Mark Twain, during an 18-week stint as a full time reporter for the Morning Call, wrote one of his first articles about visiting the Cliff House. In June 1864 he wrote, “If one tire of the drudgeries and scenes of the city, and would breathe the fresh air of the sea, let him take the cars and omnibuses, or, better still, a buggy and pleasant steed, and, ere the sea breeze sets in, glide out to the Cliff House”.
A very good friend of mine, Tom Direnzo, posed this question to me last week, "What should happen to the Cliff House?" Since the 1980's, I often have wondered and dreamed about the settings of the Cliff House and the ruins of the Sutro Baths. What was it like in earlier 1900's? Was the Cliff House a treat for any and all living and visiting the fair city of San Francisco? What were the baths like?
And now in the later stages of the pandemic where we are trying to return to our former ways of life and work with caution, I think again about what could one do to the Cliff House to bring it forward into a new age and new use? In addition to the fabulous views, and wonderful sea air, what could we consider?
Consider the pandemic as a wake-up call from “Mother Nature“ demanding that we figure out how to: consume less; to clean up our spaces and places and cities; to practice smart manufacture processes; to farm locally and responsibly; to reduce livestock farming; to clean our oceans and remove all plastic; to work with little or no travel by air; to fight and remove toxins; to promote equality; to learn how to respect the earth and recognize that we have to get in synch; to slow down and enjoy life; and to nurture our environment and our delicate ecosystems.
With those new guidelines, and measures we should follow, the Cliff House building and the surrounding site area could be considered as a perfect opportunity, a new total Experience, to transform the set of terraced spaces into a new hybrid mixture of functions to include education, research, nutrition, history, tidal and solar and wind energy, and food supply.
Some of these new spaces and experiences could include:
Once established and running, this Cliff House project can serve as an example where settings for human activity nurtures the ecosystems that we all depend on — a world of sustainable regions; empowered and resilient communities; zero waste and zero toxics and zero regrets; equal access to healthy food; sustainable resource development and use; and a safe and healthy ocean and climate.
What do you think?
What would you propose?
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