San Francisco tech companies embrace office graffiti

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Graffiti is a major problem in most cities, but for some people in San Francisco, it's becoming quite the opposite. It's an unlikely marriage of spray paint and high tech.

They've spray painted everything from back alleys to subway trains, but there's nothing quite so bold as doing graffiti in an office while people are working there.

It's the brazen sort of stuff that could get you arrested. But these guys were invited.

"I think they did a fantastic job just capturing the essence of Nitro," Nitro Chief operating Officer Gina O'Reilly said.

Nitro Software is a company with a beer tap at the front desk, and a wombat for a mascot.

"This is completely unique, doesn't exist anywhere else, and I suppose that's somewhat reflective of our culture," O'Reilly said.

The mural is one-of-a-kind, but the idea isn't. It turns out office graffiti is becoming a thing in the tech world.

"We've done venture capital firms, we've done tech firms, we've done design firms," 1AM Gallery founder Daniel Pan said

1AM stands for First Amendment. They've become sort of a referral service for companies looking to hire graffiti artists.

"I think a lot of the loose abstractness of street art is attractive to them and they can kind of incorporate that with their company name and some imagery that they have," Pan said.

Imagery like the mountains that wrap around every wall of Liftopia's offices.

"Liftopia is a tech company in the ski space, certainly has an outdoor influence, and so having that kind of that indoor outdoor vibe is great for the feel of the office," Liftopia Finance Vice President Matt Cohen said.

It goes great with the couches and picnic tables, kind of like a winter wonderland living room you never want to leave.

Now, some companies are taking the connection a step further, not just bringing street art into the office, but taking the whole office out to make art in the street.

Nathan Tan goes by "Nate 1" in the street. He's a former tagger turned mural maker and he's teaching the tricks of his trade to the employees of a local design firm.

"Our goal is to educate people on what graffiti art is and what it can be, and how it can be a really positive thing," Tan said.

In this case, it's a team building exercise. They are painting their firm's name on the 1AM Gallery's blank outside wall.

"Normally we're on the computer so we're just pushing keys and that sort of thing, but, so it's fun to get our hands dirty," Vehicle SF President Dennis Crowe said.

The classes are becoming so popular, the wall gets repainted almost weekly, except for the part advertising 1AM's new mobile app for browsing graffiti all over the world.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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San Francisco churches finding new life as housing

  SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- In the last 20 years, some of San Francisco's biggest and oldest churches have closed their doors. Dwindling congregations and aging buildings have left these buildings empty until now. There has been a spate renovations in the last couple years, but don't expect the places of worship to open back to churchgoers.

People once filled the pews at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.

"I know people who grew up here and got married in this church; I know people who were buried in this church," developer Brian Speirs said.

Today St. Joseph's is empty, stripped of its sacred shrines, now just another big, empty San Francisco church in need of a new life.

"I thought it was so amazing, but sad that it had not been touched in 25 years," Chris Foley said.

Foley bought the nearly 100-year-old building three years ago. He is working with Speirs to remake the historic landmark. St. Joseph's was closed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake because it didn't meet seismic standards.

"What we realized was, with technology companies in mid market being so hot, they are very interested in creative space, so what we decided to do is we got it approved as an office building," Foley said.

The plans call for 22,000 square feet of office space and a restaurant. The exterior will be restored and the building will be brought up to modern codes.

Cost is most often what keeps churches from being restored.

"To rehabilitate a building like this is about $17-$19 million dollars," Foley said.

St. Joseph's is just one of a number of church buildings around the city preservationists hope can be saved.

"The adaption of a building like that, that removes it from the vacant list, that creates activity around and within a community, a neighborhood is far more valuable than seeing a building vacant," San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission spokesperson Charles Chase said.

The Second Church of Christ Scientist on Dolores Street was built in 1915. It is an important architectural landmark in San Francisco.

"This is one of two wood framed truss system domes in San Francisco," owner Siamak Akhavan said.

Akhavan is planning to turn the ornate church into four residential units.

"There's going to be three multilevel units on the ground floor and one loft unit up here in this dome," he said.

Neighbors fought to keep the building from being torn down.

"We'd prefer that the building stayed as a church, but unfortunately the congregation got smaller and smaller and they couldn't afford to maintain the building, so they had no choice but to sell the building," Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association spokesperson Peter Lewis said.

