1.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
HOK (firm)
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HOK, formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, is an American worldwide design, architecture, engineering and urban planning firm. As of 2016, HOK is the largest U. S. -based architecture-engineering firm, the firm maintains more than 1,800 professional staff across a global network of 23 offices and is active in all major architectural specialties. Its senior leaders are located in different locations across the world. HOK was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1955, the design firm started with 26 employees and its three founders. The practices first building designs were schools in St. Louis suburbs, another prominent school they designed was the Saint Louis Priory School. Also in 1968, HOK launched its interior design practice, HOK also expanded into Washington, DC, after winning the commission to design the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 1973, HOK established a presence in New York by acquiring Kahn & Jacobs, in 1979, George Kassabaum was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. In 1983, HOK formed HOK Sport Venue Event, which became a leader in designing sport stadiums, arenas, in January 2009, the Board of HOK Group, Inc. and managers of HOK Sports Facilities, LLC transferred ownership of HOK Sport to leaders of that practice. The company became an independent firm, and rebranded itself as Populous, HOKs first office outside the United States opened in Hong Kong in 1984. In 1987, the opened a London office and then, in 1995. In November 1994, HOK acquired CRSS Architects, Inc. based in Houston, Texas, adding offices in Houston, HOK established its first offices in Canada in 1997 with the acquisition of Urbana Architects. In 2004, George Hellmuths nephew, William Hellmuth, was named president of the firm, by 2007, international work represented more than 40% of HOKs annual revenue. In 2008, HOK opened an office in Mumbai, India, in 2010, it established an office in Seattle, Washington. In 2012, HOK Chairman Bill Valentine retired after 50 years with the firm, HOK Chief Executive Officer Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA, assumed the role of chairman. In 2013, HOK acquired the New York and Shanghai offices of hospitality design firm BBG-BBGM, bBG-BBGMs office in Washington, D. C. continues to operate as BBGM. In 2014, ORO Editions published “HOK Tall Buildings, ” a 300-page book exploring the design of the contemporary high-rise, the acquisition enabled HOK to launch a new global Sports + Recreation + Entertainment design practice and to open new offices in Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio. In January 2016, HOK announced that Bill Hellmuth, the president, would succeed Patrick MacLeamy as CEO. MacLeamy continued to serve as chairman of HOK, in 1983, HOK introduced HOK Draw, computer-aided drafting software products that specialized in conceptual architectural design
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Gensler
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M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc. referred to as Gensler, is an American design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco. In 2015, Gensler generated $1.18 billion in revenue, as of 2015, it operated offices in 46 cities in 16 countries worldwide. Art and Drue Gensler, and their associate, James Follett and it is also involved in planning and urban design, brand strategy, environmental graphic design, mission-critical facilities, sustainable design consulting and other areas. As of 2015, the firm employed more than 5,000 people working in 46 offices in 16 countries, genslers newest offices is at the Custard Factory in Birmingham UK which was opened in 2016. Gensler was awarded the Architecture Firm Award in 2000 by the American Institute of Architects, in 2015, Gensler was awarded for their proposed London Underline project. Founder Art Gensler received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Design Futures Council in 2016, Arthur Gensler - AIACC Lifetime Achievement Award. Art Gensler proud of design, largest architect firm in world
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AECOM
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AECOM is an American multinational engineering firm that provides design, consulting, construction, and management services to a wide range of clients. AECOM has approximately 95,000 employees, and is number 156 on the 2016 Fortune 500 list, Fortune named AECOM as one of 2015 Worlds Most Admired Companies, and again in 2016 &2017. Engineering News-Record ranked AECOM as Number 1 Global Design Firm, the companys official name from 1990 to early January 2015 was AECOM Technology Corporation. Today, it is simply as AECOM. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ACM and he gained control of some 200,000 acres and formed Swiss Oil Company in Lexington. In 1924 Miles launched an operation called Ashland Refining Company. In 1966 Ashland acquired Warren Brothers and became involved in the construction and construction materials business. The company was now able to take advantage of refinery byproducts used to produce asphalt. Ashland grew into one of the nations major road-construction firms and laid a foundation for AECOM. In the 1970s Ashland Oil & Refining became Ashland Oil, Inc, five years later the company consolidated its construction assets into a construction division and also formed a coal subsidiary, indicative of a changing focus at Ashland. Although it generated more than $1 billion a year in sales, by 1980 Ashland sold off its production assets, and a year later was reorganized as a modified holding company. A new corporate strategy was implemented as Ashland now focused on refining and marketing, in 1984 Ashland acquired Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenall, a global provider of transportation-related engineering services. Originally focused on projects, after World War II it had become one of the first integrated engineering. The acquisition of DMJM also included its president, Richard G. Newman, AECOMs future chief executive, in 1985 DMJM became part of a new subsidiary, Ashland Technology Corporation. Two years later Newman was named its new president, architects Ellerbe Becket and Davis Langdon, the quantity surveyors and construction consultants. AECOM went public during May 2007 with a public offering on the NYSE. On January 8,2008 AECOM acquired The Services Group, Inc. a provider of consulting services to the US Agency for International Development and other multi-lateral donor organizations. On July 28,2008, AECOM completed its purchase of Earth Tech Inc. a consulting and engineering firm, from Tyco International for $510 million
