10_0426 | revisiting the central waterfront pt 2...

Last we spoke of the project [10_0412 | revisiting the central waterfront pt 1] I introduced my site through a video showing the visual character and some issues facing the Central Waterfront.  In the interest of brevity, I will summarize the site:

• 300 acres on the east side of San Francisco
• Mostly industrial [production, distribution, and repair services]
• Highest concentration of historical buildings on the west coast
• Contains the historic Dogpatch neighborhood
• Contains the 2^nd largest operable dry dock on the west coast
• Maritime industry is crucial to city/region
• Beautiful 19^th century industrial architecture [should be maintained]
• Minimal residential or live-work units

I could go on and on, but these are the key points to keep in mind.  My site immediately faced several challenges: historical preservation, adaptive re-use, and maintaining a fading use within the city: industry.  The neighborhood was decrepit and falling apart.  It needed a facelift bad.  Also, there were barely enough services to maintain the residential population.  I had a goal to bring life to the Central Waterfront as a local and regional attraction through unique uses, increased residential density, and mixed-use development.  The idea would be that it would become a great place to live, work, play, or visit. 

My plan for the Central Waterfront focused on three things: 1. Respecting and embracing its rich cultural and marine heritage while planning for a new future.  2. Turning it into the freshest and ‘coolest’ neighborhood in San Francisco.  3. Connecting the area to the region through trails, rails, and wheels.  I decided to develop the waterfront [which is currently occupied by industrial uses] and bring several new uses to this area:  an aquarium; an outdoor venue for festivals, concerts, and shows; a green corridor for biking/running/walking/etc; a museum and technology center; and an indoor market.  I also included varying densities of mixed-use, residential, and commercial development, several parks, and plans for preserving the Dogpatch neighborhood.  These new uses would embrace the past but also plan for a new Central Waterfront.  The aquarium, museum, and venues would bring visitors from near and far, while the new development would make it a great place to live.  With the program complete, it was time to put pen to paper and get a design going…

Example of the 19th century industrial architecture building stock common to 

the Central Waterfront

Industrial buildings in the Central Waterfront

Historical buildings [as recognized by the National Register]

The Historical Dogpatch Neighborhood

10_0421 | dinner party deux...

So last week I had some friends over for yet another dinner party.  The food was interesting and delicious and the company as great as ever.  Special thanks to April and Claire for braving uncharted territory and clearing their plates!  I started with some very easy appetizers: sliced pears with creme fraiche and candied pecans.  

Bartlett pear slices with creme fraiche and candied pecans

Next we moved on to the salad course where I served [again] my cucumber pepper salad.  I just can't get enough of that salad.  What's not to like?!  It's got cucumber, bacon, and bell peppers. Bacon, dear readers.  Bacon.

Cucumber pepper salad

For the soup course I actually did something unprecedented and used someone else's recipe!  [I know, how dare I].  I have always wanted to make a French onion soup and found a recipe here: The Best French Onion Soup Ever! that I thought sounded exceptional and it did not disappoint.  Unfortunately, I was so excited about the soup I forgot to take any pictures.  E-pic fail!  [Punny, I know].  

The main course was a 'Moroccan' chicken recipe I concocted.  I say Moroccan because it really has little to do with Morocco, but the flavors might be indicative of that region of the world.  I served it on a bed of Israeli couscous [decidedly not Moroccan] that I had cooked in coffee.

Moroccan chicken and coffee-cooked Israeli couscous.

Lastly, we finished with the vanilla bean ice cream in the chocolate cups from my previous post [10_0414 | chocolate grenades...]  I made a strawberry port sauce that was super tasty.  Just place a pound of sliced strawberries in a pot with a cup and a half of port and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and let it simmer until reduced by half.  Blend the remaining mixture then reduce again by half or until the desired thickness.  Strain through a fine mesh sieve to get all the seeds out and viola! you've got a very tasty sauce.

All the recipes are available on my recipes page.  If you'd like your own special dinner for you and yours, check out the hire me page and see how to do that.  I cook, I clean, I make your house smell amazing.

10_0414 | chocolate grenades...

So I tried my hand at being a dessert chef last night.  At a restaurant recently I had seen chocolate mousse served in cups made of chocolate.  In classic naivety, I asked: “How hard can it be?”  I did a little research to see if anyone had already undertaken this endeavor in their home kitchen.  I stumbled across this website:  bfeedme.com which outlined the process.  Afloat with knowledge, I went to the store.

Returning with a bag of 72% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate chips and water balloons, I was ready to become a patissier.  When working with chocolate, use a double boiler: it provides a mellower, more even heat to the chocolate perfect for things that need such heat.  I melted the chocolate and added some cayenne pepper to spice it up a little.  When the chocolate was melty enough, I removed from the heat and let it sit for five minutes as the website suggested.  I tested the chocolate…it was still hot to the touch.  Five more minutes.  Still hot.  Five more.  Still hot.  I then discovered the problem: the boiling water in the bottom pot was still heating the chocolate.  A quick dump in the sink removed the heat source and the chocolate began to cool after that.  When I thought it was cool enough [about five more minutes] I took my first balloon which I had blown up to an appropriate size and dipped away. 