Neighbors support the plan to convert the church into homes. They already knew Akhavan could do it. Less than a block away, he restored another church, turning it into a multi-million dollar home.

"He put in a beautiful kitchen and when we turn this into classrooms, we'll keep the kitchen," Children's Day School spokesperson Molly Huffman said.

When the property didn't sell as a home the private Children's Day School bought it to convert into a middle school for 180 students.

The castle like architecture will remain untouched.

"The Tudor Gothic Hogwarts ambiance of the building is wonderful for middle school students," Huffman said.

Some neighbors protested elements of the school's plan, but finally reached an agreement. Others are happy to see the school move into the empty corner.

"In San Francisco, I'd say that the majority of the churches are probably worth saving; there is a tremendous amount of outstanding church architecture in San Francisco," Lewis said.

But should every old church be saved?

That's the question being asked at St. John's United Methodist Church on Larkin Street. It is falling apart. What hasn't rotted has been vandalized.

"Three, four, five structural engineers who have said it's unsafe," developer John McInerney said.

The church closed nine years when the congregation shrank to about a dozen people. They could not afford the $6 million in repairs, so the church turned to McInerney. Together they want to tear it down and build 27 units of housing. But the city is making it tough -- last month, officials rejected the plan saying it would "result in the demolition of an historic resource."

"Churches, religious institutions have a right to use and dispose of their property under both state and federal law," McInerney said.

The church is appealing the decision.

Written and produced by Ken Miguel

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT.

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San Francisco parklets: Good for business?

  SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Putting a park in a busy commercial district to beautify and increase street traffic sounds like a good idea, but some San Francisco residents say it isn't. ABC7 takes a look at the growing pangs of the city's growing parklet program.

A parklet is a parking spot turned into an urban oasis. There are big ones like those near Union Square and smaller ones like the one on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights.

"We wanted a parklet not just because it was good for our business, but it's a great thing for the community," said Craig Stoll of Delfina. "It's fun and it slows people down."

Residents along busy Valencia Street in San Francisco say there are already too many in their Mission District neighborhood. Five parklets have been installed within three blocks, some right across the street from each other and two more are planned.

"For the most part they're cafe seating for the businesses near them -- sidewalk cafes. And the occasional sidewalk cafe in the neighborhood, I really like. It adds vibrancy to the neighborhood," said resident Kathryn Bowsher. "The question is, how many of them do you need?"

The first parklets in the city were created as temporary spaces in 2005. Five years later the city jumped in to help people make them more permanent structures. They've been so popular, other cities including New York, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago have sought advice from San Francisco on building their own.

"The whole idea is to look differently at how we use our streets, to make them not just for cars, but for pedestrians, for walking, for biking, for hanging out," said San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim.

According to the San Francisco Planning Department, there are currently 27 parklets in the city, another seven have been approved, and 33 more are proposed. More than 70 people have expressed interest in installing one.

"When you look at the total sum of the parking spaces that are removed, it's not a huge amount of parking, but what it gives back to the community is so much more," said Rahaim.

Businesses pay up to $20,000 for the construction, planning and permits for a parklet, then pay the city $200 a year to keep it there.

"I love the parklet," said Tony Azzollini, owner of Caffe Roma on Columbus Street. "It's been very good to us." He says the parklets add a European flair to the neighborhood by providing more sidewalk seating. "It's brought my business up 35 to 40 percent, so in the past year, my numbers are great."

He says that increase in business equals more tax revenue for the city, making up for any revenue lost by taking out parking meters.

But not all the parklets appear to be so well used -- some of them sit empty during the day. A study released last year by the San Francisco Great Streets Project found that while most parklets increased foot traffic in the neighborhood, not all of them were as widely used, on some days foot traffic actually went down.

People who live near parklets say the city needs to make sure parklets get installed where they will be most beneficial.

"The more difficult the parking becomes, the more desperate the people coming to the neighborhood become, and they start taking spots they really don't fit in on the residential streets [and] blocking driveways," said Bowsher.

City planners say they are monitoring the growth of the parklet program, but so far they don't see too many.

"At one point we're going to have to look at that if we have four on a block, maybe that's too many, and we'll take a look at that," said Rahaim. "I don't think we are there yet."

>> More: Google map of San Francisco parklets

Written and produced by Ken Miguel.

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT.

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