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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP is an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, with a portfolio spanning thousands of projects across 50 countries, SOM is one of the largest architectural firms in the world. Their primary expertise is in commercial buildings, as it was SOM that led the way to the widespread use of the modern international-style or glass box skyscraper. They have designed several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the John Hancock Center, Willis Tower, due to their faithful following of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohes ideas, Frank Lloyd Wright nicknamed them The Three Blind Mies. Notable SOM architects include, Edward Charles Bassett, Natalie de Blois, Gordon Bunshaft, David Childs, Myron Goldsmith, Bruce Graham, Gertrude Kerbis, Fazlur Rahman Khan. Lucien Lagrange, Walter Netsch, Larry Oltmanns, Brigitte Peterhans, Adrian Smith, indeed, Khan is responsible for developing the algorithms that made the Hancock building and many subsequent skyscrapers possible. Another notable SOM engineer is Bill Baker, who is best known as the engineer of Burj Khalifa, to support the towers record heights and slim footprint, he developed the buttressed core structural system, consisting of a hexagonal core reinforced by three buttresses that form a Y shape. Davis Allen, a pioneer in corporate interior design, had a tenure at SOM. Throughout its history, SOM has been recognized more than 1,700 awards for quality. More than 900 of these awards have received since 1998. In 1996 and 1962, SOM received the Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, SOM is the only firm to have received this honor twic13 R+D Awards from Architect Magazine. In addition, a collaboration between SOM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology, was honored with a fifth award. SOM has completed over 10,000 projects around the United States and in more than 50 other countries around the world, london, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi. Smaller field offices supplement these in such as the Philippines. Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 829.8 m, construction began on 21 September 2004, and the building officially opened on 4 January 2010. The towers architect and engineer was Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, george J. Efstathiou was the Managing Partner for the project. Bill Baker, the Chief Structural Engineer for the project, invented the buttressed core structural system in order to enable the tower to achieve such heights economically, Adrian Smith, who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill until 2006, was the Consulting Design Partner. The primary builder is a joint venture of South Korean Samsung C&T, one World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, is located in Manhattan, New York City, and is 1,776 ft high, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere
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Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Bay Area Rapid Transit is a public transportation system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The rapid transit elevated and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in Alameda, Contra Costa, BART operates 5 routes on 104 miles of track connecting 45 stations, plus a 3. 2-mile automated guideway transit line to the Oakland International Airport which adds an additional station. A spur line in eastern Contra Costa County will utilize other rail technologies, with an average of 433,000 weekday passengers and 128.5 million annual passengers in fiscal year 2016, BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States. The systems acronym is pronounced Bart, like the name, BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, formed in 1957. As of 2017, it is being expanded to San Jose with the consecutive Warm Springs, some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Systems current coverage area was once served by an electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System. This early 20th-century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the deck of the Bay Bridge. By the mid-1950s, that system had been dismantled in favor of highway travel, a new rapid-transit system was proposed to take the place of the Key System during the late 1940s, and formal planning for it began in the 1950s. Some funding was secured for the BART system in 1959, passenger service began on September 11,1972, initially just between MacArthur and Fremont. All nine Bay Area counties were involved in the planning and envisioned to be connected by BART, before the system began revenue service, serious problems in the design and operation of the Automatic Train Control system were observed. Three engineers working for BART, Max Blankenzee, Robert Bruder, BART management was dismissive of their concerns, so the three took the issue to the board of directors. All but two of the directors voted in February 1972 to support management and reject the safety concerns, management retaliated against the engineers, firing them in March 1972. The IEEE later filed the first amicus brief in its history to support the engineers. The California Society of Professional Engineers reported to the California State Senate in June 1972 that there were serious safety risks with the ATC. Legislative analyst A. Alan Post, opened an investigation immediately, an ATC failure caused the train to run off the end of the elevated track and crash to the ground, injuring four people on-board, and drawing national and international attention. The “Fremont Flyer” led to a redesign of the train controls. The California State Public Utilities Commission imposed stringent oversight over train operations, the legislative analyst issued the first of three “Post Reports” in November 1972. The report was “sharply critical” of BART, finding that the ATC system was unreliable, the ATC program was mismanaged, and “no solution was in sight. ”The report accused BART of paying excessive fees for engineering services. BART’s general manager called the indictment of safety in the Post Report “not only disappointing, telephone calls were placed manually between stations, instead
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Muni Metro
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Muni Metro is a light rail/streetcar hybrid system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. With an average ridership of 128,500 passengers as of the fourth quarter of 2014. Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 light rail vehicles made by Breda, Muni Metro is the modern incarnation of the traditional streetcar system that had served San Francisco since the late 19th century. Recently, the system has undergone expansion, most notably the Third Street Light Rail Project, completed in 2007, other projects, such as the Central Subway, are underway. Muni Metro descended from the traditional streetcar system started on December 28,1912. The first streetcar line, the A Geary, ran from Kearny and Market Streets in the Financial District to Fulton Street, the system slowly expanded, opening the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, allowing streetcars to run to the southwestern quadrant of the city. By 1921, the city was operating 304 miles of trolley lines and 25 miles of cable car lines. The last line to service before 2007 was the N Judah. However, five heavily used streetcar lines traveled for at least part of their routes through tunnels or otherwise reserved right-of-way, as a result, these lines, running PCC streetcars, continued in operation. The new tunnel would be connected to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel, the new underground stations would feature high platforms, and the older stations would be retrofitted with the same, which meant that the PCCs could not be used in them. Hence, a fleet of new rail vehicles was ordered from Boeing-Vertol. The K and M lines were extended to Balboa Park during this time, on February 18,1980, the Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, and the subway was served only on weekdays until 1982. The K Ingleside line began using the Metro subway on weekdays on June 11,1980, the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines on December 17,1980, and lastly the J Church line on June 17,1981. Meanwhile, weekend service on all five lines continued to use PCC cars operating on the surface of Market Street through to the Transbay Terminal, finally, on November 20,1982, the Muni Metro subway began operating seven days a week. At the time, there were no plans to revive any service on the surface of Market Street or return PCCs to regular running. However, tracks were rehabilitated for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival, Muni criticism had been something of a feature of life in San Francisco, and not without reason. The Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly, Muni did take steps to address these problems
