Hidden San Francisco - The Gallery @ Autodesk

Not To Scale
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

Tucked away on the second floor of the architectural classic One Market Street, former headquarters of Southern Pacific Railroad are the San Francisco offices of Autodesk, the world leader in design software. Less than a year ago, Autodesk opened a space where it could display some of the most interesting pieces of work its customers were creating using Autodesk software solutions.

The Gallery is not large, but very well done, with beautiful displays of customer work, interactive media, and a very hands-on kind of feel. You couldn’t spend more than an hour here, but it would be an hour well spent if you are interested at all in how software design is improving the efficiency and creativity of architecture and engineering.

The Gallery is opened to the public on the first Wednesday of every month from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. But for an even richer experience, try to visit the Gallery on an evening it hosts Pecha Kucha San Francisco. Pecha Kucha, a style of multimedia presentation described as “20 slides, 20 seconds” are short presentations created to pitch new ideas and concepts. As they are only 6 minutes, 40 seconds long, they are rarely boring and often introduce some new and exciting ideas.

The Autodesk Gallery is located on the Second floor of One Market Street. It is opened to the public on the first Wednesday of every month from 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

In Pieces

In Pieces
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

Sometimes the greatest photographs are complete accidents. I was doing a photo walk around the Financial District and noticed the doorway of the Shell Building. It’s a stately art deco style arch and door. I took a few shots of the doorway itself, then decided to go under the arch to capture some details. When I turned around, lo and behold, the reflection of the Shell Building in the windows of the glass behemoth on the other side of the street was absolutely amazing! Even better, the art deco style of archway created the perfect “frame” for the piece of art in the reflection across the street.

Hidden San Francisco - San Francisco Railway Museum

San Francisco Railway Museum
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

This is a very different museum from the Cable Car Museum, but like the Cable Car Museum, it is probably not well known, even by locals. The SF Railway Museum is a stone’s throw from the Ferry Building, but tucked away enough that you could easily walk by it without noticing.

Don’t let its shoebox size fool you; this museum is packed with history, information, and in sharp contrast to the Cable Car Museum, stuff you actually want to buy. It appears the organization that runs the museum commissioned artists to create very contemporary yet historically rooted items to sell here. There are t-shirts, bags, posters, greeting cards, and magnets that are custom made for the museum. But the other items on sale here too are extremely relevant: San Francisco history books, replicas of placards and station names, postcards of historical photos of streetcars and cable cars, and my favorite of all, the Moleskine travel notebook for San Francisco. I had just picked one of these up for our upcoming trip to Tokyo, but I spend so much time in San Francisco, I had to have this one too.

There are two touch screen monitors which display historic movie footage of streetcars and a visual display of all of the streetcars in the SF stable which you can touch each image to find out information about where the car came from, when it was first put in service in San Francisco, and all the standard measurements (weight, powertrain, seating capacity, etc.).

The staff (of one, when I was there) is friendly and knowledgeable. It’s quite nice to have a person working there that genuinely cares about the history of the streetcars in San Francisco.

I’m not a train freak or anything, but these streetcars represent functional pieces of history, and more than that, moving pieces of art.

More pictures of historic streetcars.

The San Francisco Railway Museum is located at 77 Steuart Street and is open Wed-Sun 10am to 6pm.

Hidden San Francisco - The Cable Car Museum

Vintage San Francisco Cable Car
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

Ever wonder how the cable car system in San Francisco actually works? The answer lies at the corner of Washington and Mason Streets, in a quiet neighborhood below posh Nob Hill and a few blocks above the chaos of Chinatown.

The Cable Car Museum is not just a museum, it is the powerhouse of the entire cable car system. When you visit this museum, you will see exactly how the system works, smell the hot oil, hear the humming of the engines. There are also vintage cable cars and models here as well as an authentic cable car bell you can ring (you know you always wanted to!).

Best of all, this little gem of a museum is absolutely free and is always surprisingly uncrowded, probably because it is not easy to find. A great rest stop for a walk up to Nob Hill. The only disappointment is the gift shop, which is full of tacky gifts you could find at any of the junk stores lining Fisherman’s Wharf. It would be great if they stocked this place up with more exclusive merchandise that reflect the classiness cable cars have brought to San Francisco for more than a century.

The Cable Car Museum is located at 1201 Mason St. (at Washington) and is open 10am to 6pm April thru September, 10am to 5pm October thru March.

San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival

Tea Ceremony - Omotesenke
Originally uploaded by Ame Otoko

I attended the Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco this year. It seemed smaller as a result of the economic climate, but it is still a fantastic festival. There were less visitors from Japan this year participating in the festival, although they did secure a guest appearance and show from the one and only Kitty-chan (Hello Kitty) herself!

I had front row seats for the tea ceremony again this year, but this time I was armed with a D90 instead of a D40. However, I didn’t have time to sit through two ceremonies this year, so I have shots with only my 50mm lens. The shots this year are very different from last year, but change is good, isn’t it?