Potrero Launch
 

speaking of Illinois, Potrero Launch is coming along:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6225/...367b0967_b.jpg

here is the Third St side:

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shoreline
 

this seems to finally be underway:

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it's a bit hard to get good photos of the work:

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new Nelson Rising Lane
 

I wandered up the new section of Nelson Rising Lane behind the neurosciences building, and took a couple of shots before being shooed away by a security guard. here looking east back toward Fourth:

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here the unfinished passage between the new building (on the right) and Rock Hall, leading to the building's unfinished courtyard, and beyond to Koret Quad:

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the building doesn't seem to treat NR Lane as much like a back alley as some of the others do - there is an entrance for people, none for vehicles...

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the road has not led to construction of the ped walkway on the west side of the building yet:

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in related news, I noticed that the hole on the Quad side of Rock Hall had finally been filled in, tho was still fenced off. I really was starting to think they would never finish the work there.

Nice update of virtually everything happening in the entire area! Can't wait for the bayfront park to open. That will be a nice space to walk and sit, just enjoying the views.

The building plans I saw called for a loading dock off of Nelson Rising Lane at the northwest corner of the building...just off the right side of your photo. Is the loading dock not there? I can't imagine where else it would be, as the west side of the building isn't supposed to have major vehicle access.

I was thinking about that after the post... there might well be one where you mentioned - I was distracted by the guard right as I was getting to that part of the building, and now I don't remember well what was there.

asphalt
 

over in the northwest corner they're making good progress again... since the last post, the roadbeds were evidently restored, and asphalt has been poured throughout (and because I know pg appreciates added sensory data, I'll mention that my nose could tell that the asphalt had not had time to lose its characteristic smell). most recently, fencing has been going up along all the sidewalks, so once we have the road striping and maybe some signage in place, I imagine it won't be long before they'll open it up, and I'll be able to post pics from close-up finally.

here is the inbound road (from the RR crossing)

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here the outbound (would have been nice if they could have taken care of that graffiti while they were doing the median planting):

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they've also cleared a lot of the remaining debris and done some grading. hard to tell this used to be the corner of anything (Sixth and Channel, where the old golf driving range used to be) in the foreground:

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this pic is taken a few feet to the left of the previous one, and shows the temporary connection (road and sidewalk) to existing Channel St from the roundabout. this should be the configuration until block 12 (which comes in through the building on the left) and the more westerly section of Mission Creek Park are developed. it might be hard to tell in the pic, but there were still some trees waiting in the wings in the distance, and they were excavating in the small lens-shaped areas between the sidewalks and the roundabout in that area, so I assume they are to be planted there.

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as seen from the Owens approach on the south. fencing has been erected on the left, and you can see the shadow of the mini-steamroller that was still parked over the weekend.

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elsewhere...
 

Nelson Rising Lane is still being worked on and in... here seen from the roof of the South St garage:

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ever since the CVRB was constructed, there has been what was evidently a temporary boiler facility sitting in its back courtyard. the inside of this large metal enclosure until recently held a couple of trailers containing the equipment itself. those have obviously been removed, and my speculation is the dismantling has to do with the apparent completion of the underground work surrounding Rock Hall, which we had thought was to rebuild similar equipment that had suffered some sort of catastrophic failure that WC reported seems like a couple years back. in any case, I'm hoping the courtyard will turn into something more pleasant now.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6229/...f6f6826c_b.jpg

Madrone etc
 

here you can see that the top two rows of windows installed on the near tower of Madrone have had most of their blue protection removed, so we get a better idea of what the final impression will be. a new curved roof section is also semi-visible.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6041/...9ba91f3d_b.jpg

and just to wrap up overall, activity on blocks 2 and 3 seems to have paused, it's hard to see what's going on at the shoreline reconstruction, and I haven't seen any sign yet of impending activity at either the new police facility or over on block 13 East or on any Salesforce parcel, tho I'm certainly keeping my eyes peeled.

oh, and there *is* a loading dock entrance where WC said there should be at the back of the neurosciences building.

Thanks for including an olfactory update! It seems that Madrone is going to be more grey than white, as was indicated in the models and renderings. I'll have to see it more completely, but I think that will be OK.

Blocks 2 and 3 both had test piles driven, so a break in the action is not surprising while the piles are produced. We should see action on those before too long.

Thanks for the update timbad!

Peanut Gallery - Yeah, I thought they might be painting the concrete white but it doesn't seem that way. Wouldn't they do that before the windows are installed? Maybe not? Obviously, I'm not in the construction or painting business.

So apparently the EPA held a press conference tour today to mark "completion" of the MB roundabout. Some may recall that brownfields grants helped pay for both the roundabout and the block of Mission Bay Commons park space east of Third.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress...a?OpenDocument

http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/missionbay/

well, how nice when wishes come true:

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so despite the 'opening', the fences aren't down yet in the roundabout area... but they've done some more clean-up and sprayed that mulchy-seedy stuff whose name I can't remember at the moment all over, so we should see a lot of green sprouting in a month or two. much more pleasant than what has sat around there the last few years!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6094/...15c41a27_b.jpg

and they are still digging in those two areas on the southeast side that the trees-in-waiting seem destined for:

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here we see in the foreground where the Commons, or at least Mission Bay Blvd, eventually will come in and link up:

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and we have trash cans.

and a new forest of piles has been set on the west side of block 2 abutting Fourth:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/...4b14057a_b.jpg

oh, and they continue to clear the courtyard behind the CVRB:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6042/...5b3352a7_b.jpg

Nice Photo updates! Mission Bay is coming along :)

As always, thanks for the great update, timbad. Those piles are crazy-tall.

I didn't even think about the concrete. I was looking at the metal parts of the window panels they've installed. That's a good question.

I keep wishing I had something exciting and new to show, but not too much flashy. near the roundabout they're still futzing with the streets:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6216/6...9c536a4b_b.jpg

not sure how well it can be seen, but most of the planting is done on the southeast side of the roundabout - tho there were two trees and a bunch of plants left over, so maybe there's more to do that I can't see (the extra color saturation in the photo was done sort of accidentally).

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6059/6...d5193d2f_b.jpg

the mulchy-seedy stuff they sprayed all over the dirt in the area has started to sprout already, so it should be green (briefly) sooner than I thought.

and, they are down to the dirt in the courtyard behind the CVRB:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6226/6...8b367a57_b.jpg

other than that, piles are still being driven on block 2, Madrone windows are still going in, Potrero Launch didn't look too different from the last time I posted a photo, and you can see progress at the hospital and neurosciences building from their respective webcams.

oh, probably not too big a deal, but Recology was tearing up their front yard just on the other side of Seventh from the RR tracks. this is looking south along Seventh:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6236/6...e0c1851a_b.jpg

I'm not positive if this is definitely related to the current construction but I do know this corner is part of the Showplace Square Open Space Plan.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6115/6...9c6f650a_b.jpg
Source: www.sf-planning.org

Btw, thanks for the picture update!

:previous: thanks '77! nice find, I hope that's what's going on there

here (large photo) also is a pretty good overview of the parcel's location and its relationship with a bike-friendly greenway put in as part of the 888 Seventh project. if you follow the green line in the bottom part of the photo upwards to a street (Berry) and hop over it, you can see how the corner on the other side rather lines up with it, leading to Seventh.