Every Friday, Pacific Union will take a look at what’s new and notable in the Bay Area neighborhoods that constitute our neck of the woods. Here’s what we’ve got for the week ending February 24, 2012.
MARIN COUNTY
Locally, we may be most familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the Marin County Civic Center, but another more surprising work to his credit once stood in the county’s San Anselmo. It turns out the famed American architect was also reportedly responsible for a pretty special doghouse.
EAST BAY (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)
A carved redwood relief recently acquired by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA once actually had a home here in the Bay Area at a UC Berkeley campus. The Sargent Johnson piece was misplaced or mishandled, and eventually mistakenly sold for a mere percentage of its current reported value.
SONOMA COUNTY
The Bay Area is home to a number of exciting teams, including the recent near-NFC Champion 49ers and the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, but also the hard-playing Sonoma Fog senior softball team. As the only Sonoma County senior softballers, they are no strangers to traveling for tournament play, but hope to some day soon see more local action.
SAN FRANCISCO
Celebrating 20 years, San Francisco’s Noise Pop kicked off this week, and continues to welcome newcomers along with more-seasoned acts into the music festival lineup. Historically an indie-rock celebration, the festival is now embracing other creative endeavors — including local food.
NAPA VALLEY
Napa Valley vintners are seeing a growing interest in California wines from Chinese consumers, and greater export demands to Asia overall. Taking the steps to break into the marketplace, growers are looking at the local scene outside of hotels geared towards Westerners, and introducing California wines to potentially unfamiliar palates.
(Doghouse image courtesy of marinij.com, Sonoma Fog image courtesy of pressdemocrat.com)