8 - Apts - Fox Plaza

Late in 1989 I moved out of the sub-basement into the house next door. My friends next door decided to up and move to southern Arizona, of all places, and as they anticipated having trouble selling this strange little house, I was going to house-sit for them. I was able to stretch out a bit while only paying a very modest rent. It was nice while it lasted but they managed to sell the house surprisingly quickly and I had to be out in January of 1990. Whenever I had looked at apartment rentals in the local newspaper classifieds, I had noticed that there was always an ad for Fox Plaza Apartments right at the top of the section. This was a relatively new (and hated) building so the units had always been out of my range, but now I needed a place quickly and I had more money so I checked it out.

Fox Plaza was hated because the current mixed-use tower stood on the site of a lovely Fox Theater -- one of those classic movie palaces that had lost their economic reason for being with the coming of TV. This one had been razed and replaced in the mid 1960s by a dull tower that was placed on the site in such a way as to create winds that could literally knock you off your feet. 

My photo with the residential floors framed by trolley wires.

I moved into a studio on the top (29th) floor and experienced the joys of solid construction, instant hot water, a walk-in closet, and stunning views of the fog flowing over the hills from the little balcony outside my wall to wall, sliding glass doors. Those were the pros.

The view from my balcony.

I had always been intrigued by the idea of living in a tall building. I believe density is good for cities and towers are one way to achieve density, so living here was a valuable learning experience for me. Here are the cons of living in the nicest place I’ve ever lived. You spend way too much time waiting for an elevator in a building like this (I later learned that this was in part because the elevators had been improperly programmed -- they were correct for a commercial building, which the bottom 12 floors were -- but out of whack for the top 16 residential floors). The laundry room at that time was in the bottom of the building and required not just one but two elevator trips to get to. This has since been corrected, I believe. You’d think the 29th floor would be quiet but sound travels in a straight line and for a surprising distance -- it was quite noisy. During the annual Fleet Week, Navy Blue Angel F-18s would fly past my windows setting off all the car alarms on the street below. The balcony was rarely usable because it faced the prevailing (gale force) winds.

What the building did have going for it, was great transit connections. Two rail systems and three bus systems around Fox Plaza can take you most anywhere in six counties. This would be important because, having left Apple’s Multimedia Lab I was now freelancing all over the Bay Area (see Working For Apple and When the Force Was With Me and Director, Mostly). Being on the 29th floor was also interesting because of SF’s fog. Sometimes the fog would be just above me so the tops of nearby taller buildings were hidden from view. Other times the fog would be below me with the city obscured aside from the towers rising from the clouds. Still other times I would be in the fog and couldn’t see much of anything.

I was living in Fox Plaza when my back (periodically problematic since high school) finally gave out big time. I started going to a chiropractor and to a gym (the good old YMCA, again). Now I wish I had started both a decade or so earlier.

Around the time I moved to Fox Plaza I sold my original Mac (sadly) and bought the new Mac LC -- otherwise know as the pizza box mac. 

This was my first color computer. I still think it’s one of the best looking Macs from the pre-iMac days. (Next: 9 - Apts - SF - Nob Hill. )