Roadside Architecture

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Day 32: Berkeley & More

It was delightfully cool today (comparatively) and I got a lot done. Most of the day was spent north of and then into Berkeley proper. I got started on some of the Oakland stuff but I'm realizing this Bay Area list is really going to take a good number of days to get through. After Oakland, we'll be dropping down south towards San Jose and then further south. Then I'll be coming back up via the coast for San Francisco area stuff. Splitting up the Bay Area in this way should give me and Sparkle a decent break from daily city traffic. Tomorrow is Labor Day so hopefully traffic will be light and help me navigate a lot of cityness.

The dogs and I got to check out Point Isabel today in Richmond. We spent more than an hour there (a lot of valuable shooting time but it was a great place). The water was too cold for Nik to swim much but there were 21 acres of running room -- and no real signs of critters in the bushes or gopher holes. There's even a "Sit and Stay Cafe", as well as "Mudpuppies" (a dog wash & toy shop) right there in the parking area. Here's some more info about this place:
http://www.mudpuppys.com/ptisabel.html
http://www.bahiker.com/eastbayhikes/ptisabel.html

A huge fading-away old sign in Rodeo:



***********************************************

I love this inventive use of the donut shape -- this store in Richmond:



************************************************************

This sign appeared to read "Bab's Donuts" is also in Richmond. It most likely related to the business below which is still somewhat a convenience store but mostly seems to be engaged in small-scale wholesaling for lunchwagons and that sort of thing. Maybe the sign was installed wrong? The arrow points towards the road.



************************************************************

Berkely has many examples of storybook style houses -- and since I don't have a section at my website for them, I'll just throw some examples in here. If you're interested in these kinds of places, there's a great website and book about them:
http://storybookers.com/

Here are a couple of great, giant houses on Spruce St:













************************************************************

A couple other smaller scale houses on Ross Street:



************************************************************




************************************************************

A fascinating modern house in Berkeley -- it's nicknamed the "Fish House". But more properly, it's known as the Tsui House:
http://www.tdrinc.com/tsuihs.html







************************************************************

And lastly, from Oakland, a couple more signs. This one is at "Original Steele's" (a still operating scuba shop):



************************************************************

And this one is a fun twist on the Rent-a-Wreck car rental concept:

4 Comments:

  • this guy i went to college with goes to point isabel with his dog a lot...

    thought you would appreciate these.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/sets/72057594064576187/?page=2

    he has some on the beach as well...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradley23/sets/72057594052441345/

    By Blogger Unknown, at Tue Sep 02, 07:44:00 PM PDT  

  • Fun stuff! Point Isabel rocks. It's huge. But I think the water must be cold year-round if it was too cold for Nik in August. There was another place nearby -- "The Bulb" which a lot of people go to as well. I went by there later and it didn't look as big, fun, accessible. I'm sure your friend has been there.

    By Blogger Debra Jane Seltzer (aka agilitynut), at Tue Sep 02, 08:14:00 PM PDT  

  • I love these photos. Fantastic stuff!

    For the record, those "giant houses" on Spruce are actually part of an apartment complex called Normandy Village. Amazing, aren't they?

    By Blogger Lara Jane, at Sun Sep 07, 12:52:00 PM PDT  

  • Glad you are enjoying the photos. Thanks for the clarification. I guess I was tired and generalizing when I called them "houses". I usually write these blogs late, late at night or early, early in the morning each day on this trip. So the style -- and sometimes the accuracy is a little muddled.

    By Blogger Debra Jane Seltzer (aka agilitynut), at Sun Sep 07, 10:11:00 PM PDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home