Why San Francisco's Streets and Blocks Create Awe Inspiring Experiences
There are a number of places that I love to visit in San Francisco to spark creative thinking: Fort Funston, Telegraph Hill and the Filbert Street Steps, the Presidio and Land’s End. Here, I find inspiration and a restored freshness. I am not a particularly religious person, but to some extent I even feel restored to a better, higher state. Our connection with our environment, has the highest impact on our experience. If our environment is uplifting, it has a positive impact on our mental state. We feel a greater sense of peace and harmony within ourselves and we share this gift with others around us. This experience fills the heart with joy.
San Francisco has the ability to invoke basic spirituality and kindle creativity, because the streets and blocks of the city were laid on the land as if it were flat. In actuality, the grid pattern was placed on top of sand dunes and hills instead of going around them. The result is a city with streets defined by a wall of buildings, a variety of building elements that meet the sidewalk and aid in social interaction, incredible site lines, open spaces with breathtaking terrain, and civic building sites at important locations serving as landmarks for the community. Telegraph Hill and the Filbert Street Steps encompass all of these attributes. Located on the east slope of Telegraph Hill, the Filbert Street Steps rise in three sections with about 600 steps. As you climb the steps, you are greeted by the sculpted Grace Merchant Gardens, hidden cottages and incredible views of the Bay Bridge. The wild parrots provide good company as you ascend to Pioneer Park and Coit Tower. Pioneer Park crowns Telegraph Hill. The site was purchased in 1876, with the intent to preserve the hilltop. During that time, hilltops were being converted into commercial use. The land was donated to the city with the condition that it remain green space. It is here that we can take in inspiring views of the city and the bay.
Similar to buildings, streets and blocks provide order within the public realm. Order appeals to our most rational selves. A neat Parisian boulevard reminds people that the world isn’t all chaos. Too much order can lead us astray. Order requires balance between predictability and the element of surprise. We prefer surroundings that remain sensitive to our nature and complexity. Interestingly, I think that applying the grid street network with disregard to the topography actually creates delightful surprises and experiences that play to the public’s senses. Novel as well as awe inspiring experiences activate dopamine, which gives us sensations of pleasure and reward. Awe is rare, and yet I think San Francisco is an awe inspiring city. The urban environment has a unique juxtaposition to incredible natural features within and around the city that are exciting.
An important ingredient of leading a happier life is spirituality. Basic spirituality is comprised of fundamental human qualities like goodness, compassion and caring for one another. Embracing those qualities brings us closer as a humanity, helping us become calmer, happier and more peaceful. Is this one way the city brings about a virtuous and happy life in its citizenry? By making streets and spaces walkable, comfortable places and allowing us to engage with people of all ages, income levels and backgrounds we are able to find empathy for others. Being compassionate and thinking of others provides moments of joy and grows our happiness.
During our recent trip to Japan, I read Joyful and Bella Figura. One of the themes that Joyful focuses on is play and its importance for our social and emotional development. According to the National Institute for Play, play is one of our greatest means for accessing delight and has deep roots in human and animal life. Our truest human expression of joy - laughter - likely emerged from play. Play is the only thing we do purely for joy. As a society, we push for work / life balance. However, we fill this time with e-mails and errands. Joyful people fill this time with music… and in my case watercolor painting. They also bring this spirit into other aspects of their lives, such as storytelling, playing with animals, joking at dinner with friends, etc.
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