Rincon Reflection

Stay outside the circle and you won't get wet

Not-appreciated-until-it's-gone-department:

The Rincon Annex at the foot of Mission has renovated its interior again. The restaurants are mostly gone, as is the "Rain Cloud" fountain in which water dropping 80 feet was engineered so precisely that the viewer didn't get splashed.

The complex includes a massive former post office at Mission and Spear streets that opened in 1940 and was conveniently located near the finger piers of the Embarcadero. By 1989 the piers were mostly gone and the Embarcadero was underneath a double-deck freeway. The back of the post office building was hollowed out to make room for a skylit atrium with cafes and shops around a central space where a fountain sent water descending gently 80 feet from a Plexiglass bowl perforated with 4,000 tiny holes.

That piece — “Rain Cloud” by Doug Hollis — was a popular sensation. But now it is gone, removed during the pandemic along with nearly all the retail spaces that drew workers on their lunch breaks. The basin into which water once fell has been replaced by flat terrazzo flooring.

One of my favorite pastimes was to walk over for lunch from the Embarcadero Center offices. The Rincon Annex had an upscale food court, where one had the choice of a dozen cuisines. From 2003:

About once a week I go to the Rincon Annex, the old San Francisco Post Office, for lunch. The interior has been lined with tile, and multi-ethnic restaurants abound. At the center is an atreum where water drops from the ceiling into a circular receptacle (I'm reminded of those Chinese restaurants where the waiter likes to show off by pouring tea from shoulder height into the cups on the table.)

Taking a leaf from Nordstrom's, there's a tuxedo- or gown-clad musician on a grand piano; the acoustics aren't the best, given the multiplicity of hard surfaces, the falling water, and the buzz of conversation. But let's put this in perspective--it's certainly better than the Post Office, which, by the way, has moved next door and has a stultifying gray interior.

I've become one of those geezers who liked San Francisco better in the old days.