San Francisco invites a combination of 20 local and big-name architecture firms to participate in a design competition to makeover the scenic, but seldom used, waterfront Fort Mason Center. Firms on the list include James Corner Field Operations, the designer of New York City’s High Line park; SANAA, the Japanese firm whose leaders took home the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize; and Hood Studio of Oakland, Calif. Interest in the competition has been strong so far, John King reports in The San Francisco Chronicle. The competition is both a challenge and a unique opportunity, he says, given the space that the architects will have to work with. “The center is like nothing else in the city, a stark campus of three cavernous warehouses on piers and five early 20th century Mission Revival buildings amid 437 parking spaces,” King writes. After each participating firm presents a written proposal, three selected firms will receive $20,000 to create their visions to be presented at an exhibition in October, when a winning design will be chosen.
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