Hello, I’m Maki Dan. In Japan, I’m studying architecture and majoring in structural engineering and disaster prevention, especially for earthquakes. Right now I’m in San Francisco, working at Wcities as an editorial intern for one month. Although I am in San Francisco for a very short time, I’ve experienced a lot and have seen many beautiful buildings. I’d like to write about buildings in San Francisco and their differences to Japanese buildings, based on my feelings and knowledge about architecture. In addition, I’d like to write about some of my experiences here.

This is a view from Coit Tower. San Francisco’s urban design is grid pattern. This kind of grid design can also be seen in many other cities in the United States. In Japan, we also have a city which has a grid pattern, Kyoto. In Japanese, Kyoto is translated as “Goban-No-Me”, which means Go equipment (Go is a popular board game mainly played in Asia). I have been to Kyoto once, and I found that both Kyoto and San Francisco have some similarities. Continue reading →