A word of caution:  when introduced to a balloon filled with air, molten chocolate will effectively render the latex useless and turn that balloon into a chocolate grenade.  A grenade with a one meter kill zone.  Chocolate went flying everywhere.  I let the chocolate cool some more and tried again.  KAPOW!  More chocolate mist.  Two more tries at varying intervals provided the same result.  Chocolate coated every surface of my kitchen.  Ceiling, walls, cabinets, stove, face—you name it.  Tired of having my kitchen looking like Jackson Pollock had repainted, I remembered that water transfers heat less quicker than air and filled the balloons with ice water.  This significantly helps in the setting process of the chocolate as well as removing the likelihood of turning your kitchen into warzone.

My chocolate-dipped water balloons

A casualty of culinary curiosity.

Hard work pays off: vanilla bean ice cream canelles in the chocolate cups

with strawberry-port 'caviar' all drizzled with a strawberry-port sauce

If you plan on making your own cups, here’s a few tips:

• I found it best to freeze the cookie tray for about 10 minutes, that way you are putting the chocolate onto a cold surface.
• Put cold water in the balloons.
• Don’t forget the balloons are in the freezer!  I left mine in for about two hours only to discover they had frozen solid.  It was then a tricky process to remove the giant ice cubes from the cups.
• When draining the balloons, put a piece of tape on the balloon then push a pin through the tape.  This will keep the balloon from bursting.  Instead you get a stream of water as the balloon deflates.  If you’re thirsty, it’s ice cold water.  If you’re not, you better think quick!

10_0412 | revisiting the central waterfront pt. 1...

As several of you may know, the fifth year of the Cal Poly landscape architecture program is dedicated to a thesis project.  This project is one of student origin.  As a student, you get to take a look at what you've been doing the past four years and where you think you want to go in the vast field of landscape architecture.  Once you've figured that out [good luck], the idea is that you create your own design project centered around your desires and interests.  Some students chose very real projects they could design and build themselves, others opted for more theoretical research-based projects.  Others felt leading a community in a process that would recognize that community's desires and needs was more up their alley.  I went with the more traditional urban design route.  My site is the largely industrial and historical neighborhood of the Central Waterfront District in San Francisco, CA.  The video below was part of the first step of identifying and analyzing the key issues the site is facing.  The video focuses more on identifying the visual identity of the site.  Over the next several weeks I will be posting on the design and process I underwent to finish my thesis project.  This will be the beginning of a series of posts relevant to some of my past projects...enjoy!

re|cast // site analysis from Andrew Wickham on Vimeo.

10_0405 | now boarding...

I’ve always enjoyed traveling.  I think traveling to new [and often highly charted places] is the closest I’ll get to my childhood dreams of being an adventurer discovering lost lands, or my more recent dreams of being a swashbuckling pirate.  There’s something about being in a place you’ve never been before that is thrilling outright.  One sees the world through fresh eyes when they haven’t been there.  I recall several occasions where visiting family would notice something about my hometown that I had failed to perceive.  I think it’s the different point of view that makes it exciting and fresh. 

I’ve circumnavigated the United States a couple times on my own now and I like the solitude of travel.  When flying, it’s hard to travel with someone.  Most people try to pass the time with magazines, books, iPods or iPhones, and other media.  Any conversation must be done at just above the whisper, so as to not annoy one’s neighbors.  It’s not until we’ve reached our designation that it’s good to have friends or family to share it with.  Traveling on a plane is a lonesome business.  Moving about town is another thing all together.  But, as a designer, I travel for much different reasons than the average person.  I travel for architecture.  I travel for design.  For local materials, inspiring ideas, lessons to be learned, precedents.  A trip to Seattle, for example, is as much about visiting friends as it is to see the library by REM Koolhaas, the Space Needle, or the Experience Music Project by Frank Gehry.  Granted, these ‘sights’ are typical of all tourists but I go to them for different reasons.  Just like any building, there are lessons to be learned here, practices to be observed, form to be emulated, concepts to unravel in all these buildings.  I want to go to them to see how the designers did what they did and try to unveil why.  But, off the heavily trodden tourist path are other attractions: examples of alternative street edges, bio-swales, parks taking advantage of historical industrial architecture, parks designed by the first Landscape Architect, storm water management practices to be studied, and details to take not of.  Traveling for a designer is an immense study session of the best kind: hands-on. 

But there’s also the act of traveling that is therapeutic to me.  I enjoy the adventure and excitement of going somewhere, even if it’s somewhere I’ve been.  I love airports.  The dichotomy of temporary and permanence creates an interesting dialogue to me.  An airport is a very substantial and permanent thing.  It is an entire city distilled down to its key elements and then represented to visitors through temporary media: food, glimpses of art and photography, knick knacks to ease the stress of travel.  The building is permanent, but everything it contains seems temporary, brief, fleeting.  Something in that I find oddly comforting.  I also find that the act of travel is a great time for personal discovery, thought, and reflection, especially on the open road.  There is little I love more than a clear and open road.  The world’s stresses and worries seem to fade into the peripherals with the rest of the landscape and then it’s just me and the road.  

Interesting roof-drain detail, Seattle, WA.

Discovery Park, Seattle, WA.

Great wall detail, Chattanooga, TN.

Fountain. Chattanooga, TN.

10_0404 | happy easter....

Happy Easter all.  Here's some festive photos I took this morning.

A holiday craft tip:  When dyeing your eggs, use brown eggs for richer, almost pearlescent colors.  The did everything normally, followed the instructions on the food coloring box but used brown eggs instead.  It takes a little longer to dye the egg, but the colors are much nicer.  Red and green were especially nice.  I think I left blue and purple in a little too long--they look more brown than I would like.  Anyway, enjoy!