Bits & Pieces

The old State Health Building is now just a pile of rubble, I discovered. On the south side of the block, there was a lot of activity clearing away the remnants. This view is from Oscar's (northwest corner of Hearst and Shattuck), looking southeast. University Hall is in the disance. Wonder when that will come down? Not in my lifetime, I'd wager, unless an earthquake tests that X-bracing to the breaking point. So Helios, a UCB-BP joint venture, will soon rise from the rubble. As previously mentioned, the rendering suggests it will resemble the Warren Hall replacement across the street. That's not unlike the UCSF Research Campus at Mission Bay in San Francisco. University science facilities tend to look alike - sort of suburban, to my eye. Wrapped around a lot of technical stuff, even the ones designed by top architects seem to get dumbed down ("value engineered" is the euphemism). The bloom is a little off the BP rose, too, but that's another story.