Architect Cathy Simon calls the waterfront near the Embarcadero the “living room” of San Francisco because it’s alive with activity. Since she first came to the city more than 30 years ago, it’s an area that re-invented itself.

Neighborhood: The waterfront from the ballpark to just past the Ferry Building.

In 1969, when Simon was interviewing for her first job in San Francisco, a fellow architect started extolling the virtues of the Chicago waterfront, praising the fact that the Windy City met the water. Simon asked if that wasn’t also the case in San Francisco. “He said, no … that San Francisco was largely cut off from the waterfront,” Simon says. “At the time, that was true. The freeway and industrial buildings blocked the city from the water. That all changed when the freeway came down.”

As the architects of the new Ferry Building, Simon’s firm, SMWM, has had a profound effect on the waterfront. Simon finds inspiration in the long walk on the promenade between the ballpark and the Ferry Building. “It’s an area on the cusp of change,” she says.

It starts just outside of the ballpark. “There’s a long stretch of industrial buildings with elaborate Beaux Arts facades,” she says. “Their purpose is to hide and protect the working waterfront behind. When they were built in the 1920s, the buildings were meant for the shipping and these areas were intended for moving and storing goods. It’s fascinating to walk by and get a peek at the huge, cavernous maritime spaces.”

Closer to the Ferry Building, she always looks at Rincon Park, most noted for the huge bow and arrow sculpture called “Cupid’s Span” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. “This is a really wonderful open space by the water,” says Simon. “It’s a little sliver of land that wouldn’t be there today if the freeway were still standing, and it’s a welcome separation of the busy Embarcadero and the pedestrian waterfront promenade. It opens the experience of the city and the bay.”

Heading north from Rincon Park, there’s a lesser-known structure at the foot of Harrison Street that calls her attention. “There is a historic Mission-style firehouse with wonderful fireboats moored alongside,” she says. “Next to the firehouse is a little garden where the firemen grow tomatoes. Nearby there are steps that mysteriously lead into the bay. This is the one moment in this district where the bay becomes truly accessible.”

Cathy Simon is a principal at SMWM, 989 Market St., third floor, www.smwm.com.

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