School Photoblogging: Tenderloin Community

Tenderloin Community sidewalk art

Schools, especially elementary schools, really should be unassuming places. They really should blend into a community and create a space for the kids and the families that live there. In that respect I'm really intrigued by the architecture of the Tenderloin Community ES. I'm sure many people commute right past the school on Turk Street without even seeing it. But walk up to it, and it feels very warm, alive and inviting. I have no idea if the architect had this in mind, but the sidewalk art, the use of tile, and the windows all feel like some sort of membrane that both separates the bustling neighborhood from the students inside, but also invites some sort of osmosis, some sort of exchange with the people on the sidewalk.

It is a funny thing about this photoblogging series that I'm never inside the school, never there with the kids. It is about the architecture. But with good modern school architecture, its hard to capture the building without the kids that are integral to its design. But I have fun with it anyway.