CORNERSTONE SAN FRANCISCO - HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIP EXCHANGE PROGRAM

ARIEL’S 1ST WEEKLY REPORT

Special events of 1st week:

Day 1 5/30 MON Arrived San Francisco International Airport +

Lunch at Mr. Perry’s House

Day 2 5/31 TUE Brief orientation at Office + Office Meeting

Day 3 6/1 WED City Impact Tour

Day 4 6/2 THUR Visit Chinese Hospital + Visit Lux Delux +

Meeting with Mr. Perry + Night Club

Day 5 6/3 FRI Highland Hospital Groundbreaking Ceremony +

WAX Museum + Fishermen’s Wharf

Day 6 6/4 SAT Noe Valley +

Crosspoint Church of Silicon Valley

Day 7 6/5 SUN Rising Steel City Walk

High scrapes in San Francisco

1

Day 1 5/30 MON Arrived San Francisco International Airport

+ Lunch at Mr. Perry’s House

Feel excited for experiencing the industry and

culture in United State which makes me nearly

can’t sleep. Arrived San Francisco in the morn-

ing, It was cloudy and rainy in San Francisco

and the weather was really cold. Introduced by

Ming about San Francisco International Airport

and the road system in San Francisco, I realized

transportation is a great issue in United States

as most of people owns their car or rent a car.

Before reaching the downtown area, the dis-

tance is very long and the roads are large com-

pared to most Asian cities, there’s nearly noth-

ing you can do on your way of driving. However,

I enjoyed the natural landscape of united States,

even the retaining wall, it looks very natural and

matches with the beautiful landscapes.

Mr. Perry welcomed us with a American style

BBQ lunch in his house. In Hong Kong, we have

to serve other selves in the BBQ party, every-

one is sitting around the fire and chats when

waiting for the food to be done. I think It’s time

to adapt to those cultural difference, I believe it

would become useful to our future. Besides, It’s

also a good chance for us to see how a typical

American house looks like.

Day 2 5/31 TUEBrief orientation at Office + Office Meeting

Our office is on the 33rd and 35th floor of 44

Montgomery located in the heart of Financial

District in San Francisco. It was built in 1960s

with continuous vertical fins on the exterior wall

and comparatively higher than the other build-

ing so this makes the view of the office is really

great.

We attended the office meeting in the afternoon,

I guess it would held on every weeks. Mr. Perry

started the meeting by asking the good news

from everyone in the team, and have discussion

on solutions to different issues. Although there

are many unfamiliar phase I encountered in the

meeting, but I think this is a good chance for us

to have a brief understanding on the vision of

the business and the general operation of US

industries. At last, the meeting was ended by

everyone reporting on what they are going to

do in the week.

Day 3 6/1 WEDCity Impact Tour

In the morning, we have the staff and volunteer

of City Impact introduced us the different divi-

sions of the organization, services and events

by Reuse Mission and the Worship Center. I

am impressed by how City Impact is gaining

every possibilities in helping the community in

the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. This

THE FIRST WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCOText and Photos by Ariel Mok

Left: Photo in front of Mr. Perry’s House Middle: Mr. Perry roasting meat and sausages Right: Our office is at 44 Montgomery

2

let us know more about the residents’ condi-

tion including homeless, low-income residents,

and also the education of those children within

this neighborhood. The dedication and efforts

in teaching, renovating the building for those

essential use, organizing events, outreach...etc.

of those volunteers are most appreciated. I was

amazed by the power of the religion belief that

drives one to dedicate themselves. Noticed

that there are many unemployed people in the

district, they also tried to find job for them as

much as they can. I think the establishment

of City Impact of the district is not just feed-

ing people, but also spreading the message of

hope.

Day 4 6/2 THUR Visit Chinese Hospital + Visit Lux Delux +

Meeting with Mr. Perry + Night Club

In the morning, we have Julia, the director of

Fund Development of Chinese Hospital intro-

ducing the history and the future development

of Chinese Hospital in China Town. With more

understanding about how the Chinese commu-

nity grouped together in San Francisco, why

there is small alley in China Town and where

is the community hub. The new extension of

Chinese Hospital triggered me to learn more

about the preservation of historical building in

San Francisco.

In the afternoon, we visit LuxDelux, a member

only lifestyle experience e-commerce site at the

start up phase. It is an enterprise starts up the

business in a very smart way and I learnt about

how they are standing out from the other com-

petitors by their eagarness to find new, unique

experience for their customers. LuuDelux also

have insight into the current trend, for exam-

ple using the facebook as the main advertising

media and utilize its advantage and function, a

powerful network thus created. With the tech-

nical support, the feedbacks of members from

different channels are being analyzed in a very

scientific way so that follow-up can be made. I

can relate so much about what Mr. Perry taught

in the lecture previously. We had a discussion

with Mr. Perry in the afternoon.

In the nightclub, not only having the chance to

experience the night life in San Francisco but I

was also happy to chat with Martin for differ-

ent perspectives on political, social and build-

ing issues from the point of view of a citizen in

United States. We exchanged how we live and

what the people do in Hong Kong and United

States.

Day 5 6/3 FRIHighland Hospital Groundbreaking Ceremo-

ny + WAX Museum + Fishermen’s Wharf

We attended the Groundbreaking Ceremony of

Highland Hospital Acute Tower Replacement

Project. We having opportunity to meeting so

many people and introducing our exchange

Left: Lobby of CITY IMPACT Top right: Photo in front of Chinese Hospital with Julia

Bottom right: Photo in Lux Delux office (L to R: Jason, Erika, Ricco, Mr. Andy Hsieh, me and Rachel)

3

programme to them. I wonder if there is a way

to recognize so many people just at one mo-

ment, not only their name and also their posi-

tion. We met Jesus who is a guarantee from

CFEA, he performed really well in the class. We

also met Mr. Aki Nakao , the director of General

Services Agency who is a very kind person who

supports CFEA.

The world is so small, when we are going to

meet Brandon, the student who will to go Hong

Kong for CFEA Exchange Programmme, we en-

countered the engineer for the renovation and

reinforcement work for earthquake of the West

Oakland Bart Station at the station. Through his

description, I learnt more about the construc-

tion in United States, for example, the use of

“drywall”, the carbon fibre for reinforcement

of concrete column, and also the construction

procedure for the reinforcement work for the

earthquake in the existing station.

Day 6 6/4 SATNoe Valley + Crosspoint Church of Silicon

Valley

I like to visit the neighborhood in foreign coun-

tries as I think it truly reflects how local people

live instead of just visiting those tourist spots.

The houses in Noe valley beautiful, although

they are aligned side by side but each one of

them have their own character. There is a street

concentrated with small shops and boutiques

selling fruit, flowers, toys, clothes and even

community shops e.g. handmade art studio are

just right on the street. Should not forget to

mention about the big market with car park in

front of it, I can nearly imagine I was driving a

car from my house and getting what I need in

the weekend. However, may be the weather is

not so good that not many people in the nice

big park next to the neighborhood.} better from

archi point of view instead of tourist

Ming took us to Crosspoint Church at Milpi-

tas to attend a concert by Tats Lau Yee-Tat,

a songwriter, musician and comedy actor in

Hong Kong. Mr. Lau and Mrs. Lau also shared

their experience for becoming a Christian, I was

touched by the love of Mrs. Lau to her husband

and also sad about what they had encountered.

