Randolph Ruiz
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aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Randolph Ruiz
@aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
130 followers 190 following 430 posts
Architect, educator(SEIU 1021), casual cyclist in San Francisco & Santa Monica. Need a building? I can help http://aaaarch.com Auto-free since ‘04
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aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Here, I turned up the sharpness
A map maybe. It’s about 12 pixels wide?
December 6, 2025 at 11:37 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
All trains to and from SF should hit central Oakland. Then they can split to go north and south. The existing north/south service should also serve central Oakland. (Lucile Bluth meme about not understanding costs)
Map of Oakland with poorly drawn pink lines representing proposed routes. One goes north from Alameda parallel to Broadway and splits past downtown with one line following San Pablo to 580 and reconnecting with existing tracks at emeryville. The other branch loops around Lake Merrit to bring the line back to existing tracks near Fruitvale. Another line connects the existing line from Fruitvale to the central Oakland station from the south
December 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
There may be little to take directly from the profoundly sculptural and personal form making of Gehry’s later work, but his impact on the field has been immense. His office nurtured generations of practitioners, many of whom learned powerful lessons about the potential for architectural expression
A picture of the Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry. A curved blade of stainless steel-clad building slices up toward the sky while reflecting its blueness and light. Other cured stainless forms loom behind it in shadow.
December 6, 2025 at 2:38 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Anyone notice (or care) that the Amtrak logo represents poor trackway drainage design?
Amtrak “three sheets” logo in dark blue on the stainless steel side of a superliner coach. A hatted goober may be seen reflected in a coach window.
December 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
A special Thanksgiving guest gave me the gift of BOSS
A dark blue architecture monograph named “alameda (more boss architecture)” by Jones, Partners: Architecture sits on a somewhat familiar looking black leather lounge chair
November 29, 2025 at 12:54 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
This one is more specific
California license plate “TAXMUSK” in yellow on black plate on a dark grey Tesla.
November 24, 2025 at 7:23 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Here’s another view.
Same building from the other side hunting at bilateral symmetry and showing pop-out on side of second floor
November 24, 2025 at 2:07 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
It’s partially a matte painting
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster drives into an eerily empty parking lot at Walley World
November 24, 2025 at 12:52 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
As promised
A stucco pre-war 2-story apartment building lightly hints at is Schindler pedigree with corner windows and vertical accent stripes in the entry court
November 23, 2025 at 11:36 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Some Architecture at today’s CicLAvia. Santa Monica and Vermont B Line station by Ellerbe Becket/Mehrdad Yazdani; Koening Eisenberg housing project at same location; Danziger Studio by Fran Gehry; and Paramount Film and Tape Archive by Holt Hinshaw Pfau Jones.
Vermont/Santa Monica B Line station entry pit with stairs and escalators ascending from a concrete cavern toward the light. The ceiling is festooned with colorful light strips suggesting movement and the energy of the city above Colorful affordable housing project at Santa Monica and Vermont. An external exit stair is clad in pink expanded metal. Sunshades are lime green A somewhat nondescript composition of grey stucco boxes facing the street A view into the paramount lot. On the right in the distance is a sky backdrop that forms most of the facade of the paramount film and tape archive building
November 23, 2025 at 9:03 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
My trip is in the 11th “inning” if you know what I mean.
November 2, 2025 at 4:28 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Happy KC streetcar day
An internally lit modern streetcar crosses the street in the foreground in a picture looking at downtown Kansas City from a pedestrian bridge adjacent to Union Station and looking north. The street is brightly lit by streetlights. There are a few autos visible along the left side of the street.
October 25, 2025 at 3:15 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Looking over the new plan for California Forever, a common refrain is, "...while accommodating cars."

I've counted 39 "Perimeter" garages and 24 "District" garages.
This plan appears to have structured parking for up to 100,000 cars. How many gas stations will be built?
A site diagram for California Forever showing the distribution of structured parking. There are 39 "Perimeter parking garages" shown, which are said to have up to 2,500 parking spaces each. Another 24 "District parking garages" are shown with up to 250 spaces each.
