Inhabitat » San Francisco

Michelle Kaufmann Tours Twitter’s New Eco-Friendly Office

Michelle Kaufmann, one of our favorite design heroes, just took a tour of social media giant Twitter’s brand new eco-friendly office space in downtown San Francisco, and we’ve got all the sweet details and pics! We’re super jealous of the Twitter team’s plush sustainable furniture and fabulous design aesthetic conjured up by the very talented Sara Morishige Williams, who happens to be the wife of Twitter CEO, Evan Williams (@ev). Working for a hot internet company certainly has its perks – some of which are a bird’s eye view of San Francisco, eco-friendly and non-toxic finishes, playful and inspiring decorations, and your very own DJ booth.

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San Francisco Offers Christmas Trees that Live on After the Holidays

by Piper Kujac, 11/16/09

Since loads of us love Christmas trees and all things that bring Christmas cheer, here’s a way to indulge in your tree without killing it (strange tradition we’ve had all these years, eh?) The city of San Francisco has launched a program offering live local trees that you can take into your home. Then after the holiday cheer has run its course the tree lives on where it belongs — in the ground! Better yet, these non-traditional trees have been specifically selected to live in San Francisco’s climate, so your tree is sure to thrive long after it’s christening.

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San Francisco Green Festival Starts Tomorrow!

by Yuka Yoneda, 11/12/09

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS!

The mother of all green events, the San Francisco Green Festival starts tomorrow! This huge 3-day event runs from November 13th-15th and will feature a sustainable food fair, hemp fashion show, over 150 eco-minded speakers and 400 exhibitors so don’t miss it. Get all the details at Flavorpill.

re:Use Canopy Upcycled from Plastic Cups by BIOS Design Collective

by Moe Beitiks, 11/07/09

One of the main principles of permaculture is that “the problem is the solution.” Problem: tons of waste cups created by attendees of the OutsideLands concert in San Francisco. Solution: a fabulous recycled cup canopy. BIOS Design Collective tapped a keg and invited their friends over for a canopy party, building a gorgeous wave of concave color at Stable Cafe just in time for Architecture and the City.

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Habitat for Humanity and PG&E Support Green Neighborhood in Oakland, CA

Recently we took the trip to Oakland, CA to visit a Habitat for Humanity East Bay Project of particular interest for its pairing of energy-efficient homes with families in need of housing. What was once a deemed by the EPA and the Department of Toxic Substances as a blighted property due to its history as a battery salvage yard has become a sunny neighborhood haven for children to play and families to grow together. It was no small feat remediating some 300,000 cubic yards of soil and bringing in clean fill, but with buildable real estate and housing scarce, the effort is sure to improve more than just the site itself as happy families move into homes that they have taken part in building.

REMINDER: Join Our LIVE Chat with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom TODAY at 12pm PST!

CALLING EVERYONE LOOKING TO GREEN THEIR CITY!

In less 4 hours, we’re going to be jumpstarting our LIVE conversation at City Hall with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and we want YOU to be there! This will be the exciting finale to our Green Talks series where we’ve been inviting you to discuss the hard-hitting green issues that matter most to …

Join our Webinar With SF Mayor Gavin Newsom TOMORROW at 12pm PST!

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & everyone looking to green their city!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re going to be interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM TOMORROW at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join in the conversation! Mayor Newsom has spearheaded an impressive amount of eco initiatives in San Francisco and he’s also a forerunner in the race to be …

Civic Leaders and Designers Collaborate on Good Design for SF

As part of last month’s Architecture and the City Festival GOOD magazine took it upon themselves to match San Francisco civic leaders with well-respected designers to attack city problems head-on. In a packed lecture hall at the SPUR building, Alyssa Walker moderated a breakdown of design stalemates and enlivenings. It was all about remixing the streets: “What GOOD Design can do for San Francisco.”

Join our Webcast With Mayor Gavin Newsom Next Wednesday at 12pm PST!

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & those of you who want to green your cities!
We’re interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM next Wednesday the 28th at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join us next for this live webcast conversation with the country’s greenest mayor! Join us to find out more about groundbreaking energy projects, mandatory composting, and how San Francisco got to be the greenest city in the U.S!

