Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities
John King
Nov 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Gabriel Vaughan
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7 hr 59 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
A two-time Pulitzer finalist explores the story of American urban design through San Francisco's iconic Ferry Building. Conceived in the Gilded Age, the Ferry Building opened in 1898 as San Francisco's portal to the world-the terminus of the transcontinental railway and a showcase of civic ambition. In silent films and World's Fair postcards, nothing said "San Francisco" more than its soaring clock tower. But as acclaimed architectural critic John King recounts, the rise of the automobile and double-deck freeways severed the city from its beloved structure. King's narrative spans the rise and fall and rebirth of the Ferry Building, introducing colorful figures who fought to preserve its character (and the city's soul)-from architect Arthur Page Brown and legendary columnist Herb Caen to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Senator Dianne Feinstein. A microcosm of the changing American waterfront, the saga of the Ferry Building explores the tensions of tourism and development-and the threat that sea level rise poses to a landmark that in the twenty-first century remains as vital as ever.
About the author
John King is urban design critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and a two-time Pulitzer finalist. The author of two guidebooks to San Francisco architecture and an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he lives in Berkeley, California.
Gabriel Vaughan is an Audie Award-winning narrator and classically trained actor. A founding member of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, he co-owns Little Town Studios together with his wife and fellow narrator, Piper Goodeve. He has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and studied acting in London.
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