Things have been grim here, summerwise. It’s unseemly to say this, in the face of the East Coast heat wave, but we have been freezing all week. So much so that Tom has considered turning ‘fog’ into his own three-letter expletive. I guess we’re supposed to expect as much from a summer in San Francisco, but this has been a little over the top.
Anything that breaks up the chill is welcome, so when Tom asked if the kids and I could spend some quality time up at the Civic Center renewing the Fictional Business Name for our office, we thought, “Why not?” At first, I was a bit concerned about two kids in a county office not particularly known for zippy service. Once we got up there though, I was won over yet again by the building itself, which is Frank Lloyd Wright’s last commissioned building. I only have some quick shots taken with my phone, but fortunately there are lots of images on the interweb, like these over at GreatBuildings.com. 
There’s an excellent exhibit on the ground floor with the history of the building and some early models that are spectacular.
Architectural models rock, and this one was inspiring.
The kids and I spent some time wandering around and looking for recurring shapes – circles and long long ovals – and admiring the original signage. Oh so beautiful. It hurts a bit to see the gorgeous original doors and windows taped all over with laser-printed directions and notices in a clutter of colors and fonts, though. I’m afraid some of our friends who work as graphic or industrial designers might just start crying softly at the sight of it.
These are the gates that fold out and lock at night.
There was a classic Frank Lloyd Wright moment when we were walking out of the ground floor atrium, and Honey noticed that this garden ended outside the exterior glass wall. She did a double take at the whole indoor-outdoor design and her delight would have made him cross his arms and cock and eyebrow at any critics – “See? I told you so.”
This is actually one of the driveways – the building manages to be retro and futuristic at the same time.
All in all – foggin’ incredible.