I feel glad that they retained a positive attitude

to life by their religion belief. The concert gave

us a break though the packed schedule and I

gave me home feeling as this was conducted

in Cantonese. Besides, the Church was special

as it was convert from warehouse, there is high

standard of show equipment setting in the hall

Day 7 6/5 SUNRising Steel City Walk

Rising Steel, two centuries of San Francisco

Architecture, as an architectural student, the

guide provides informative description on how

the high scrapes evolved in the San Francisco

downtown neighborhood. We learnt about the

Top left: The Groundbreaking Ceremony Right: Photo at West Oakland Station (L to R: Jermaine, me, Ricco and Brandon)

Bottom left: Nice neighbourhood Noe Valley Bottom middle: Mr. Tats Lau Yee-Tat and Mrs. Lau

4

building history as far as 1891. We saw many

examples of Chicago style skyscrapers. Chi-

cago School style is widely used to describe

buildings during the 1880s and 1890s. Chicago

School skyscrapers have distinguishing feature

of three parts of a classical column. The first

floor functions as the base, the middle stories,

usually with little ornamental detail, act as the

shaft of the column, and the last floor or so rep-

resent the capital, with more ornamental detail

and capped with a cornice. The case of adap-

tive re-use of the White House (255 Sutter) is

special for its unexpected use. The neo-classi-

cal historical building was turned into a garage.

This is indeed made sense in term of commer-

cial view, as the demand of car park is very high

in the downtown. However, the feasibility to turn

a building into a car park may need compre-

hensive structural analysis including testing on

the steel beams. Besides, about the renovation

of old buildings, often only the first two floors

was renewed by new materials due to limited

budget. Thus if people are not looking up, they

would just think this was a brand new building.

At last, the tour was ended in front of several

refrigerator box buildings as described by the

guide, questioned about whether this kind of

style created by Mies Van der Rohe stated with

extreme clarity and simplicity should be carried

on and whether it makes the city more joyful.

General observation and thoughts: San Francisco is an unique place with diver-

sity of people and culture, the experience of

the chemical reaction made between different

culture is interesting. For example, in some Chi-

nese/Vietnam restaurants, the western people

and American use chopstick even better than

me. There are also different critical issue hap-

pening in the cities, for example people with

mentally illness and unemployment.

For the building in San Francisco, Renovation

work are everywhere. How the planning depart-

ment influence on the architectural appear-

ance, the question about in what extent people

should preserve something and how can inno-

vative design happens. And hope the weather

would become better in the coming days.

Top left: The guide of city walk introducing decorative facade of ONE ELEVEN SUTTER Right: Chicago School style building

Bottom left: The first glass curtain wall used Bottom middle: The “White House” converted to a multi-stoeries car park building

5

CORNERSTONE SAN FRANCISCO - HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIP EXCHANGE PROGRAM

ARIEL’S 2ND WEEKLY REPORT

Special events of 2nd week:

Day 8 6/6 MON 1st week Report + Office Meeting

Day 9 7/6 TUE CFEA Orientation + SFMTA Visit

Day 10 8/6 WED CBS Outdoor Visit +

Public Housing Projects in Richmond

Day 11 9/6 THUR UC Berkeley Tour

Day 12 10/6 FRI CFEA Interview +

Visit KBLX radio station

Day 13 11/6 SAT Waterfront Embarcadero City Walk

Day 14 12/6 SUN City Impact Sunday Celebration Service

Famous Victorian Houses in San Francisco

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Day 8 6/6 MON1st week Report + Office Meeting

There are fewer highlights today as the sched-

uled meeting in the morning was postponed.

Thus we continued to finish the weekly report

of our first week in San Francisco in the morn-

ing.

We attended the business development and co-

ordination meeting of Cornerstone after lunch.

Most of us have a nice weekend in joining dif-

ferent events, e.g. festivals, contest, clubbing,

etc. comparatively people in US enjoyed them-

selves so much in their spare time. I think orga-

nizing events in the weekend help to release the

stress of work and lead to a more balanced life.

Asian people are somehow having less variety

of gathering or organized events during spare

time.

I also made use of the time to prepare for

the coming visits and read some background

of CFEA (Cornerstone Foundation for Educa-

tional Advancement). CFEA divides into basic

and advanced programme. The lectures and

workshops in the Basic Programme would al-

low students to have foundation training about

City Planning, Real Estate Development, Archi-

tecture, Engineering and Construction. The Ad-

vanced Programme allows students to have job

training of document control, clerk or techni-

cian in the design and construction industry.

Day 9 6/7 TUECFEA Orientation + SFMTA Visit

The orientation of CFEA gives me more sense

about the programme in Camp Sweeney. The

model and the presentation boards of the pre-

vious years are full of the students’ efforts;

they get the opportunity to draft or design.

Students had to be hardworking and dedicated

in the programme in order to learn and gain

something for their future. They are eager to

ask question about if they can get job or not

as they are approaching 18. I think It would be

a special and different to teach them as they

are unskilled, but the joy of teaching somebody

with own knowledge should always be there.

SFMTA conducted a presentation on the Clip-

per card and also the marketing perspectives

for us in the afternoon. The Clipper card sys-

tem is in a way very similar to the Octopus

Card invented and used in Hong Kong, includ-

ing the usage, the payment system, the charg-

ing method, etc. As the Octopus have been

used in Hong Kong for more than 10 years, it

is already used in a very advanced way, many

places had implemented with the use of Octo-

pus. They are trying to imitate the Octopus in

Hong Kong as they think it is very successful.

However, the marketing strategy on the imple-

mentation of Clipper Card seems like gentler

THE SECOND WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCOText and Photos by Ariel Mok

Top left: Photo at SFMTA office (L to R: Ricco, Deanna, Neil, Karen, me and Ming) Right: Neil showing the operation of a vending machine

Bottom left & Bottom middle: Automatic Fare Collection laboratory with vending machine and faregate for testing

7

compared to the case in Hong Kong because

of worries about the acceptance level of people

in San Francisco. As I remembered, HK MTR

(Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway) soon aban-

doned the old magnetic tickets with different

values after the introduction of Octopus Card.

Moreover, I was inspired by the different effec-

tive example of calls to action and the messag-

ing. It was a great chance to visit the Automatic

Fare Collection laboratory. The demonstration

the vending machine and the faregate for test-

ing let us see immediately how the machine

were controlled and maintained, and also know

more about the practical requirements, e.g. the

position/dimension of different parts of vend-

ing machines/faregates, fire exit of the station

according to ADA (American Disability Act).

Day 10 6/8 WEDCBS Outdoor Visit + Public Housing Proj-

ects in Richmond

We visited CBS Outdoor, an advertising unit

specific for outdoor advertisement under CBS.

It’s nice to see the big 14’ x 48’ LED bulletin

billboard on the freeway closely. As most of

people drive in US, the billboard advertisement

is an efficient mean for promotion in regard

of its visibility to drivers. We learnt about how

they control the LED billboard and maintenance

issue, as it is dusty on the freeway so regu-

larly cleaning of filter is needed to prevent the

damage of electronic board. Undoubtedly LED

billboard will be the new trend for outdoor ad-

vertisement because the advantages, for exam-

ple, advertisement is easier to be replaced and

more than one advertisement can be shown at

the same location. Mr Robertson, the creative

director presented examples of creative adver-

tisement. Particularly, I like those creative ad-

vertisements cleverly incorporated with the real

environment, messages are presented clearly

but also surprised the audiences. We had a dis-

cussion with Mr Robertson on the possibility

for the outdoor advertisement to grow, noted

that there is also a similar question in architec-

ture for seeking creativity. Although it was a

pity that we don’t have time to see the dem-

onstration of installing billboard and the recy-

cling process, after all, we concluded the visita-

tion and discussion in several points. Using the

successful example of Apple Store, by DEDI-

CATION, PASSION and MONEY, they make all

the efforts to provide best experience thought

out the whole process, from product interface,

product design, packaging to retailing. Com-

bined with important aspects of creativity, all of

those benefit our life by those creative use and

street life. What else is the question of how the

next generation would take the experience in

the field and develop creatively?

