olde homes
25 Sunday Sep 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
in25 Sunday Sep 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
in24 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
in10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
inCDSM shoring wall construction continued along Minna Street. Here’s my advice: go to The Melt, get a grilled cheese sandwich, go to the Corner Store (right down from The Melt on New Montgomery), buy some dessert snack and cold drink, proceed down Minna Street to the park next to 555 Mission Street, cop a squat (actually, there are very nice benches to sit on, underneath the gingko trees, and enjoy Site Club !
Some interesting, unusual work was going on right across from the park area. These large steel interconnecting piles were driven into the ground, along with the thick sheet of steel you see here. At this time, I figured it was to support some special excavation that needed to occur here. Perhaps some workers needed to go down into the hole to work on some pipe connections or other subterranean structure here. But later on (in early 2012), after the entire CDSM wall was finished and the west end excavation had progressed to a depth of about 15-20 feet, I noticed from peeking through the fence over on Natoma Street by Temple Nightclub, that there was ONE soldier pile “missing”. All the soldier piles had a consecutive number spray painted on them, staring from down in the corner by Anchor & Hope, and proceeding down all the way to the east end, around, and back again, ending at Anchor & Hope. The “missing” pile was right in front of the loading dock of the tall office building on the right of the park and 555 Mission Street. I believe what we see here in this photo might be that spot. When the Malcolm triple auger drilling rig and crane were demobilized later this year and trucked away (only to return when the final crossings of Fremont and First Street are to be done), I had a chance to talk with that older guy who seemed to be the lead or foreman of the drilling and soldier pile effort. He told me that he had managed about 75% of all the soldier pile drops (there are 860 in total !), and I mentioned that in some spots I don’t see the tops of the piles. He said that some went a bit lower than grade, and that one dropped down and disappeared ! Perhaps it is the one at this spot ? For the record, it is soldier pile # 59 !
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
inAfter the Varnish, Zebulon, Steel Arc, Gruen, Gruen+Associates, and Maevo Buildings were demolished, excavation of this area between Natoma and Howard Street could begin.
As it turns out (known to me only later), this is also one of the sites targeted as possibly containing archaeological relics. Apparently, the people involved with that work checked the old Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and city documents, and were able to determine the location of buildings along Natoma and Howard, and where the backyard “privies” would be, and this area had a good possibility of yielding some finds. As such, the area was excavated down to a prescribed depth, and then the archaeologists came into to sift through the dirt.
More about this later.
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
in10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
in10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
inThis is the Golden Gate University campus on Mission Street. They also have a Student Union and bookstore on Jessie Street in a historic building right by often-dreamed-about 1 Ecker condo building.
There is word that GGU officials have offered up this campus site on Mission Street to the redevelopment plan, to allow a high rise to be built here, so long as they can occupy a portion of the new building for the university.
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
inThe CDSM wall drilling proceeded across Beale Street today. The SFPD 10b officers made sure nobody strayed too close to the dangerous area, but we got some good views of the Malcolm triple auger drilling rig making its steady progress across the street, along with the large crane dropping the soldier piles into the shoring wall shafts.
This same effort will eventually occur on Fremont and First streets.
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Excavation
inInstallation of the CDSM wall continues along Minna Street between the far west end (next to Anchor & Hope Restaurant) and Shaw Alley. The little POPOS park next to 555 Mission Street has been a good place to sit and watch the shoring wall drilling effort.
On one weekend afternoon, I watched the drilling rig crew struggle with a problem. The collapsible cover that prevents the drilling augers from throwing off mud, grout and debris onto nearby buildings got snarled with the augers and bound up — probably due to the buildup of mud and grout on the augers. The crew was struggling with it for awhile. It just wouldn’t come loose, so they eventually had to use bolt cutters to sever some of the ribs that hold the canvas material in place and tear away those ribs and canvas to finally free the augers. The construction crews are doing a great job of trying to minimize impacts to nearby neighbors, including using that drill cover to keep things neat. But that “diaper” was not cooperating too well this weekend !
03 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
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