The Other San Francisco

[Image: By Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings – you must view larger!].

Another project that’s been knocking me out these past few weeks is “Wish You Were Here! Postcards from our Awesome Future,” by Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings. A brief description:

Packard Jennings and Steve Lambert asked architects, city planners, and transportation engineers, “what would you do if you didn’t have to worry about budgets, bureaucracy, politics, or physics?” Ideas from these conversations were then merged, developed, and perhaps mildly exaggerated by Steve and Packard to create a series of 6 posters for the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Program.

These posters are actually now on display at bus kiosks down along Market Street in San Francisco. A little bit of urban speculation on your way to work.

[Image: By Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings – view larger!].

I love these things! Every city should do this. And they should hire Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings, because their illustrations are ace.
Seriously, every city should do this: Produce visions of your city in the future, then pin them up at bus shelters. That’s how SCI-Arc and The Bartlett should start exhibiting student work.

[Images: By Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings – view larger: top, middle, bottom].

Be sure to check out the whole Flickr set, which includes documentation of the posters in situ.

(With huge thanks to both Ross Perlin and Steve Lambert for pointing these out!)

6 thoughts on “The Other San Francisco”

  1. Geoff, Interesting timing with this post: as San Francisco will be doing just what you suggest — pinning up visionary ideas for the city’s future — on Sunday January 20th at the Ferry Building (perhaps with a bit less humor), via the History Channel & sponsorship from IBM & Infiniti. This is when a selected group of eight San Francisco architects present their City of the Future design competition entries (design speculations on San Francisco in the year 2108). Atlanta and Washignton DC are the other cities included in the History Channel’s second annual Engineering an Empire Design Challenge event this year.

  2. uTOpia edited by Alana Wilcox and James McBride is a very similar project undertaken in Toronto. It’s very worth checking out. The included maps are great.

  3. Super-Awesome! Insanely great!
    We need more of this, i’m going to see if i can wrangle people. Geoff, look out for Postcards From Our Awesome Future:
    Montreal edition!

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