The Housing Authority with Easter Hill develop-

ment was the first housing project we visited in

the afternoon. The Providing private and pub-

Top left:: Photo in Sean Robertson’s office (L to R: Ricco, me and Sean) Right: Photo in front of LED Bulletin board

Bottom left: Photo of Richmond Public Housing Bottom middle: Public Housing to be renovated

8

lic housing for rent and there’s subsidy from

the government (nearly 2/3 of the rent). The

developer worked with consultants to make

sure giving a better environment and get rid of

the unfavourable low-class atmosphere which

inducing crime. There is also requirement to

provide community facilities, e.g. computer for

children’s homework, pantry, fitness room, chil-

dren’s playground, activities lounge. The house

with appearance of a single house, some of

them are duplex, and already had been equipped

the heater and closets for the residents. It was

good to know the CCTV is actually connected

to the police, it can detect the gun or breaking

glass and auto tracing the location.

The Labour law of Richmond require high per-

centage of employing local people for the proj-

ects as the economic in Richmond is not very

favourable. We can see roads are not in good

condition. The building inhabitants in the second

public housing we visited complained about the

hygiene problem, worn walls and worn ceilings.

As It is too expensive to rebuild the a new one,

renovation and reinforcement for earthquake is

going to be done to the building.

Ming also brought us to the COSTCO which tar-

gets a the group of people with middle income,

the fare price do attract many people, the pack-

age a in a way much convenient for buying what

is necessary, the products also vary according

to the seasons, e.g. camping.

During the trip to Richmond, we have chance

to look at Public Art in the Civic Center in Rich-

mond. Realizing that there is requirement for

most projects in United States to have 2 per-

cent of project cost for art, it really make the

city more beautiful and a better place to live.

Day 11 6/9 THURUC Berkeley Tour

Today we visited the University of California,

Berkeley. The campus has long history and in

particularly famous for football team and his-

torical building and gateways. We visited sev-

eral masterpiece of architecture including Doe

Memorial Library and Hearst Memorial Mining

Building. Doe Memorial Library is located at the

heart of the campus, the reading room with high

ceiling provides a comfortable environment for

the student to study.

Learning about the conservation and the work-

shop of Life Science department for finding

species reminds us the need of taking care of

natural environment in cooperate with architec-

ture and urban planning.

We also have visited the Architecture Depart-

ment and see some of the displayed work of the

students. The awareness on the appearance/

exterior of the building is stronger than in Hong

Kong. Those axonometric exterior and façade

design show the aesthetic logic in designing the

exterior of the building. I think there’s a need to

rethink about how to increase the aesthetic of

Left: Hearst Memorial Mining Building Top middle: Reading room in Doe Memorial Library Top right: Installation made of wood plank in front of the building of environment design

Bottom right: UC Berkeley Art Museum

9

the exterior rather than boring boxes.

I love the UC Berkeley Art Museum, for both

artworks and architecture. It is a museum de-

signed with a clear statement of exciting interior

space but quiet appearance. The interior space

is not only meant to be exciting visually, but the

space is indeed well organized with the spatial

experience suitable to the display of artworks.

There is a series of white box galleries with part

of the walls removed and replaced with a high

balcony area. The platforms at different levels

are connected by wide ramps or staircases.

Day 12 6/10 FRICFEA Interview + Visit KBLX radio station

We go to Camp Sweeney for the Interview of

CFEA in the morning. Based on the evaluation

guideline questions, we have to interact with the

interviewees in order to judge if they are sincere

and legible to the basic learning programme of

CFEA. I am glad that some of the students have

passion about architecture, construction or real

estate development. The time commitment and

participation in the class is particularly impor-

tant for the class, we should try to stimulate

the learning interest and the motivation of the

students. As Raj has mentioned about her stu-

dent who started to do well after several weeks

of classes and workshops.

KBLX – The Quiet Storm, is a small radio sta-

tion with about 25 staffs, aiming at providing

unique music experience for the audience. Be-

sides broadcasting hit songs like Lady GaGa or

Beyonce, they would like to support good mu-

sic and help to promote new music experience

to the audience by also organizing concert and

update the news of music stars. Although the

competition in the market is really high as there

is about sixty radio station in San Francisco Bay

Area, it can still made about 20million revenue

per year. The staffs in the radio station are

very busy listening new released songs, turning

songs into the right format in production stu-

dios, calling for advertisement and sponsors,

and also the producing commercial goods.

Day 13 6/11 SATWaterfront Embarcadero City Walk

We have a visit to Frank Lylod Wright’s V.C.

Morris Gift Shop, nearly everything is the origi-

nal design of Frank Loyd Wright. As It was de-

signed five years later than his Guggenheim

Museum, the spiral ramp is believed to be in-

spired from his previous work.

We went to the City Walk of with our colleague

Tony in the afternoon. The guide introduced

the history of San Francisco port regarding the

Gold Rush pioneers, the period stimulated the

inversion and development of Levis, the import

and trade of Chocolate and the inversion of

electronic television. The guide told us an inter-

esting urban legend of how the merchants find

100 sailors within one day, is to invite people

Left: Photo at KBLX studio (L to R: Ming, me, Aaron and Ricco) Top right::Pretending to be a DJ

Bottom right: Interior of V.C. Morris Gift Shop

10

to his boat to have free Whisky and food. We

realized the China Town was the center of San

Francisco port and there was full of entertain-

ment shops for the sailors once upon a time.

It’s also interesting to know there was a freeway

in front of the Ferry Terminal building, it was re-

moved after it damaged by 1989 earthquake,

Embarcadero soon developed into a pedestrian

friendly area. After the establishment of Bay

Bridge, it eased the usage of the terminal, thus

Embarcadero turned from an industrial area to

a pedestrian friendly area. The surrounding wa-

terfront area also developed to be more pedes-

trian friendly housing area after WWII.

DAY 14 6/12 SUNCity Impact Sunday Celebration Service

We joined the Sunday Morning Celebration

Service of CITY IMPACT today. I enjoyed the

vibrant music, Alex sang and led us the song. I

agree some points of the preaching although I

don’t have any religion reliefs.

I am surprised by the several mini-movies from

“onetimeblind” for worship service is in the form

of comedy. The black humour not only makes

me laugh but also inspiring in questioning about

how much is people trust God, who is the one

making the decisions, rethink before you want

to blame God or others.

We experienced the holiday in San Francisco at

Haight in the afternoon. This was a Haight Street

Fair on the second Sunday of June, locals and

tourists packed the Upper Haight for featuring

local bands, food stalls from neighborhood res-

taurants and plenty of shopping. We also went

to the Golden Gate Park afterwards. This is a

day with music of different varieties, rock, pop,

jazz and even musical.

General observation and thoughts:It’s windy and sunny this week. Heard from lo-

cal residents, people become more alert than

past ten years concerning their safety issue.

Although it may not be necessarily linked, the

recent high unemployment rate and homeless

rate due to the decline of US economy had cer-

tain impact on this atmosphere. Less force is

put on monitoring the citizens for minor crime

like shoplifting, I question about to which degree

should the people be monitored and is there

any contradiction to human rights. In China or

some Asian countries, there seems like more

restriction and control comparatively.

