens. Since 2008, Miller Studio has provided site design, construction documents, analysis, and planning services to a host of public and private clients.

John King: Cityscapes

Thursday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Pier 1, The Embarcadero
Port of San Francisco

Heritage’s 2011 lecture series will kick off with San Francisco Chronicle Urban Design Critic John King discussing his new book, Cityscapes (Heyday, 2011).

Cityscapes looks at fifty buildings that convey a distinct slice of San Francisco. These are the structures you notice every time you pass by, and the ones that escape notice until the light hits them a certain way. Included are some of San Francisco’s most familiar buildings and works by some of architecture’s biggest names–but also plenty of buildings that are often ignored yet add a unique texture to this fabled place. An outgrowth of “Cityscape,” a weekly column that debuted in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009, Cityscapes is part history, part guidebook, and part architectural primer.

John King is the San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic. He joined the paper in 1992 and has been in his current post since 2001. His writing on architecture and urban design has been honored by groups including the California Preservation Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the California chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2002 and 2003.