Awkward Paint Job

Before: 
1240 Market

 After:

1240 MarketIncomplete paint job is both awkward and incomplete. Above are before-and-after shots of two piano company adverts on the side of 1020 Market Street. Built in 1908, the building recently underwent it’s third graffiti/ghost sign abatement paint job, completely obscuring the C.G. Horn Pianos sign. However, this most recent (and most opaque) paint job frames the Pianos for Rent sign in a really lovely way. If you’re going to paint a third of a building in garish brick orange you might as well kern it to the ghost sign.

Also, I’m very curious about those triangular windows – they don’t exactly match the time period and/or architecture of this building.

You Win Some, You Lose Some – A Signage Progression on Market Street

I love how the paint is weeping off this sign. 1576 Market July 2011

Built in 1907 and abandoned to the pigeons and homeless in the 1980′s; 1576 Market  Street was demolished in August of 2011. I doubt this double lot hole will sit empty for long. While much of Market Street languishes in functional disuse – it’s proud department stores and theaters of yore having been torn down and segmented into dollar stores and discount clothiers – this lot is eminently buildable with a prime location on the edge of Hayes Valley.

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