San Francisco Shots

There are lots of flowers and greens growing surrounded by cement.  Childhood memories always bring a smile when I see a blooming agapanthus.













This building commands attention.  It's an auto repair shop today.  Fortunately the address is prominent and I was able to find out more about this building.

From part of the description of this building at 3536 Sacramento in The Early Public Garages in San Francisco : 1906 - 1929 - An Architectural and Cultural History by Mark D. Kessler:

"As at Pine Street, all of the implied displacements - both vertical and horizontal - serve to highlight the most vacuous but important part of the facade  - the entrance.  Other facades of brick box garages celebrate entrance through the use of a singular, summary gesture - an arched portal beneath a gabled parapet.  By contrast, the designer of this facade pursues a fine-grained regulation of proportion, composition and motif in order to achieve this end.  This facade is remarkable for the aggregation of small-scale brick details into a unified composition that represents a simple cross-section.  The brick detailing is charming and varied, dense and delicate.  Small-paned windows, gauged brick lintels, corralled verticals, and basket-weave infill impart to this facade a surprisingly convincing residential character.  Located on a shopping street in a residential neighborhood, this building is contextual and striking."

And according to Yelp,  Leonard at Botta's auto shop's service is a good as the architecture.  This review reflects the positive experiences noted in all the other comments, though this one's prose is a little more creative:

"Got my bumper fixed here after a neighbor disregarded my car's personal space. Communication, scheduling, and drop off/pick up was easy and efficient. They communicated with my insurance (USAA) and the rental car place (Enterprise) and I didn't have to worry about a thing.

Picked it up and had a  beautiful fresh bumper (and a clean car- which was an awesome surprise). Unfortunately, another neighbor (I'm assuming it wasn't the same neighbor - that'd be really bad car-ma) must have gotten jealous, because the next morning, there were more scratches :( Ugh, my car is looking forward to moving out of the city.

Anyway, I let Leonard know and since he had leftover paint from my car that was still useable, he had me come by and he touched it up for free, which I REALLY appreciated. Would definitely recommend taking your car here. Great customer service."

The Civic Center BART station.

Jane cafe and bakery.

This was at a driveway at a fitness center.

The doors at the Central Seventh Day Adventist.

I'll do another post on April in Paris where I took this picture.  This is a preview.  Do you see the bee?