[DOC] Quell'amore di Pompei (Italian Edition) by Oriana Costanzi in Arts-Photography

Description

San Francisco is a city designed for artists and wanderers. From North Beach; to Chinatown; to the cold; rough surf of Ocean Beach; to Marin; both visitors and lifelong residents have endless opportunities to explore new neighborhoods; buildings; environments; and cultures just by getting in the car; hopping on a cable car; or by simply walking around the block. In San Francisco: A Map of Perceptions; the architect Andrea Ponsi unravels the multifaceted beauty of one of America’s favorite cities; introducing even those who have lived there for years to nuances often left unseen. Ponsi; a native of Florence who lived in San Francisco for many years; lyrically describes everyday life in the city; from a café in North Beach where he sits next to Lawrence Ferlinghetti; to the de Young Museum ("a solid mass; a rough but elegant body; faceted but compact") and the Academy of Sciences ("an ethereal; transparent building; lace made of glass and slender columns"); to Alcatraz ("an abandoned ship; a Flying Dutchman set adrift that bears the signs of a life of torment"); and even to the buffalo who reside in Golden Gate Park. As with his book on Florence; Ponsi here reveals a deeply personal look at what it’s like to live in and love a city. Having the unique perspective of having been both an insider and an outsider to San Francisco; he speaks to us in the way we dream an architect would; capturing the city’s diverse yet emblematic structures through delicate watercolor and line drawings; while also offering poetic descriptions of the underlying smells; sounds; and light of its many neighborhoods.A perfect balance of text and illustrations; San Francisco: A Map of Perceptions offers not only a guide for those visiting or returning to the city but also a compelling invitation for residents to revisit the utterly unique place in which they live.