Rediscover the City: Skyscrapers, Theatres, Public Works and Bridges: The Evolution of Art Deco in San Francisco presented by Therese Poletti

San Francisco is replete with examples of schools, post offices and other public buildings in the more austere style of the 30s, enhanced with the work of local and internationally known artists. Join author and journalist Therese Poletti for an informative discussion of the development of Art Deco in San Francisco. Learning how Art Deco first emerged during the building boom of the 1920s in the city's first skyscrapers, lavish apartment buildings and theatres, attendees will follow its evolution into the sleeker forms of the Streamlined Moderne and WPA Moderne. Local works by architects George Kelham, Arthur Brown Jr., Timothy Pflueger, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, Richard R. Irvine, G. Albert Lansburgh, Albert Larsen and William Mooser Jr., and builder/architect Herman C. Baumann will be discussed. The talk will also touch on both the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge, the different approaches by each team toward each bridge, and culminate with the 1939-1940 World's Fair on Treasure Island, the fair that celebrated the opening of the two bridges, on a man-made island mostly built by the WPA.

Speaker: Therese Poletti
Therese Poletti is a San Francisco based journalist and the author of "Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger," published by Princeton Architectural Press. She is also a volunteer with San Francisco City Guides, where she has led walking tours on local Art Deco architecture since 1999. She has written for Preservation Magazine's Online Edition, The Argonaut, a journal published by the San Francisco Historical Society, Via Magazine and the Wall Street Journal on architecture-related topics. She also maintains the Timothy Pflueger Blog, musings about local architecture with an emphasis on Pflueger and works in the 1920s and 1930s. Currently, she is a senior columnist for MarketWatch, a financial news Web site owned by News Corp.