From the Financial District, I made my way up the steep California Street hill, and stopped to rest in Saint Mary's Square, a quiet place that is strangely unknown to most of the crowds of tourists that fumble through Chinatown. I sat by the Beniamino Bufano sculpture of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and watched the tai-chi practitioners calmly absorbing the urban silence. I then made my way through the streets of Chinatown, going up Grant to Clay, climbing another hill up to the Chinese Historical Society. Julia Morgan originally designed this building as a YWCA recreation center for the Chinese community in 1930. It became home to the Chinese Historical Society in 2001 and now houses their offices and a great museum. Like many of the buildings that were built in Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake, this building incorporates many traditional Chinese elements in the design. What makes it different is that Julia Morgan had studied the architecture of southern China and respectfully applied design elements from this culture. Red brick walls, recessed windows fronted by ornate grillwork, and handmade tiles from China reflect the quality of craftsmanship that Morgan demanded in the construction of her buildings. The Chinese Historical Society has a museum here, so I was able to see the inside of the building as well as the outside. Not only is it a great museum with intriguing exhibits displayed in a creative manner, but the design of the interior is also spectacular.

From Chinatown, I crossed Broadway and continued to the upper part of Grant to Greenwich Street, where I began the steep ascent of Telegraph Hill. At the top of the hill, I stopped in the small park next to Coit Tower to rest and take in the views of the city, the Bay, the bridges, and the vast Bay Area beyond. I then went into the tower, past the mobs of bewildered tourists who didn't quite understand the significance of this place. The murals in the interior lobby of the tower were painted in 1933 by more than two dozen artists, members of the Public Works of Art Project. This New Deal program helped artists during the Great Depression, and the themes of the murals depict scenes of California agriculture and industry, as well as some of San Francisco's leftist and radical history. Among the artists was Victor Arnautoff, who painted the vivid City Life mural which shows a street scene from San Francisco and the sign Auto Ferry to Oakland. Arnautoff is the subject of a lecture this coming Sunday, October 30 in the Presidio. Entitled The Presidio Chapel Mural, Victor Arnautoff, and Public Art in the 1930s, the lecture will be held at 3PM at the Presidio Chapel, which is located at 130 Fisher Loop, on a small hill above the Main Post. From Coit Tower, I wandered through the lush gardens along the Filbert Steps, a difficult endeavor on the knees after a long walk. I made my way back down to the Embarcadero and completed the expedition.

October 12, 2011
I went on a long hike yesterday at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a vast redwood wilderness that is interspersed with exquisite waterfalls. I started the hike at sunrise, in order to take advantage of every minute of daylight, now that the days are getting much shorter. From the park headquarters, I went up the Sunset Trail, climbing a gradual hill out of the canyon. The trail leveled out after about a mile, affording a nice leisurely hike through serene and seemingly endless redwood groves. The forest was still wet from the recent rains, and the overwhelming silence was interrupted by the sound of water drops falling from the trees. The moss glowed with the wet dew, and rough-skinned newts clambered slowly across the slippery trails. After a few miles, the trail came out into an open area, with views looking out across a manzanita-covered canyon. I sat on a rock and enjoyed the sunshine for awhile, and then it was back into the forest. After 4.9 miles, I came to the junction with the Berry Creek Falls Trail. Deep into the wilderness, there is a certain magical feeling that I love, knowing that the nearest road is almost five miles away, and that there are no other people anywhere to be seen.

I took lots of breaks throughout the day, partly from being tired after miles of hiking, but mostly because I wanted to stop and absorb this incredible place for as long as I could. I'm reading California Redwood Park, by Arthur A. Taylor, a 1912 account of the creation of the Sempervirens Club and Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It's an amazing story that details not only the political process that led to the creation of California's first state park, but also the fundamental change in culture and attitudes that took place at the time. There was strong opposition to having the government set aside land that could be producing income from cutting the redwoods down, and the idea of preserving land for the benefit of the general public was considered quite radical. The book describes the first trip into Big Basin by the Sempervirens Club, and their determination to save these forests when they camped at Slippery Rock. The story seems to have been forgotten as our state is now considering the closure of 66 state parks in an abrupt repudiation of values we once held dear.

At the end of the long hike, I still had an hour of daylight left, so I stopped at nearby Castle Rock State Park, which is one of the 66 parks on the closure list, and did a short hike up to Castle Rock. This carved sandstone promontory sits hidden in a forest, a quiet place to observe the fading light filtered through the trees.

October 7, 2011
Some good news to report for the state parks of California. Agreements were reached yesterday that will keep open three state parks that were slated to be permanently closed next year. The National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation have worked out an arrangement to keep open Tomales Bay, Samuel P. Taylor, and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Parks for at least one year. All three state parks are adjacent to national parks, and actually fall within the boundaries of the national parks, so cooperation between them has already been taking place. Point Reyes National Seashore will now take over visitor services and law enforcement at Tomales Bay State Park, while the Golden Gate National Recreation Area will work more closely in the operation of Samuel P. Taylor State Park, as well as Mount Tamalpais State Park. A $2.00 State Park day use fee at Muir Woods will be collected by the National Park Service, which will go into the Redwood Creek Watershed Collaboration Fund. This fund will be used to not only keep open Samuel P. Taylor State Park, but also to continue restoration work in the Redwood Creek watershed and support operations at Mount Tamalpais State Park. This kind of cooperation between the national and state parks makes sense, because the natural environment is not limited to jurisdictional boundaries.

October 5, 2011
I did an exploratory expedition this morning, looking for a building that I had read about a few months ago in John King's architecture column in the San Francisco Chronicle. The building is a high school in Pacific Heights, which has a 1,700 square foot vertical garden of California native plants installed along one of its two-story exterior walls. Designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc, the wall has a thick layer of irrigated felt material that is used to hold the plants, which wind their way up the building, around windows, and extend out over the sidewalk. Blanc has created dozens of vertical gardens throughout the world, including the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, a restaurant in Shanghai, the 21st Century Museum in Kanazawa, Japan, and the Quantas Lounge in Sydney. He has become a sought after landscape designer for museums, hotels, commercial buildings, and private homes.

The Drew School is his largest work in the United States, and like all of his other works, it is composed of plants that are native to the area in which they are installed. In addition to being visually stunning the vertical garden conveys a powerful message of sustainability built into the design. It is a great fit for San Francisco, where we are constantly looking for ways to adjust our modern urban lives in such a way that we can "return to the garden." Looking up at the wall, I could see lupine, sticky monkey flower, western columbine, seaside daisy, a number of different types of ferns, and a variety of grasses. The school is located at the corner of Broderick and California Streets, with the vertical garden along the Broderick Street wall.

Update on AB 42: This important legislation was signed into law yesterday by Governor Brown, after passing the Assembly in May on a vote of 75 to 1 and passing the Senate unanimously in September. The law will make it easier for state parks to partner and work together with non-profit organizations, which is critically important now when we need to find new and innovative ways to fund and support our state parks.