Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Rainy Season



Two rainstorms have swept through San Francisco in the past four days. A person's attention is naturally on the sky. Looking up recently while walking down Market Street I noticed the elaborate ornamentation at the top of this apartment building. "Pre-War" as they say in Manhattan, meaning (approvingly) older than the 1940s. High ceilings, thick walls. Large ram's heads in high relief placed between each window on the top floor, as if a pediment were in order. But the real wonder is that wildly projecting cornice, painted deepest black. It is all out of proportion and completely wrong for the building and I love it. Drama, on a stormy day.