The San Francisco Ferry Building, designed by San Francisco architect A. Page Brown, opened in 1898, and survived both the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes with little damage.
Until the completion of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s, it was the second busiest transit terminal in the world, second only to London's Charing Cross Station, but then, with much less use, the building gradually deteriorated.
In 2003, the building reopened as an upscale gourmet marketplace, office building, and re-dedicated ferry terminal, with an emphasis on recreating the building's 1898 ambiance.
The clock tower was built in 1898, modelled on the 12th century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain, and is the largest dialled, wind-up, mechanical clock in the world. Although the hands and a small portion of the works are now powered by a very accurate electric motor, the entire clock mechanism is still there.
During daylight, on every full and half-hour, the clock bell chime portions of the Westminster Quarters – you can’t miss it! The chimes are a recording and play through several sets of very large speakers in the tower and are not connected to the tower clock mechanism.
The interior of the building has been renovated as an up-market farmer’s market, selling such produce as heritage, organic, non-pesticided, very expensive tomatoes.
The “market” featured some rather lovely mosaics to emphasise how organic and “authentic” it is.
Here are some of them:
No comments:
Post a Comment