The environmental awareness of the building

is very high in US as more and more building

project have to go with LEED, people/compa-

ny have experience with green certificate have

advantage and more competitive. Noticed that

there is also signage on the manhole covers en-

couraging the protection of the marine life by

avoiding contamination into the sea. Neverthe-

less, the energy consumption by vehicles and

food is indeed quite high in US as observed.

Top left:: A Historical building was on the waterfront during Gold Rush, ships were moved to land and convert into a shop Middle left: Old photos of the removed freeway

Bottom left: Lyrics was displayed on the screen and controlled manually Right: The crowd street fair in Upper Haight

11

CORNERSTONE SAN FRANCISCO - HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIP EXCHANGE PROGRAM

ARIEL’S 3RD WEEKLY REPORT

Special events of 3rd week:

Day 15 6/13 MON City Scrapes and Public Places City Walk

+ Office Work

Day 16 6/14 TUE Cornerstone Top Sales Meeting +

Meet Mayor Lee

Day 17 6/15 WED St. Mary’s Church + Autodesk Gallery +

CFEA lesson

Day 18 6/16 THUR Office Work + CFEA lesson +

Chinese Team Event of America’s Cup

Day 19 6/17 FRI Crosspoint Church + NASA Center +

Tesla Showroom + UPS tour

Day 20 6/18 SAT Golden Gate Bridge Bay Cruise +

Alcatraz

Day 21 6/19 SUN Southbay Chinese Baptist Church +

State and Santa Clara University

San Francisco in mist

12

Day 15 6/13 MONCity Scrapes and Public Places City Walk +

Office Work

The tour guide of city walk “City Scrapes and

Public Places” led us to discover the hidden

parks, rooftop gardens in the downtown fi-

nancial district. We learnt an important phrase

“POPOS” – Privately Owned Public Open Space,

which referring the spaces open to public with

restriction provided in city group buildings. We

would hardly realize those spaces as a tourist,

for example roof garden at the 15th floor of a

commercial building. Besides, POPOS are just

open from Monday to Friday in business hour.

There was also some introduction on the com-

prehensive downtown ordinance that influenced

the provision of public open space in SOMA.

The ordinance also suggested the building with

smaller lot can be taller but need to provide

amenity and the building with stepped top in-

stead of box building. And She also talked about

the white city exhibition in 1893 triggered print-

ing buildings in white as a sign of modernity in

San Francisco. Moreover, the stories behind the

Wells Fargo bank and 111 Shutter restorations

showed more about the historical preservation

done by the US banks.

Day 16 6/14 TUECornerstone Top Sales Meeting + Meet

Mayor Lee

We joined the Cornerstone 2011 Top Sales

Meeting today, that’s how they make revenue

each year. The lecture by Mr Perry was further

consolidated in this meeting. They are not just

doing the basic client’s requirement, but they

can specifically make better suggestions and

improvement. Just like when we are designing

we can suggesting what make the design or

investment with better reward by making sug-

gestions but not just do what the clients think.

That’s also the cultural difference between

Asian and Western countries, most of the time,

we have reservation on giving own opinions,

both to the client or boss, It seems like it is

harder to speak out in Asian environment,

We met Mayor Edwin Lee in his office at City

Hall. Mr Perry explained the programme offer-

ing us to see the US industry. We talked about

our background and how we like the city. That

was not a deep conservation, but I am already

satisfied and feel honour to meet the Mayor

who is really a nice person and being supported

by the citizens. Mayor Lee also suggested us

to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commis-

sion that is under construction and has got the

LEED platinum using grey water system.

We had another good conversation with Mr.

Perry. We summarized the top things we learnt

and discuss what else can be done for the pro-

THE THIRD WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCOText and Photos by Ariel Mok

The POPOS on the 15th floor The great view viewing from POPOS

13

gramme. He also reminded us taking initiative

to ask question of what we don’t know, that

is a way to become successful. I realized that

those advantages of small stadium in urban

centre over the large one in rural area close

to airport, I haven’t really thought about that.

With building a small stadium with high quality

of customer experience, it can indeed attract

more city business people by taking metro and

would also tackle the problem of the short-

age of land. Moreover, the small stadium can

be more exciting in viewing the matches as the

seats are often fully occupied. This all about

the strategies made in both design and invest-

ment perspectives, the more valuale, the higher

chance to win among the high competition of

entertainment nowadays.

Day 17 6/15 WEDSt. Mary’s Church + Autodesk Gallery +

CFEA lesson

The visit to the Autodesk gallery located at One

Market was really an eye opening experience.

They displayed the advanced technology used

by their customer, The guide introduced the

advantage by using the software of Autodesk,

for example saving the cost to manufacture a

motorbike before mass production, they can

use software to generate different parts of

motorbike by 3D printer. For some products

which need high accuracy e.g. watches, the

production time can be reduced from 4 years

into three months. For architecture, housing in

china can be built in 3 days because Autodesk

has test the design in the software and by get-

ting the local materials, the high efficiency of

housing construction was achieved. Moreover,

the artists are not necessary to do the artwork

himself/herself. They can just generate their

design by the computer, and even just need to

click the button and print a mock model of the

sculpture and then send to other unit to pro-

duce the sculpture by the material they want.

Quote from Jean, the creative director of CBS

Outdoor advertisement, there was used to be

artist printing large outdoor advertisement, the

product can be actually an artwork, he indeed

missed those days to see those artists working.

With the development of advanced technology,

would the ability of man craft going to be lost?

The first lesson of basic programme of CFEA

introduced a brief of the coming 12 weeks.

Although the course is very demanding, but

I think this is important to find something or

some aspects that they enjoy, people would

perform well on something they have passion

on it. We also explained the difference between

different parties in the construction field to the

students, including urban planners, architects,

interior designers, landscape designers, engi-

neers, contractors and real estate developer.

Raj also explained tropical countries in Asia ac-

tually use reinforced concrete more than wood

Photo at Mayor’s office (L to R: Mr Perry, me, Mayor Lee and Ricco) A device in Autodesk Gallery simulate the walking in a house interactively

14

and students asked about the difference be-

tween wood and steel. Besides, they are more

interested to know what a real estate developer

is doing as it was believed to make most money.

The course would focus on the teaching of ar-

chitectural tools so that students can get more

sense about the practice in the field.

.

Day 18 6/16 THUROffice Work + CFEA lesson + Chinese Team

Event of America’s Cup

This is the first lesson for the students in Camp

Sweeney for have real practice on learning ar-

chitecture. We taught the students how to use

the basic drafting tools, including T-square, tri-

angles, tracing paper and draft tape. Raj first

explained the difference between sketch and

drafting. One is free hand and one needs rul-

ers and measurement. We emphasized the im-

portance to use the tools correctly as some of

the students would use in their own way after

the first drafting lesson. However, students felt

bored for just keep drawing horizontal, vertical

and diagonal lines. I am glad that they are quite

cooperate and willing to do when we instructed

them how to draw the geometries. I hope that

they had learnt the techniques of how to using

the tools because this is very important for the

course.

