Lively expose of the construction of Rincon Center, a mixed-use
complex (apartments, offices, shops, restaurants) in San Francisco.
In 1984, the city made available a single square block for
building, which Ron Verrue, a developer, thought might be the last
chance in some years to erect a large tower in the city. He formed
a partnership with a large contracting company and a structural
engineer and submitted the winning bid for the site. Los Angeles
Times correspondent Frantz (Selling Out, 1989, etc.) writes vividly
of the multilayered, byzantine financing assembled by the
developer, the bottom line of which is never to risk your own
money. The most important instrument of the initial financing was
raising cash by selling - to investors looking for tax write-offs -
huge paper-losses on the early years of the construction loan. The
greater part of Frantz's lively account concerns Scott Johnson -
Harvard whiz-kid and protege of architect Philip Johnson (no
relation) - who became the chief architect of the project. Johnson
considered himself primarily a visual artist, an "aesthete" in his
words, although he also said that "Architecture today must be
responsive...to the community, to the clients." When Allan Temko,
Pulitzer-winning architecture critic for the San Francisco
Chronicle, called Johnson's twin towers design "purloined" from
Philip Johnson and Cesar Pelli, Johnson turned all his interest to
the atrium - where he could show off his stuff - and spent a year
squabbling with the city over the color of its glass and searching
for an artist who could design a dramatic "water event" (fountain).
Johnson was unable to make the building livable from the walls in;
another architect had to be hired to follow him around cleaning up
the messes. After Johnson left the project, several million dollars
were spent redesigning and rebuilding the apartments. There is so
much money in big construction that the project survived the Tax
Reform Act of 1986 - which cut out its main financial base, a $25
million cost overrun - and still turned a profit. An absorbing and
lucid account of this business. (Kirkus Reviews)
"From the Ground Up describes Rincon in detail, from the day the
brainstorm to bid on the land took shape in the mind of a Perini
Co. executive until its champagne-soaked opening party...The book
emerges as a helpful primer on what it takes to build a tiny,
self-contained city. Engineering problems are cleanly explained,
architectural cant is kept to a minimum and a bookshelf of
financial detail is boiled down to essentials." (Marshall Kilduff,
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review). "This engrossing study,
flavored with the appeal of San Francisco and written by Los
Angeles Times national correspondent Frantz, examines the
combination of dreaming and entrepreneurship required to succeed in
the cyclical realty business." (Publishers Weekly). "Frantz...is a
business reporter of real skill and sophistication...The genius of
[his] book is in the details." (Johnathan Kirsch, Los Angeles
Times).
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