April 7, 2025
Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities. Talking with John King, The San Francisco Chronicle's former urban design critic.
The Ferry Building of San Francisco, like many of its citizens, has faced hard times, lost its purpose but reinvented itself for the 21st Century.
San Francisco's venerable Ferry Building opened in 1898 but by 1938 with the opening of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, the need for commuter ferries vanished overnight. And with that, the grand transit hub fell on uncertain times. But through luck and civic activism the iconic former transportation hub has reinvented itself yet again, and is the centerpiece of a revived Embarcadero.