Mr David Perry invited us to the American’s cup

Chinese Team event in the evening. Mr David

Parry is an expert in strategic communication,

marketing, public and media relation and he is

a board member of China San Francisco. That

was a event of Chinese Team for 34th Ameri-

ca’s Cup and was held in a historical building of

Chinese Historical Society of America. As Mr

David Perry was busy and left early, we didn’t

have chance to talk to him, but this was a good

opportunity for me to know more about the Chi-

nese Society in San Francisco, started by the

Gold Rush period, many Chinese people went

to San Francisco to work including agriculture,

railway construction and manufacture, and also

the distribution of Chinese in US. People were

chatting and having some refreshment after

guest’s speech, we met different people in the

event, including the executive director of Chi-

nese Historical Society of America, CEO of Chi-

naEquity (the speaker for the event), Cindy Lau

whose company is doing global resource and

consultancy service, a wine supplier and Denis

Henmi who asked us to have interview at his

firm after our graduation.

Day 19 6/17 FRICrosspoint Church + NASA Center + Tesla

Showroom + UPS tour

The visit to Crosspoint church gave us a bet-

ter understanding on the process of adaptive

reuse in US. The church was required to obtain

conditional use permit as that was an industri-

al land use zone. In order to get the support

Top left: Student demonstrate how to use architectural tools for his classmates Top middle: Photo with Mr Denis Henmi

Bottom left: Photo with Ms Sue Lee, the executive director of Chinese Historical Society of America Right:: Exhibition in Chinese Historical Society of America

15

from the neighbourhood so the church staffs

and members gave every effort to visit their

neighbourhood and explained what they do.

The planning commissioners’ have the power

to approve or decline the application of condi-

tional use permit., and the neighbourhood have

the right to object the establishment in the City

Hall. This is another example for the social net-

work is indeed essential in every aspect for hu-

man beings as we are not alone. Pastor Chiu

believed that was a miracle for them to get the

permit and raised the funding successfully as

god’s response to them.

The flattened image on the wide screen input

from the computer was a feature in the de-

sign of audio equipment of the worship cen-

ter. Although the worship centre served as the

heart of the architecture, it was not built to be

as large as possible. they concern about the

provision of community facilities, that would be

a waste of space if the worship centre is only

used once or twice per week, thus they also

provide plenty of space for multi-function of

the community. Besides, the seats are required

to be fixed in the worship centre so that maxi-

mum occupancy can be guaranteed.

The visit to NASA Exploration Center was inter-

esting as there is seldom exhibition or museum

in Hong Kong on this topic. I would say the es-

tablishment of a space station had challenged

the traditional architectural concept. The floor

area is not counted by square feet, but in cubic

feet. I think this would be interesting to investi-

gate and develop new concept..

The visit to Tesla let us look into the future trend

of electric cars, the cars undoubtedly solved

the oil crisis and I believe It would become

even more user-friendly regarding the charging

method and the charging hour of the battery.

As the vehicle is really an essential transport

tool in US, the invention and development of

electric cars benefits people in the world.

We have a great chance to go onto the UPS

plane and see the cabin and how the containers

are going to be fit into the compartment. UPS

ranked first over the world for its high efficien-

cy, the goods arrived the buyers’ home on the

second day of online purchase from Amazon,

Zappos .etc. We learnt how they calculate and

generate the order for the containers to be put

onto the plane to prevent slider effect.

Day 20 6/18 SATGolden Gate Bridge Bay Cruise + Alcatraz

The Golden Gate Bridge bay cruise let us see

the skyline of San Francisco, the audio tour in-

troduced some of the history of San Francisco

port, the financial district, the oldest building

Art Palace and the history of Chinese people on

Angel Island. The cruise was unstable when we

are just under the Golden Gate Bridge, I can see

how challenging is the construction.

As this is weekend, Alcatraz was crowded, a

Top left: Phase 2 renovation work, they are removing the float ceiling to maximize the ceiling height for multi purpose Top right: The international space station

Bottom left: Photo in Tesla Showroom (L to R: Ming, Mike, me and Ricco) Bottom right: Photo in Oakland airport (L to R: Ming, Susna, Eduardo, me and Ricco)

16

large group of about 50 people joined the walk-

ing tour about the back-story of a prisoner who

attempted an escape but was finally shot by an

officer. Part of the reasons for Alcatraz attract-

ing so many people from all over the world per

years is undoubtedly by movie effect, but the

Alcatraz itself is already very appealing. The Al-

catraz was one of the high security prisons in

America, we can see how the cell house was de-

signed to prevent the escape of prisoners. The

change in the life of prisoners from only eats,

sleep and work to they can listen to radio, do

paintings and having their personal belongings

is critical in history of American prison.

DAY 21 6/19 SUNSouthbay Chinese Baptist Church + State

and Santa Clara University

Happy Father’s Day! We were invited to Ming’s

Church at San Jose today. Before arriving the

church, I learnt that a Church was newly built. We

can compare the old church with the new one

just beside. The audio equipments are becom-

ing more professional and essential in holding

the celebration service for the churches. And

the provision of parking spaces is particularly

critical for churches in US because there is a

minimum requirement for car parking provision

based on the people capacity of churches.

I seldom go to church in Hong Kong because of

busy student life, this is a good opportunity for

me to learn about the religion. I like the reflex-

ive 10:00 Sunday lesson. Especially when Ming

talked about the challenges of the missionary

work at different countries around the world.

The preaching topic was God’s Will and Decision

Making. There are 4 levels of decision making,

first is from maturity to freedom. One has to be

mature enough to make a decision, so wrong

things would no longer be a choice and peo-

ple have freedom at that point. From freedom,

there is calling, and surrendered. Some of the

points links back to the preaching in City Im-

pact about making decision and also Mr Perry’s

lessons about the god given ability.

General observation and thoughts:San Francisco weather is extremely variable

throughout 24-hour time-span, and also de-

pends on the location. It was really cool in the

peninsular but very hot in Bay Fair.

San Francisco is very interesting in term of its

diversity, just walked pass a short distance, the

atmosphere can be greatly changed, from Ital-

ian small neighbourhood to Chinese communi-

ty. There is Cantonese announcement on Muni

bus on the line often ridden by Chinese.

Both Mr Perry and Raj like teaching. Everyone

has their unique ability and their unique reason

to exist on the earth. I think it is meaningful

to teach students in Camp Sweeney, there is

somehow a calling for contributing what you

have to the society.

Top left: Me inside the cell viewing from the visitation room Top right: The view of San Francisco from Alcatraz, the officers were used to relax at this backyard

Bottom left: Photo in front of Southbay Chinese Baptist Church (The new building) Bottom middle: Pastor Wong and Ming Bottom right: Photo in Martin King Lurther Library

17

CORNERSTONE SAN FRANCISCO - HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIP EXCHANGE PROGRAM

ARIEL’S 4TH WEEKLY REPORT

Special events of 4th week:

Day 22 6/20 MON Contemporary Jewish Museum +

CFEA lesson

Day 23 6/21 TUE Office work + CFEA lesson

Day 24 6/22 WED Laguna Honda Hospital + CFEA lesson

Day 25 6/23 THUR PayPal + Microsoft + CFEA lesson

Day 26 6/24 FRI Fremont BART Extension +

Christ the light+ Oakland Museum

Day 27 6/25 SAT Asian Art Museum +

Museum of Modern Art

Day 28 6/26 SUN Voice of Pentecost + Italian Dinner +

Gay Pride

San Francisco Pride event at Civic Center

18

Day 22 6/20 MONContemporary Jewish Museum + CFEA les-

son

We went to Contemporary Jewish Museum

designed by Daniel Liberskind in SOMA. The

contemporary Jewish Museum is special com-

pared to most of the conserved building with

the conservation methodology of just changing

the interior while retaining the exterior, he posi-

tioned the strategy to create the conversation

between old and new, juxtaposing the historic

features of the Jessie Street Power Substation

with the new structure. The old structure was

treated carefully and new steel columns and

beam are added for structural purpose.

