J. Peter Winkelstein, longtime ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅboard member, talented architect, mentor, and friend to many, died on March 29 at age 94.
Peter, or Wink — as he was affectionately called by Diane Filippi, former director of the ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅUrban Center and his long-time business partner — joined the ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅboard in 1998. In his eight years on the board, Peter was co-chair of the Civic Center Task Force, co-chair of the Urban Planning/Policies Committee, chair of the Hospital/Health Care Futures Task Force, and a lead design member on the Doyle Drive Task Force. His work for ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅcontinued past his board tenure, as the chair of the new ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅUrban Center Building Committee.
Peter formed a ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅtask force to address deteriorating conditions in the Civic Center. Here he was clearly the expert. Working with Pei Cobb Freed, his architecture and urban design firm, Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris (SMWM), had recently completed the New Main Public Library, which anchored the southeast corner of the Civic Center. In addition to many other civic projects, SMWM had already completed a brilliant master plan for the San Francisco Civic Center, which aimed to both revive the historic grandeur of the space and make it functional for the next century. Peter brought the heft of ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅinto the public conversation to protect and improve this important civic space.
The 1991–1992 national recession hit San Francisco hard, interrupting the regular cadence of development through 1994. It came at the worst possible time for the city, which was still suffering from billions of dollars of damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The voters passed a landmark bond measure to repair public buildings, and Peter led SPUR’s planning and urban design efforts to assure their overall contribution to the public realm as well as their seismic safety. The Palace of the Legion of Honor was the first to be completed, in 1995. The New Main Public Library opened in 1996. The City Hall remodel was completed in 1997. Many others were to follow. During these years, Peter was a major player in diverse ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅplanning and design efforts, including the Union Square design competition and rebuilding, waterfront urban design, the new DeYoung Museum and concourse garage design, and Yerba Buena Center and Moscone Center expansion, as well as the designs of Westfield San Francisco Centre, the Ferry Building and plaza, Market Street, Mission Bay, the Transbay neighborhood, and Rincon Hill. Peter helped determine SPUR’s recommendations on many other programmatic studies, as well, including the functioning of San Francisco’s Planning and Building Inspection departments, the Better Neighborhoods program, and residential design guidelines.
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