2022 Tour Day Wrap Up: Embarcadero Center As Urban Mall
For Tour Day 2022, Docomomo US/Northern California explored the strange, dizzying, and wonderful urbanism of John Portman's Embarcadero Center. In addition to being one of the largest office complexes in San Francisco, the Embarcadero Center features three floors of retail, services, landscaped plazas, and public art across five city blocks. Guided by five members of the chapter board—Hannah Simonson, Teresa Fok, Sarah Hahn, Barrett Reiter, and Anna Grune—we traversed pedestrian bridges, spiral staircases, and escalators through the often maze-like complex to appreciate the distinctly urban response to suburban retail trends of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Portman's ability to choreograph drama and movement through complex three-dimensional spaces.
We sold out our tour with over 25 attendees and a huge waitlist, so we plan on holding additional runs of this tour in 2023! A self-guided version of the tour will be available on our website soon.
Join our newsletter for updates on future tour dates and the release of the self-guided tour.
