John King at the SF Chronicle recently had an interesting article about the privately owned public spaces of San Francisco. In a nutshell, his article calls for updating the signage that alerts pedestrians and passers-by that there is an available public space.
While his article had a photograph of the Infinity’s courtyard area, and makes mention of the Millennium Tower public space, I thought some photographs would help illuminate the point that Mr. King makes, which is that you basically have to know these spaces exist to take advantage of them.
In the case of the Millennium Tower’s privately owned public space, it is to the east of the main building doors, and if you didn’t know what you were looking for you would think it was a doorway to an office, restaurant, or other building service. You’d never guess that a public space is available, much less a public space that has a public bathroom!
If you’ve ever eaten at RN74, the lounge actually backs up onto the public space, and on a busy evening it does a pretty good job of filling up the benches in the atrium area. If you were a diner at the restaurant, you might even be mistaken into thinking that the area is a part of the restaurant.
I’ve also taken a picture of the atrium plaque, which dedicates the space to Stephen M. Patterson, who was an incredibly amazing person and father. He was also a client, and we helped his family buy a house when they moved to San Francisco so he could help build the Millennium Tower. Needless to say, his untimely passing was an incredible shock, and it was bittersweet to see the atrium dedicated to his memory. While I’m glad he won’t soon be forgotten, I’d much prefer he was still with us (and his family).
[...] Yesterday, when dropping the kiddo off at camp I came across a gang of chickens on the loose. I know that when you think of San Francisco problems, you’re more likely to think about our challenges with homeless encampments in city parks, aggressive panhandling, or public spaces that aren’t very public. [...]