Other than those Jewish Symbolism and mean-

ings, I think the visitors would be most im-

pressed by the cube space which is a reactive

sound environment. The design is a combina-

tion between sound and light. Under the light

shower, you would hear different voice from

everywhere, closer and further, asking some in-

spiring questions, like why are there 24 hours

a day, what am I doing here? Visitors can also

enter their question into the machine.

Compared to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the

museum is a celebration of Jewish, of American

as quoted from Daniel Liberskind, we seen a lot

of works of Jewish in America. I enjoyed looking

at Charlotte’s painting, like she was telling her

story, each drawing is full of her emotion, It is a

very good way to look into one’s life.

We focused on teaching scale in CFEA today.

The in class exercise help them learn how to

count for the measurement. Some of the stu-

dents are willing to learn, but some of them

just keeping chatting and wondering. They are

soon drafting the shape with measurement and

scale, to make it easier to understand, we just

let them familiar with the difference between

full inches, ½ inches and ¼ inches. Some of the

students still not using the drafting tool cor-

rectly, but I feel happy for some of them want

to have prefect drawing and satisfied with what

they did.

Day 23 6/21 TUEOffice work + CFEA lesson

Discussed the coming schedule in the morning,

we continued to work as an instructor in Camp

Sweeney today. Observed their performance

from the last few days, we tried to arrange the

new seating plan for them to make students

become more concentrated. However, we come

late because of other needs in Camp Sweeney

every lesson, indeed made the class lag behind

from the original schedule.

Raj told us about the cut of budget for this pro-

gramme from the county, so the programme

just delayed week by week. There was also more

THE FOURTH WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCOText and Photos by Ariel Mok

Top left: The lobby showing the interestion of old and new in Contemporary Jewish Museum Top right: The reactive sound environment

Bottom left: Teaching on how to use scale ruler Bottom right: Students working on their drawings

19

students and instructors last year. In the last

year, students were already in their final presen-

tation stage in June. And one of the instructors,

Danny was used responsible to the discipline of

students. I feel it is challenging to teach them in

the starting phase, on one hand they are young

and love to play, on the other hand, they don’t

have any foundation for architectural studies.

I appreciated a lot Raj’s patience and enthusi-

asm in teaching. We always think about what is

the best way to help the students and let them

become more interested in it, as the course is

really something good for them.

Day 24 6/22 WEDLaguna Honda Hospital + CFEA lesson

We went to Laguna Hospital, one of the cor-

nerstone projects in the morning. The project

manager, Jeremy introduced the remodelling of

the old hospital. We learnt different types of

procedure for the remodelling, including hand

patch concrete, replacing the whole bar with re-

inforcing steel, replacing a smaller portion with

metal mesh and pouring proxy into crash floor.

OSPHD - The Office of Statewide Health Plan-

ning and Development is the department re-

sponsible to inspect the hospital projects, all

the projects in California are required to be per-

mited by OSPHD before they can proceed the

construction. This project started at 2006, be-

cause of the back and forth process when they

discovered new defects of the structure, new

design had to be made and resubmitted to OS-

PHD, plus there is indeed many field condition.

Thus the good relationship and communication

between architects, contractor, owner and OS-

PHD is very crucial in this kind of project.

The Hospital and Rehabitation Center of Lagu-

na Hospital is a good example of contemporary

hospital concept. “Living” in hospital is no lon-

ger essentially sad and boring. Although living

in a hospital can be just temporarily, but they

still provide the patience’s with a home feeling

instead of a barrack.

The combination of public art with the hospital

indeed serve as way finding for the inhabitants

especially who have memory issues. Contrast

to the old hospital layout, the new hospital pro-

vide patients more privacy in the layout setting

as well as a neighborhood feeling by providing

common space on each floor. The encourag-

ing environment let the patients become more

outgoing. I was also surprised to know that

although the hospital provided the high value

service, but their inhabitants are not necessar-

ily high-class people.

We introduced the standard of bathroom and

kitchen furniture for students of CFEA while

they were working on the house plan. They

would always like to ask the next step, and de-

pending so much on the instructions from us,

rather than that, I would like them to think how

to draw in order to finish the drawing.

Top left: Photo at the remodelling site of Laguna Honda Hospital (L to R: Ming, Jeremy, me and Ricco) Top right: Photo at new Laguna Honda Hospital (L to R: Tony, me, Ron and Ricco)

Bottom left: Me pointing at Cornerstone in the lobby of new Laguna Honda Hospital Bottom right: CFEA Students’ work of a houseplan

20

Day 25 6/23 THURPayPal + Microsoft + CFEA lesson

We visited ebay/PayPal and Microsoft in the

morning. Seems like that those technology firms

are centralized around those area like San Jose

and Mountain View. Veronica, she is the CSA

Head of Retail Marketing, Strategy & Alliances

which is considered to be a new position. Al-

though she was just a new staff of PayPal, she

kindly brought us into ebay campus and intro-

duced us the background of PayPal and ebay,

the technology side of the retailer development

and competition. She also told us about the

working environment in Technology Company

that is really flexible and they provide the best

welfare for the employee. The most revealing is

that they would train the employees in different

aspects once they entered. However, in order

to get the job, she went through the interview

competed with 30 people for one position, she

had to be very smart and outstanding, by mak-

ing relevance to her experience, to show that

she is suitable for the position.

Tom guided us around in the sub office of Mi-

crosoft, for SIDEKICK and DANGER and he also

brought us to the café in the main Microsoft

campus. He introduced us the different depart-

ments in the office. Most of the people are not

there in the office as most of them are working

at home, he told us he worked with some of his

colleagues for many months but didn’t ever see

the person. This makes me to think about how

would it be if everyone just works at home, the

company would just need a serve eventually.

He thinks the advantage working in Microsoft

is that he always gets the latest technology as

he can know and connected to the people in

the related field.

The learning atmosphere turned out to be very

good in Camp Sweeney today. They were told

to sketch five objects in the room free hand af-

ter they finished with the kitchen drawing. And

they also go out of the classroom and have

measurement on the open space. They are se-

rious on their work and discussed with their

teammate and instructors. Although the three

groups have different measurements on most

of the questions, but this is a good exercise for

them to learn about how the measurements are

done and be aware of the accuracy. We spent

a happy day with them. We also discussed the

students’ performance, based on this, students

are divided into groups with each group have a

more strong candidate.

Day 26 6/24 FRIFremont BART Extension + Christ the light

+ Oakland Museum

We had a wonderful visit to Fremont Warm

Springs BART Extension which will add 5.4 miles

of new tracks from the existing Fremont Sta-

tion south to a new station in the Warm Springs

District of the City of Fremont. Jermaine who is

Left: Photo with Veronica in front of ebay campus Top right: Photo with Tom in front of Microsoft Headquarter

Bottom right: CFEA Students discussing on measurement exercise

21

the engineering inspector of the project walked

us through the construction site of the subway.

Learnt previously that it spent 10 times budget

on building a subway under Fremont Central

Park as residents won’t want an aerial structure

come over the bridge. And as It was my first

time to visit such a grand scale construction

project, so I feel really excited.

