565-Piece LEGO Architecture San Francisco Building Kit (21043) EXPIRED

I grew up and used to work in the SF Bay Area and when this set came out recently, I saw negative reviews because it included the new huge (phallic?) building which many people don't like at all but I guess it's unmistakable on the skyline now. I haven't been back to the area since that was built, so when I saw downtown SF on TV this Summer, I realized, yeah, that thing is kind-of ugly on an established skyline. (when I grew in the area, the Transamerica pyramid and the Bank of America building -- both represented here, were the big new buildings; I think they were built in the 1960s.)

As an aside, funny story about phallic buildings in San Francisco. One of the old monuments erected in the early 1900s was a round tower on the top of a hill called Coit tower [sfrecpark.org]. It's actually in this skyline set also, I think. It was to honor firefighters and some say it was designed to represent a fire hose nozzle. My friend had his in-laws visiting from France, and was showing them the sights in San Francisco, and explained that it was Coit tower, and they thought he was joking about the name, because if you translate that it means something that might actually be appropriate for it.

I actually live on Telegraph Hill, and Coit Tower is the dominant view on the one side of our humble roof deck and the Golden Gate Bridge is on the other. I've been for private tours of the tower and had access to it without tourists. I have seen in detail the murals on the inside stairs on the way down. It is really magnificent.

I was pretty pissed about the Salesforce Tower. I like reaaaaaly "old" SF. The Saloon, for example. But a friend was like, if you don't accept the future, you only get left behind. I also have come to like some (not all) of the stuff they show from the giant screens at night, like the Eye of Sauron for Halloween.

Salesforce went up, the Coca-Cola neon sign from the 30's is now recently down. Time marches on.