Alternative 3
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 3 September 2009 — 1 comment below »
Personally I liked Alternative 3 that was presented at Tuesday evening’s Waterfront workshop…
I enjoyed the classic tower look (compared to the abstract tower featured in Alternative 1), the brick warehouse façade, and the historic shed-style mercado building (reminiscent of the building on the Point that was torn down a few years ago). Except for the clearly different mercado buildings, Alternatives 3 and 4 were nearly identical. (Alternative 4 featured a more celebrated entrance stairway.)
I would have liked to see a fifth alternative presented to add just a little more spice, a mix-and-match of sorts — the train shed roof from Alternative 1, the tower and brick façade from Alternative 4, and the mercado building from Alternative 3 (above). That would have been interesting, in my opinion.
I like this train shed and tower as well as the similar alternative 4. I don’t like this mercado building much, though. I’m OK with the roofline and it’s interesting that it is reminiscent of the old generator building. I don’t like that it’s glass all around. In my view, the main problem we have is that this tiny building is given too much prominence as the main view when you’re looking down Bayfront toward the south. So I think that making it architecturally different from the train shed accentuates the problem. I’d like to see the train shed be substantial, and is is in plans 3 or 4 (but not 1), so to help take your eyes off the mercado, then see the mercado match in style so that it appears to be an appendage of the larger building.
Alternative 1, as favored by the architect, is very clearly a post-modern design. No surprise, since the architect also designed the post-modern train station in Martinez. However, the Waterfront Initiative (and good taste, in my opinion) requires this to be Waterfront Warehouse design. I cannot see how the luminous panels and a sideways clock on the tower and the huge tinted glass walls on the train shed of alternative 1 comply with this.