Last light on a crisp November evening at Rocky Creek on the Big Sur coast.
Category Archives: California
The sun sets over the Rocky Creek Bridge and the Big Sur coastline.
I though originally thought this bridge was its more famous brother, the Bixby Creek Bridge. The two bridges look quite similar. Bixby Creek is a few miles further down Highway 1.
Big Sur – Rocky Creek Bridge
For running what would be the 8th largest economy in the word if California was its own county, the state capitol building is a remarkably low-key affair. There are not throngs of tourists and getting through security was quick and painless on a Sunday morning. Inside, one can really notice the difference between the newer sections of the building and the stately feel of the original structure. Unlike the capitol building in DC, this one feels like its part of the city rather than an island. One can easily walk across the street and get a cup of coffee.
California State Capitol
A classic neon sign on Broadway Cleaners in Redwood City, CA
Broadway Cleaners
Demolition of the Blue Cube
Growing up in Silicon Valley, the Blue Cube which was officially known as Onizuka Air Force Base loomed large in my imagination. With my parents telling me the building had no windows to prevent spies but finding what was going on inside, the Blue Cube conjured up visions of spies, espionage and James Bond-esque plots. With those childhood memories in mind, the demolition of the Blue Cube feels like the end of era and in many ways it is. There’s very little defense work that goes on in Silicon Valley today. And, no 10 year old kid is going to drive past a Facebook building and wonder what secret work is going on inside.
The Air Force claims that the lack of windows was to save on heating and cooling costs but I don’t believe them. Rationally, it seems unlikely because every other building has windows. More importantly, it take ways all the mystery of place. Even at its closing, most of what went on there is still classified so the mystery will live on, at least in minds of those of us who remember the Blue Cube.
Don Burnett Pedestrian Bridge
I’d driven under this bridge many times and its form would often catch my eye. The bridge crosses over Interstate 280 between Sunnyvale and Cupertino. The design is striking which is unexpected for a modern piece of public infrastructure. I don’t expect California with its near constant budget crises to be building anything but ugly utilitarian designs. In this case, some creative thinking in using steel saved millions of dollars in construction costs. My original suspicion was correct though in that Caltrans only permits concrete construction to reduce maintenance costs. The city of Cupertino had to agree to maintain the bridge to get Caltrans to approve it. The result is a beautiful piece of architecture.
Hendy Iron Works
Growing up in Silicon Valley, I never gave much thought to the region’s past beyond that it was agricultural area prior to becoming the center of the tech sector. The Joshua Hendy Iron Works is a window the industrial portion of the region’s history. The Iron Works built heavy mining equipment and steam engines for ships in addition to almost anything that could be crafted out of iron. It was originally located in San Francisco but was heavy damaged by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. The City of Sunnyvale offered free land and the Iron Works relocated to Sunnyvale.
I got interested in the Iron Works because of another image I wanted to create and still haven’t gotten right yet. That image is of a large exhaust fan at the top of a warehouse. The warehouse is visible from South Sunnyvale Avenue which I drive on fairly frequently. On one afternoon, I tried to get a picture through the fence which resulted in a security guard racing over a golf cart and yelling at me. Since I was standing on a public sidewalk, I knew I was in the clear legally. Unfortunately, that vantage point didn’t work for the image I wanted to create. The whole experience made me wonder why there’s such high security for an old warehouse.
Today, Northrop Grumman Marine Systems owns the site and uses it make turbine generator sets and propulsion units for nuclear attack submarines. Work on nuclear submarines no doubt includes classified information which explains the overzealous security.
For modern Silicon Valley, even the current Northrop Grumman facility feels like a throw back. The property is 32 acres of prime real estate that would be worth a fortune as town houses. Even more than the property value, building large industrial items out of metal feels at odds with the miniaturized computer and networking hardware and the etherial software Silicon Valley produces today. The building pictured above feels historic and is part of the original IronWorks. The rest of the facility was built post-WWII and feels industrial. The historic building is now a museum that’s hardly ever open. Visiting the museum is on my to-do list as I want to get a better feel for the Iron Works back in its heyday when Sunnyvale was mostly agricultural.
A couple of resources to learn more about Iron Works.
Presidio Public Health Service Hospital
Built as a hospital in 1931, this majestic building in San Francisco’s Presidio is now luxury apartments with eye-popping prices. Rents for a 1BR start at $3600. The renovation is looks really spectacular, at least from the outside. Before the redevelopment, the building was flanked by ugly hospital wings built in the 1950s.
Empty Parking Lot
I drove up to the top of this parking garage in Mountain View because I thought the view from the top might make an interesting photograph. I should have know better as while people like to look at the view from high places, high places rarely work well for photographs. Fortunately, the garage itself made for a good subject.