The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

I was feeding the parking meter at the corner of Spear and Howard Streets in San Francisco’s south of Market area when Cora pointed up at one of the many high rise buildings going up in the area.
“Look at that building.”

Following her finger I gazed up at a strange twisted tower. It looked like some giant had planted it into the concrete and over tightening, caused the building to contort. Is this a  a preview of a structure tortured by the next big earthquake? We haven’t had one of those in San Francisco since my birthday in 1989 and the construction debris and chain link fence still surrounding the tower identify it as a work still in progress. This curious structure just begs to be photographed.

MIRA Tower As Shot

As originally shot from Howard Street

A young woman with the same idea stopped in the middle of her run, pulled out her phone and took shots from different angles. We wound up next to each other and between our skyward gazing exchanged a knowing look.
“Isn’t that a cool building?” she said.
“Very cool.”

MIRA Tower 2

As originally shot from Spear St.

The building is called MIRA, a 39 story, 422 foot gnarled looking residential monolith designed by Studio Gang Architects.  Construction began in 2017 and completion is scheduled for 2020.

If you’re going to design a twisted building you have to expect some twisted interpretations and to that I offer:

MIRA Tower Mono

Monochrome MIRA

MIRA Monochrome

MIRA in surreal mono

Solarized 2

MIRA surreastic

Twirling MIRA

MIRA with an added twist

MIRA is located just two blocks from the San Francisco bayfront promenade, The Embarcadero.  A condo on the east side will afford a panorama of the bay, the Bay Bridge, the East Bay Hills and spectacular sunrises. One has to wonder if a warped building will get you a warped view.  One thing is certain though. The price tag will surely wrench your bank account.

For the unwashed bourgeoisie a 614 square foot junior one-bedroom condo will run just under $900,000.  High rollers can get into a 2,176 square foot three-bedroom, upper-floor unit for a paltry $3 million.

 

 

12 thoughts on “MIRA – A Twisted Sister

  1. That building surely begs for cool photographical interpretations! Nicely done! (I just bought the entire upper floor 🙂 )

    1. Paulie says:

      I expect an invitation to the house warming party

  2. What an amazing structure!

    1. Paulie says:

      It really is. As people pass by and notice the building they almost invariably stop and gaze up.

  3. Eliza Waters says:

    Wow, real estate in SF is ridiculous, twisted or not.

    1. Paulie says:

      Yep. Believe it or not some of those junior units are classified as “affordable.”

      1. Eliza Waters says:

        Ha! Twisted thinking, too. 😉

  4. JohnRH says:

    Wow. Whatta’ building!

    1. Paulie says:

      It is that John. It’s a head turner or a head tilter I guess. Thank you for visiting my site!

  5. eden baylee says:

    Hi Paul,

    I like the building. It’s great to have interesting architecture in a city, reminds me of stacks of books in a messy bookstore.

    As for the price tag, ouch! Our condo prices are the same if not worse.

    I guess Mr. McGuire was wrong. The future is in real estate, not plastics. 😉

    Happy Thursday!

    1. Paulie says:

      Hello Eden, I see someone’s doing some exploring.
      I cringe a little bit over some of the earlier stuff. Then again I cringe over some of the new stuff. See? ➨ 😬
      Speaking of cringing, some of the folks who bought into those downtown highrises like Mira have seen the values crater with COVID. There’s some major league cringing going on in those buildings.
      Not enough cratering for us to move back to The City, which I would do in a heartbeat. We lived in a wonderful district at the far western end of The City with a view of the Pacific Ocean.
      Here’s the irony. I would also jump at a move to a place on the Big Blackfoot River in Montana (If you saw A River Runs Through It, that’s the place).
      I was going to point you to my daughter’s piece but I saw you visited.
      I wish she would write more but her job has her going well into the evening. I’m sure glad that I retired when I did. The American workplace is a demanding SOB.
      For a time she was editing for me. She’d kick back a copy of a blog marked up in red like something you’d get back from the high school English teacher.
      She came by it all honestly through my dad.
      https://lifeinmyyears.com/2019/04/12/word/

  6. eden baylee says:

    Hahah, virtual stalking as they say on the Internet, though that might not be politically correct anymore. 😀

    My skills of responding are lacking, however, sorry!

    I understand cringing with the old stuff – I do the same, must mean you’ve learned a thing or two since then.

    I’d be more worried if I reread my old stuff and thought “Wow, I was brilliant!”

Would love to hear from you

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