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I've become obsessed with the Wildsam Field Guides series, a new collection of beautifully designed urban atlases run by a husband and wife team in Austin. Taylor Bruce is Wildsam's founder, and he's a seasoned magazine journalist whose work has appeared in travel, music, and men's magazines. Bruce prints these small, portable books that are more literary than traditional guide, although they're useful for both guiding and reading. Inside these wallet-sized collections are trivia, letters, essays, and illustrations, and contributions by well known authors and artists in each of the three cities they've covered so far – Austin, Nashville, and San Francisco.
The SF book is packed with small treasures about this city. You'll find excerpts from essays by Joan Didion and Mark Twain, interviews with kids and local luminaries, and almanac-like factoids about this great town. But as someone who loves unearthing new facts about San Francisco, I especially love the front-of-the-book tidbits. For example, there's a beautiful paragraph taken from a 1978 speech by former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk where he talks about the importance of the city's neighborhoods: "Let's make no mistake about this," he said, "The American Dream starts with neighborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods ... To sit on the front steps – whether it's the veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city – and talk to our neighbors is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color." I love that.
But my favorite bit from the San Francisco guide, which Wildsam is allowing us to reprint here, is the excerpt from the 29-page case architect Irving Morrow made to paint the Golden Gate Bridge what is now famously known as the color international orange. I'm in awe of the way that majestic, rusty pumpkin color stands out against the pastel blues and grays of the natural landscape around it, but I've never heard thoughtful reasoning why it looks so awesome until I read this:
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The Golden Gate Bridge: Report on Color and Lighting (April 6, 1935)
1. Local Atmospheric Effects
During the summer, the San Francisco Bay is covered by high fogs and is relatively sunless. At these times the atmosphere is gray. In sunny weather the predominant color of bay and ocean is blue. In other words, the prevalent atmospheric colors are cool. A structure which is to be emphasized must appear in contrasting or warm colors.
2. The Color
Except during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, local architecture has remained on the whole timidly colorless, hence without the accent and warmth which conditions call for.
The colors which meet the above requirements range through yellow, orange and red. Not all, however, are equally appropriate from other points of view. Yellow shades would lack substance: deep reds would be heavy and without luminosity.
During the erection of the north tower, and again at the present moment with the south tower assuming form, observers from all walks of life have been universally impressed by the beauty of the structures in the shop red lead coat. This color is luminous, undergoes atmospheric changes with great beauty, is prominent without insistence, enhances the architectural scale to the utmost and gives weight and substance at the same time ... In short, it is the ideal color from every point of view, and is hereby recommended and urged as the most appropriate and satisfactory color for the finished bridge.
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There's much more where that bit came from, including more illustrations by the amazing Lisa Congdon (she created the Golden Gate Bridge illustration for Wildsam above). I highly recommend grabbing a Wildsam Field Guide for yourself – whether you grew up in San Francisco or know someone who just landed here, the book is a great celebration of the city's characters, quirks, and poetic beauty. You can find Wildsam here and at @iamwildsam.
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