October 15, 2025 at 7:41 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
*Slaps roof of dead mall*
You could fit SO much walkable urbanism at this site
Aerial view of huge Tanforan Mall site surrounded by acres of surface parking
September 25, 2025 at 11:06 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Los Angeles Train Festival 2025
Bright orange BNSF AC44 freight locomotive nose with “25 Anniversary” text Three model streetcars in a model railway street scene. Art deco chandeliers hang from a high ceiling with large arched vaults and a ceiling with an elaborate multicolored geometric pattern. Smoke box front with headlight and swinging bell on atsf 3751 steam engine outside in the sun.
September 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Muni 100 throwback
Man in period appropriate grey suit and hat disembarks from grey muni #1 streetcar in 2012
September 21, 2025 at 7:58 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Not sure how real this is, but it is hilarious that this little corner of Millbrae might get up-zoned just for being on the opp. side of US101 from the SFO people mover
A map showing part of SFO airport and Millbrae, showing a large number of overlapping green circles around the airport's people mover stations indicating that the "transit" they provide might trigger SB79 up-zoning on a few random blocks of Millbrae alongside US101
September 13, 2025 at 12:33 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Mega Mobility Only
Red sign on a train platform with a train in the background. The sign indicates that cycling, skating, and skate boarding are not allowed.
August 26, 2025 at 10:15 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Upzoning at transit stations creates housing
Large construction site at Bundy and Exposition under an overcast grey sky. Two yellow tower cranes rise from the excavations.
August 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Crump’s Rid the Big Red Cars. Page 170
The city of LA, embodied as an exhausted young woman sleeps at the end of a snitch tie where a cigar chomping robber baron labeled, “the railroads,” is redirecting a train onto a rickety elevated railroad structure labeled “To four miles of roller coaster elevated railroad.” The track straight ahead is labeled, “to a union station.” also joined in opposing the Plaza plan. Chambers in communities throughout Southern California endorsed the proposal for an elevated railroad, anticipating more growth for their areas. Almost alone in its opposition to the overhead rail. road, The Times emphasized dangers of defacing the city with such a system and citing efforts of other cities with overhead to remove the "Els." When the ballots were counted, they showed that The Times was a most potent voice in Los Angeles civic life. Citizens demonstrated their alarm at the danger of an elevated system defacing the City of the Angels by defeating the overhead plan by a substantial margin. The union passenger terminal at the Plaza location was endorsed by a narrow margin despite opposition by the other newspapers. The final tally of votes showed Proposition No. 8, permitting the "El" construction, defeated by 115,493 to 72,714. Proposition 9, for the Plaza station, was endorsed by 94,404 and opposed by 90,464 voters. Cost of the elevated system to the Pacific Electric at the time was estimated at $2 million because of its usage of facilities the transcontinental railroads planned as part of the project. If the "El" had been constructed by the Pacific Electric alone, its estimated cost would have been a prohibitive $25 million. The P.E. plan, if voters endorsed the initial project, was to extend the tracks from the elevated's termination by the Los Angeles River along the banks to Glendale. The tracks also would
August 19, 2025 at 2:35 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Rode the wee subway today
Glasgow Subway roundrel sign illuminated at night. A red S surrounded in white, grey, and orange The tiny stadler made train is dwarfed in the station by people standing next to it The inside is a bit wider than people sitting across from one another at dinner
August 12, 2025 at 10:06 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Some transit vehicles I’ve recently viewed
Chicago L train in little Italy from street below Striped Nose of a North Shore Line electroliner Red CTA streetcar in front of a red and grey Interurban Minneapolis blue line train at Hennepin station
July 28, 2025 at 3:23 AM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Figured out why my Chicago murder motel is so cheap
The underside of a very close airliner silhouetted against a grey sky
July 27, 2025 at 11:40 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Night sky ringed with the trees and power lines of a Southern California street. In the middle is the sky is a long glowing vapor trail and plume from an ascending high-atmosphere rocket. It kinda looks like a sperm
July 19, 2025 at 11:52 PM
aaaarchitecture.bsky.social
Tri-Valley Link along the Iron Horse Trail would be a better project. It could be pushed to Martinez later.
Aerial photo map of tri-valley area with poorly drawn yellow line from downtown Livermore along UPRR to Pleasanton and then along Iron Horse Trail to the end of the BART line and continuing north to Walnut Creek
July 13, 2025 at 2:43 PM