San Francisco Implements Nation’s First Mandatory Composting Law

San Francisco already diverts over 72% of its waste from landfills thanks to rigorous recycling efforts, and now the city is set to cut down on trash even more with the country’s first mandatory composting law, which took effect yesterday. Residents and businesses now have six weeks to start composting food waste, plant trimmings, and other items. Needless to say we’re thrilled by this initiative, and we invite everyone to join us as we chat with Mayor Gavin Newsom about it next Wednesday in our final Green Talks webcast!

Schoolhouse Rock Reaps Platinum Town Center

In California, one district’s fault is another town’s treasure. When the Portola Valley School District realized its mid-century single-room schoolhouse straddled the San Andreas Fault — known for its earthquakes — they sold off the site to the town. Today, that vintage property encompasses a super-eco $21-million Portola Valley Town Center that artfully balances seismic safety, community serenity and sustainable design.

Hanging Bamboo Gardens Make Beautiful Biofilters

If you were at West Coast Green this past weekend you would have surely noticed the elegant bamboo structures along the waterfront surrounded by beautiful native landscaping. What you may not have realized unless you looked closely is that the structure was actually supporting hanging gardens of marsh grass and was a way of preventing and remediating pollution from water runoff. A collaboration of The Natural Builders, Design Ecology, Floating Islands and Bertotti Landscaping, the installation was the talk of the trade show and highlight for us at Inhabitat.

Bay Line: A High Line Park for San Francisco’s Bay Bridge

San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is currently undergoing a massive renovation as an aging section of the East Bay span is replaced with a new one, and the old conduit has fired up architects’ imaginations for new ways to use the soon-to-be abandoned space. Inspired by the success of New York’s recently opened High Line Park, Rael San Fratello Architects haver proposed a hanging neighborhood and sky park complete with 1.92 miles of bicycle paths, climbing walls, gardens, and meadows.

San Francisco Set to Harness the Power of the Bay

The Pacific Ocean could soon be lighting up the beautiful city of San Francisco as a tidal-energy project planned for the waters near the Golden Gate Bride is now in the final stages of acquiring the necessary permits for implementation. The project, which has been in the works for over four years, will produce 10 to 30 megawatts of energy with the potential of up to 100 megawatts, and is anticipated to be the largest energy generator off the California Coast.

WEST COAST GREEN 2009: Day 1 Roundup

Each year, West Coast Green brings together the largest conference on green innovation for the built environment with leading sustainable businesses and an eclectic group of green technology and exciting design exhibitors. This year’s batch of booths focused mainly on natural building materials and alternative energy, with a few futuristic electric vehicles thrown in. Many of the products are already available, but some, including Armageddon Energy’s solar panels and the Stak Block, are still in the testing stages. Check out all of our fantastic finds after the jump.

Tiny Sheds Do More For Less

There’s a tiny shed subculture growing, and you may find one sprouting in your own backyard. This prototype from Modern Cabana showed up recently at a San Francisco garden store, which also hosted a Tiny Shed Challenge as part of the month-long AIA SF Architecture and the City Festival.

Ultra Adaptable Green Horizon Prefab Debuts at West Coast Green!

Today is the first day of West Coast Green, and this year’s showhouse is a stunner! Designed by San Francisco-based Green Horizon, the self-sustaining prefab home is an immediately deployable emergency shelter that can be configured to adapt to a remarkable range of situations. By focusing upon simple sturdy construction, prefabricated modular parts, and a bevy of green building strategies, Green Horizon has created a home that can sustain a family of four with a week’s worth of food, electricity, and water without external support. I met with CEO James Pope to take a tour of the modular wonder before the show – read on for the full scoop!

West Coast Green Kicks off Tomorrow!