The segments typically about 50 feet are re-

peated throughout the tunnel. The segments

are now being constructed in different stag-

es, from the excavation, waterproofing (turbo

seal), reinforcing bar to filling of the concrete

slab and railway track of the floor and the wall

with top of the tunnel. They use machine more

as the labour wage is high in US, comparatively,

there are more labour in Hong Kong construc-

tion site to build the wall directly rather than tie

on the floor and then erect it.

We learnt about the different concerns in con-

structing the underground subway. About

twelve environmental impact reporters on site,

they are observing their construction work and

notice if there is ducks or birds and even pro-

tected species coming into the site and coop-

erating with contractors. Once a turtle fell into

the constructing subway, the consideration of

wildlife in the area is quite crucial. The water

pumped out from the lake would be treated

in the sentiment pond and restored back to

the lake on the neutral ph value. As there is a

high water table in Central Park, jet grouting

was used to prevent water from seeping into

the subway, otherwise the machinery would be

damaged.

Other than the construction works, I was also

impressed by the high transparency of the proj-

ect. The community relation of BART let people

know what is going on in their neighbourhood,

there was even a tour of field visit available.

Natural light is the central feature of Cathedral

Christ the Light, built to replace its earthquake-

damaged predecessor. By testing varying ef-

fects of light on the interior in 3D model, SOM

(Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) chose design de-

tails to enhance the interaction of space and

light. Details include a perforated metal wall that

depicts an image of Jesus and a lattice of warm

wood for the interior shell. Besides, the outer-

most glass skin of the cathedral is supported

by a latticework of Douglas fir. The wood’s in-

herent flexibility makes the structure as earth-

quake resistant as steel, at less cost.

Day 27 6/25 SATAsian Art Museum + Museum of Modern

Art

We went to Asian Art Museum today, which is

a renovated building. Displays of artworks from

Asian countries including India, Iran, Indonesia,

China, Korean and Japan show the belief, art

and craft of the Asian. By the way, there was a

fire alarm when we just finished looking at the

Top left: We climbed down to the tunnel Right: Cathedral of Christ the Light

Bottom left: Photo in front of the construction site (L to R: Ming, me, Ricco and Jermaine)

22

exhibition, luckily no one get hurts, but we still

left the book on the history of museum at the

counter. There is SF Pride function similar to

street fair at Civic Centre, and Asian Art Mu-

seum is a partner with this today.

We also went to San Francisco Museum of

Modern Art displayed theories on modern art

like abstraction, gird, and the definition of art.

The interior space features with a central stair-

case linking up different exhibitions.

DAY 28 6/26 SUNVoice of Pentecost + Italian Dinner + Gay

Pride

On the way to Voice of Pentecost, we saw the

SF Pride Parade along Market Street at the

Civic Center. People were driving bikes along

the street and dressing in colourful rainbow

costume, crowds of people accumulated on the

two sides, all of them were enjoying themselves

and celebrating SF Pride!

As we didn’t ever take the Muni Metro to the

west, I find interesting that the Muni Metro

changed the system into a Muni bus when it

comes up to the ground level. The stops are

more frequent and people get on the Muni from

the other side. The Voice of Pentecost is just in

front of the Muni stop at Ocean Avenue.

The church was converted from a theatre and

now used for the worship service. Everyone was

very hyper and jumping when singing the song.

As one of the pastors passed away about two

weeks ago, the worship service takes longer in

giving each one a message from god, spirit-

ing up everyone, and tell the young generation

that they are not alone as there is father and

mother.

Mary, who we met in the church, is a new grad-

uate of Finance and accounting, she came from

Africa and studied in San Francisco. In the Ital-

ian restaurant we went after the service, Mary

and Mrs. Perry talked some interesting topics

about dream and culture. We enjoyed the time

with Mr. Perry’s family and Mary.

General observation and thoughts:Being here nearly four weeks, I feel like get

used to the life in San Francisco. Sometimes

the Muni or Bart is quite slow and delayed, this

is something we are not very used to compar-

ing with the high efficiency metro system in

Hong Kong although there are more failure of

HKMTR recently.

The teaching in Camp Sweeney become more

interesting, as students are more motivated,

and we know each other better, however, we

are leaving next Sunday. I wish I could see them

graduated from the programme.

Needless to say, the two construction projects

we visited this week was really exciting, and in-

formative. We need to thanks for Ming’s hospi-

tality in driving us around and his effort in mak-

ing our schedule richer.

Left: The space generating the recorded sound of building and people inside MOMA Top middle: Ceiling of the venovated theatre in Voice of Pentecost Top right: SF Pride in Civic Center

Bottom right: Photo at restaurant (L to R: Mr Perry, Mary, Ricco, me, Adam hiding and Mrs Perry)

23

CORNERSTONE SAN FRANCISCO - HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIP EXCHANGE PROGRAM

ARIEL’S 5TH WEEKLY REPORT

Special events of 5th week:

Day 29 6/27 MON Academy of Science + CFEA lesson

Day 30 6/28 TUE PG&E class + Highland Hospital BIM

demonstration + CFEA lesson

Day 31 6/29 WED HP Pavilion + Stanford tour +

CFEA lesson

Day 32 6/30 THUR Central Subway Design Office +

CFEA site visit +

BART system Wide Equipment Retrofit

Day 33 7/1 FRI Chinese Chamber of Commerce broad

lunch + Graduation Ceremony

Night View of San Francisco from hill

24

Day 29 6/27 MONAcademy of Science + CFEA lesson

We went to Academy of Science designed by

Renzo Piano in Golden Gate Park. I found the

green roof very impressive long before the visit.

Architect Renzo Piano designed the seven roof-

top gills to reflect San Francisco’s hilly terrain

and making this as one of the most complex

living roofs. The two largest hills with skylights

and air vents for Academy HVAC systems help

ventilate hot air from the building. The con-

cept of the living roof is lifting up a piece of

the Golden Gate Park and sliding the museum

underneath. Although this is a great concept, I

was a bit disappointed when I found out people

can indeed only access a very small portion of

the roof surrounding the lift core.

In afternoon CFEA class, lecture about site plan

was conducted at the beginning of the lesson.

Raj introduced what is a site plan and what

should be included in a document of a site plan.

After that, students were asked to draft the site

plan of Camp Sweeney by their memory and

then they were required to explain their draw-

ings. This is a good opportunity for them to

understand what meant by site plan, although

their drawing may not follow the required stan-

dard of site plan.

Day 30 6/28 TUEPG&E class + Highland Hospital BIM dem-

onstration + CFEA lesson

We went to PG&E energy centre for a lesson on

“Renovating to Passive House Standards: Prin-

ciples for wood-framed buildings” in the early

morning. The three instructors have been work-

ing on passive house projects with background

in global energy research, essential habitat and

architecture. Started by the description in the

climate change, analysis were done in scientif-

ic way to show how energy is spilled out in an

unpredictable way, and followed by the intro-

duction on the history of Passive House which

is developed by European scientists in 1990

based on super-insulated, passive solar and

“low-energy” buildings. Projects obtain the right

to carry the logo show the design excellence

and Passive House energy performance crite-

ria. We learned about how does Passive House

work basically by design of ventilation system

together with mechanical system.

We also went to the Actate Tower Replaement

office of Highland Hospital for the BIM (Build-

ing Information Management) demonstration

before the CFEA class. I was surprised to learn

from James, the field engineer of the construc-

tion management company has architectural

background same as us. He suggested us to

self-learn the Autodesk Revit software, as this

would be an advantage for us in the real work-

THE FIFTH WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCOText and Photos by Ariel Mok

Left: The skylight penetrates into the RainForest in Academy of Science Top right: Class at PG&E Energy Center Bottom right: Photo with James

25

ing environment. It would be definitely the trend

in the future for saving cost and time in con-

struction. He introduced the different uses of

BIM in construction management, coordination,

design presentation and even the time and cost

can be combined into the model to make 4D

and 5D model. That was eye opening for us on

how detail and complex the programme can

deal with.

