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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Marie Arendt

PORTAL

John King

San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities

A two-time Pulitzer finalist explores the story of American urban design through San Francisco's iconic Ferry Building.

Conceived in the Gilded Age, the Ferry Building opened in 1898 as San Francisco's portal to the world - the terminus of the transcontinental railway and a showcase of civic ambition. In silent films and World's Fair postcards, nothing said "San Francisco" more than its soaring clocktower. But as acclaimed architectural critic John King recounts, the rise of the automobile and double-deck freeways severed the city from its beloved structure. King's narrative spans the rise and fall and rebirth of the Ferry Building, introducing colorful figures who fought to preserve its character (and the city's soul) - from architect Arthur Page Brown and legendary columnist Herb Caen to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Senator Dianne Feinstein. A microcosm of the changing American waterfront, the saga of the Ferry Building explores the tensions of tourism and development - and the threat that sea level rise poses to a landmark that in the twenty-first century remains as vital as ever. John King is urban design critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and a two-time Pulitzer finalist. The author of two guidebooks to San Francisco architecture and an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he lives in Berkeley, California.

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Book Published 2023-11-07 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Excerpt: What Would You Spend to Save San Francisco's Ferry Building? The effort to preserve the beloved landmark from sea-level rise epitomizes an existential struggle for historic waterfronts... Read more...

John King is an architectural Indiana Jones, revealing the careening drama and the struggle for consensus as to what a city should be. An account that is both authoritative and fun to read.

Excerpt: Tear down San Francisco's Ferry Building? It almost happened after World War II ... Read more...

John King has produced a tour de force of architectural and social commentary, grounded in the rise and indomitable relevance of San Francisco's iconic Ferry Building. From 1898 to 2023, an incredible story unfolds here of earthquakes, recessions, disasters, and relentless conflict. Through each crisis, the Ferry Building finds a way to adapt and prosper. In masterful prose, King ties the building's saga to the larger story of San Francisco and even Boston and New York and other waterfront cities as they go through dramatic cycles of decay and rebirth. And in so doing, provides us with an overdue and bracing dose of optimism.

This book is much more than a history of San Francisco's ferry terminal; it's a window to the soul of a great city. John King gives us a lively and revealing account of a remarkable building that has endured against all odds and assumed new meaning. There are lessons here for every city.

Fascinating insights into San Francisco history and the transformation of other waterfront cities.

Q&A/ feature: How has the Ferry Building shaped S.F.'s soul? Chronicle critic John King untangles its history Read more...

Vibrant... an illuminating architectural and social history.

Portal' has the good fortune of having been written by a dedicated architecture critic... Serious and rigorous, the book furnishes a gimlet-eyed glimpse of San Francisco's continuing struggles - and what lies beneath them. Read more...