Heads up San Francisco Inhabitants! West Coast Green kicks off tomorrow, and Inhabitat will be live on the scene at Fort Mason to bring you all of the fresh green designs on display! Taking place from October 1-3 at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, this year’s program promises another star-studded lineup of speakers, an inspiring series of panels and summits, and a cutting-edge …

Urban Infill Strikes Gold in San Francisco

Of all the pads chosen for this year’s AIA San Francisco Living: Home Tours, only one found me smiling from start to finish. I wondered why as I wandered through this intriguing Glen Park residence… suddenly, on an upstairs landing, I spied a strange note stuck inside a fire-engine red Royal typewriter. I crept closer, just to get a peek. Staring back at me, three words, all caps: NOTHING BUT EVIDENCE. The owners’ motives began to emerge, as clear as the double-height glass wall behind me. Strachan and Melissa Forgan, it seems, had volumes to gain — more space, more light, even sheer satisfaction and enjoyment — simply by digging in, building up and letting Architecture and the City take its course.

PARK(ing) Day 2009 Transforms Parking Spaces Into Public Parks

Park(ing) Day! Parking space invasion day! The day to roll out some sod, fire up the barbeque, and set out in the street like it’s your front porch. If you didn’t hear about it from us, from the event site, or from last year’s awesome photos, then you must not have gotten the telegram, ’cause this is the best reason to cruise around the city on bikes since you were 10 years old.

PARK(ing) Day is TODAY!

HAPPY PARK(ing) DAY!
Keep your eyes open today for impromptu public parks popping up in parking spots around the world as hundreds of peeps take part in PARK(ing) Day! Wow, that was a tongue-twister if we ever heard one. This annual event, started by San Francisco art collective REBAR, is meant to encourage creativity, civic engagement, and interaction and is open to anyone who wants to set up their own park. The Inhabitat Team …

Stunning Victorian Renovation Showcases Decades of SF History

One of our favorite projects from last weekend’s AIA Home Tours was a stunning historic victorian that was constructed in San Francisco’s Cole Valley in 1896, weathered the trippy 60’s and 70’s, and was recently renovated by Mork-Ulnes Design. The beautiful renovation tempers the warp and warble of the home’s eclectic past with pops of modern scandinavian design, the extensive use of salvaged materials reclaimed from the building, and skylights that suffuse the interior spaces in daylight.

LSarc’s Randall House Bridges Indoors and Outdoors

One of our favorite projects from last weekend’s AIA Homes Tours was the Randall House in Glen Park, by LSarc design team. The site, typical of San Francisco contours, slopes nearly four stories from front to back making the rear lower floors a challenge to daylight. The architects did a stunning job of working with this difficult site while reusing existing construction materials, incorporating FSC certified timber, and creating a healthy interior environment through the use of sustainable materials.

San Francisco to Have World’s First Airport Carbon Kiosks

Starting today, eco-conscious travelers through San Francisco’s International Airport (airport code: SFO) will be able to purchase carbon offsets for their flight right on the way to their gate! The Climate Passport program is making it super simple for even the most busy passengers to reduce the impact of their flights by conveniently placing carbon offset kiosks in the airport after security on both sides of the International Terminal and in Terminal 3. The offsets will go to support tree planting projects in the San Francisco area.

Ames Cottage: A Small Space Marvel with Historic Roots

One trend we noticed in this year’s AIA Homes Tours in San Francisco was how the frugal use of floor space and an abundance of natural light can add volume to otherwise downsized floor plans. Boor Bridges Architects managed to do just this in the adaptive re-use of a 1940s tap dancing studio, formerly used by famed dancer Betty Mae, into a kind of urban luxury cottage marked by modern minimalism and subtle hints of years past.

PARK(ing) Day 2009 is This Friday!

This Friday impromptu public parks will be springing up around the world for PARK(ing) Day 2009! Created by San Francisco art collective REBAR, this one-day celebration of public space encourages people in cities around the globe to transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks. From pavement-faring pirate ships to mobile meadows we’ve seen some incredible …

Environmental Art at Swarm Gallery, San Francisco

If you’re in the Bay Area and want to catch a glimpse of some on-point environmental artwork, head out to Swarm Gallery this weekend (hey, the Bay Bridge is back open, right?). On display at the gallery, until tomorrow (Sunday, September 13th), are works from Josh Keyes, whose surreal paintings you might have seen gracing the parking structure next to the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, and Vaughn Bell, a Seattle-based artist who is hilarious, by which I mean you can stick your head in a box full of plants.