Day 31 6/29 WEDHP Pavilion + Stanford tour + CFEA lesson

The visit to HP Pavilion (previously San Jose

Arena) was interesting as we climbed up to the

top level of the arena where was added after

completion, and also to the backstage where

the stage installations were put. Although the

building was the oldest modern building in the

city, however, it still looks appealing due to the

good maintenance. As described by Kathy and

Ted, the systematic management and good

maintenance of the arena makes it competitive

among the nearby newer sports arena. That

was impressive to know how the city design the

arena by developing together with the nearby

area where now providing dining and parking

for the people coming to watch the show. How-

ever, owned by the City of San Jose, the revenue

still do not cover the operation cost, but seems

like they don’t have specific action to due with

the problem. The tour gave us an insight on the

status of sports in US and also the operation of

the arena for ice hockey or other events.

We stayed in Stanford for a one-hour golf car

tour. A first year student of Stanford guided the

tour, she gave us much information on the life

in Stanford, including the self discipline learn-

ing, the advantage of being taught by Stanford

professor to get well connection, the variety of

students unions, the diversity of people, the big

family of students hostel and the connection of

students to downtown San Francisco. I believed

most of the people would be attracted by the

nice historical environment and the recreation

provided in the campus. I was particularly im-

pressed by nearly all students are living inside

the campus which make them getting a full

sense of belonging to the school.

The Zoning Ordinance was introduced by Raj

which let us also has a chance to learn US Stan-

dard. The setback regulation in US building and

the stepping up on the top of buildings are

different to Hong Kong. After that, we taught

students what is plan(always looking from the

top to the bottom) and elevation(always have 4

sides for an object), the 2-D projection to the

students. To make it easier to understand, we

discussed and clarified the best definition of

the terms to avoid making students confused.

The exercise on the orthographic projection

objects consolidated students’ understanding.

One of the students asked me for a contact. I

would be so happy if receive the letter.

Left: Photo at hp pavilion (L to R: Me, Ted, Kathy, Ricco and Ming) Top right: Introducing the Zoning Ordinance

Bottom right: Conducting a lecture about Plant Materials for the students

26

Day 32 6/30 THURCentral Subway Design Office + CFEA site

visit + BART system Wide Equipment Ret-

rofit

This is our last working day for the programme.

We visited the Central Subway design office

which gathering people from different parties

who work on the project to facilities the effi-

ciency. Teddy explained the boring tunnel with

dowel or bolt joint and the use of tunnel boring

machine. Richard introduced us the document

control for the Central Subway project, and he

also explained how important is it for the dead-

line of submission, the systematic records of

the comments and actions. Mona who is work-

ing on the design of China Town Station intro-

duced the current design of the three stations

to us. We discussed the question whether there

should be retail inside the station, though most

of us agreed as this make the station safer and

better environment, but there are still worries

about the people don’t accept the change. Be-

sides, she also explained how the neighbours

contributed and influenced the design, it is im-

portant to get the support from the neighbours

to get the approval of design.

Students went to their site for site measure-

ment and analysis today. Although days in

Camp Sweeney were short, I felt sad the teach-

ing come to the end, I hope to see what the stu-

dents can achieve in their graduation. Students

asked me for contact, I would be really happy

if receiving letters or emails. We gave feedback

about the students to Raj so that she can make

reference in dividing them into groups and say

goodbye and leave contacts to her.

We attended the presentation for the System

Wide Equipment Retrofit Project at BART office

near 19st Bart Station. Bill Frink, the Resident

Engineer gave us an insight on the Earthquake

Safety Program of BART system. They learnt

from the earthquake happened each time thus

the code and regulation also changed accord-

ingly. As an architect, It is important to learn

how the market change in order to fit into the

field, better you know how the management

and what’s their difficulties, better you would

become successful in the field. Albert, Harold,

Marion and Ming, each one of them shared

their experience. From their experience, we got

to know how people should be ready and pre-

pared for challenge for not losing chance.

Day 33 7/1 FRIChinese Chamber of Commerce broad

lunch + Graduation Ceremony

We attended the Chinese Chamber of Com-

merce board lunch with the Board of Directors

Installation Ceremony and Supervisory Board

Installation Ceremony at Four Seas Restaurant.

At the end of the lunch we greeted Mayor Lee

and Shih Wei. We talked about the question of

how to met new people and keep in contact.

Top left:: Photo in Central Subway Design Office (L to R: Ming, Teddy, me, Ricco and Richard) Top right: Photo in Central Subway Design Office (L to R: Ming, Ricco, me and Mona)

Bottom left: Photo with Raj Bottom right: Photo in BART Earthquake Safety Program Office (L to R: Ming, Albert, Marion, April, Harold, me, Bill and Ricco)

27

Patty and Ming shared their own method.

We back to office to attend our last office meet-

ing and the Graduation Ceremony for the HK-SF

Cornerstone Programme. We concluded what

we have learnt in this month and answered dif-

ferent questions about our programme. What I

think about this programme is that this is really

a valuable and unforgettable experience. We

are offered an insight different from an ordi-

nary tourist, but we visited a lot of place that I

never imagined I would be there.

After leaving the office, Ming drove us to the Art

Palace, Golden Gate Bridge and Legend of Hor-

ror. All of then are very beautiful places in San

Francisco! We enjoyed a nice dinner with cheers

in a Macau restaurant with Ming’s family. The

night view of San Francisco seen from the peak

was so fascinating and amazing, market street,

Bay Bridge and City Hall are easily located as

they are lighten up at night. As the building in

San Francisco are generally with height limit, it

looks like there are stars spread through the

cityscape. Time to say goodbye, but I believe

there would still be a bond between all of us. I

was so happy to meet everyone we met here1

General thoughts and Conclusion:Although, the energy consumption level seems

like very high in US, but the environmental

sense of US people has gone far beyond Hong

Kong. For example, most of the café provides

recycle or combustible containers. We can

found disposable containers made of plant ma-

terial in many places. In PG&E Center, there are

many promotions on green living to individual

household as well as commercial. The materials

used in the center are indeed all combustible.

Households are encouraged to install energy

saving meters to monitor the energy consump-

tion. Besides, they are also encouraged to use

heavy energy consumption device like washing

machine in the non-peak hours.

As there are many immigrants in US, many of

the younger generation are born and adapted

to the culture of US. When meeting people from

the origin country, although with the same race,

they behave differently, to know how individu-

als identify themselves is one of my wonder.

Besides, seems like the Chinese and American

government still consider them to be their citi-

zen no matter they have no bonding with the

country in terms of language or culture.

I am sure this would be an unforgettable expe-

rience in my life. We are better equipped with

concept of 6-degree of separation and initiative

to accept challenges. The one-month program

was extremely rich to offer us exploring in dif-

ferent aspects, I have so many thoughts that I

even couldn’t consolidate at the moment. Really

thank you very much for giving such an oppor-

tunity for not only experiencing life in San Fran-

cisco but also forming bond with people we met

here, and also for the hospitality offered to us.

Photo in Cornerstone Office (front row: Ming, Mr. Perry and Beth, back row: me, Martin, Derek, Patty and Ricco)

28