Monster Mast

Paris has its Eiffel Tower. New York has the Empire State Building, Chicago the soaring John Hancock Center. And San Francisco? It now seems that the dominant structure in that sculptural city of steep slopes and sharp profiles will be a gigantic television antenna. Rising from the top of residential Mt. Sutro in the geographic center of town, it will bestride the narrow city like a clumsy metal Colossus, standing a full 1,811 feet above sea level. To signal its presence to low-flying planes, it will wear gaudy red and white stripes studded with seven rows of 1,000-watt beacons. If it is built as planned.

San Franciscans, ever jealous of their city's visual charm, have defeated other blighting projects before, most recently a proposed 40-story U.S. Steel building on the waterfront. They are now rousing themselves to oppose the antenna, most particularly a group of local law students who are trying to halt the construction in court. In their poignant description, the mast will be "a giant thumb in the eye of San Francisco."

What especially galls critics is the fact that when the tower was first proposed at a poorly attended public hearing in 1966, its promoters showed drawings that looked much like Seattle's graceful, almost sculptural "space needle." Thereafter, its sponsors, which by then included ABC, Westinghouse and the owners of a local newspaper, made changes that were intended to improve TV reception--but ended in making the structure considerably uglier. These alterations were given little publicity. But last September, when the antenna's three straddle legs began to be built, the enormity of its visual insult to the city's topography became all too apparent.

"The tower will probably be cited as a textbook example of bad urban design," says Allan Jacobs, director of the San Francisco Planning Department, who has never had any veto power over the antenna project. As he sees it, huge TV masts should be located outside cities. Most other critics would at this late date settle for a return to the original, or, indeed, any less offensive, design. The builders' response: the antenna is in the best location and has the best design to give people the best TV reception. Either way, it seems that the Golden City will soon have a new look.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.