Solarthon 2009: Low-Income Families Get GRID Alternatives

GRID Alternatives will lead 200+ community and industry volunteers to install sixteen 1.8-kilowatt solar electric systems in their annual Solarthon this Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s Edes Avenue development in Oakland, California. These systems should generate over $270,000 worth of clean, renewable power over their lifespans and eliminate over 800 tons of greenhouse …

INTRODUCING: Inhabitat LOCAL!

HEY NEW YORK & SAN FRANCISCO READERS!
We’ve got some exciting news for you! Recognizing that many of our readers (and many of our writers) are concentrated in New York City and in the San Francisco Bay Area – we’ve decided to launch city-specific versions of Inhabitat to those of you interested in local green design news and events: InhabitatSF and InhabitatNYC! We’ve been covering San Francisco and New York politics, events and green design initiatives more and more on Inhabitat.com, and now there is a way to find all this great local coverage in one place. So check out our brand new websites: InhabitatSF and InhabitatNYC, and if you’d like to stay up to date on all the latest green developments and eco design events in your city, be sure to subscribe to our San Francisco and New York City newsletters!

+ Inhabitat San Francisco

+ Inhabitat New York City

Treasure Island Reveals New Sustainable Development Plan

This week the Architecture + The City Festival took us to Treasure Island for an upclose view of the proposed sustainable development plan and a not so shabby panoramic view of the whole San Francisco Bay Area. We found that the entire place is steeped in future plans and the island is a keystone in what will become a center for green living in the Bay.

$Refract House | Solar Decathlon + Architecture City$

Refract House | Solar Decathlon + Architecture City

Project managers open the doors to Refract House, ready for Solar Decathlon 2009, Photo by Kevin Gardner

What happens when an architect and an engineer walk into a Jesuit university in Silicon Valley and end up on a lightbender wholly rolling for the nation’s capital? This year’s Solar Decathlon, a Dept. of Energy best-of competition for smart and sunny houses, chose Team California to compete in the finals in Washington, D.C. The West Coast team is the result of two very different schools joining forces — 100+ students, graduates and advisers were pooled from Santa Clara University (mostly engineering) and California College of the Arts (architecture and design) to create this solar dream team that created this truly energy-efficient, sun-powered Refract House.

ECO LANDS: SF’s Outside Lands Festival Grows a Green Heart

This past weekend the Outside Lands festival rocked San Francisco, drawing thousands of people to bask in the sunshine and music that filled Golden Gate Park. Greening an event as massive as a festival is no easy task, however one of the cornerstones of this year’s event was the PG&E sponsored Eco Lands, which created a verdant heart within the festival’s central meadow From a solar stage juiced by the sun’s rays, to an on-site organic farmers market, to an innovative array of recycling programs, read on for a review of Eco Lands’ greatest green merits.

Architecture and the City Festival 2009 Starts Today!

Bay Area architecture fans get ready to rock – today marks the start of the 2009 Architecture and the City Festival! We’re looking forward to an entire month packed full of fun events, and our San Francisco team will be hitting the streets to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage of our favorites. From Park(ing) Day 2009 to …

Architecture and the City Festival 2009 Starts Next Week!

Heads up all San Francisco Bay Area architecture fans! Next week marks the start of the 2009 Architecture and the City Festival, and this year they’re pulling out all the stops with another incredible program of tours, lectures, and events. From Park(ing) day to film screenings, bike tours, and another amazing round of homes on display, …

Collectively GRASP, Eco Art Gallery, Releases Its Hold On SF

This Saturday, join environmental art gallery Collectively GRASP for its closing reception. After more than a year of exhibiting eco-art, gallery Owner/Director Aileen Meehan will be closing the art space to recover from the demands of running the gallery while working full-time. Like many businesses, GRASP has been affected by the economic downturn, however, Meehan is choosing to end GRASP’s life with a celebration rather than a funeral. The closing reception will be TONIGHT (August 15th) from 6-9pm at the gallery: 850 Greenwich St, off Columbus, SF, 94133.