Shipping containers launch creative enclave in Oakland – San Francisco Chronicle

A cleverly configured clutch of 33 lightly used shipping containers has found a new home in the shadow of the Grove Shafter Freeway, just a block west of the MacArthur BART station. Stacked three stories high and faced west and south for maximum light and air, MacArthur Annex feels like a happy hybrid while reflecting its Oakland locale at a critical juncture.

Amid the rise of the Temescal and Uptown neighborhoods and ascending rents and fears of gentrification the annexs twenty-seven 150-square-foot spaces have become storefronts, offices and studios for entrepreneurs, artists and writers, at relatively affordable prices. Meanwhile, its eco-friendly construction embodies the spirit of creative reuse and the areas history.

The way I always think about it is, the port is right there, says architect Matt Baran, who worked with owner and developer Caleb Inman to create the compound, which rolled out last fall. If you drive anywhere in Oakland, youre always confronted by containers, either on the backs of trucks or loaded onto ships.

My neighbor has a Victorian, and the guy down the street has a Victorian, but instead youre connecting to a context that has these maybe more distant connections. Youre looking at a larger picture.

The project is also holding a mirror up to a creative class finding its feet amid the citys seismic shifts. Yes, the annex overlooks a newly opened beer garden and pizza spot, Arthur Macs Tap & Snack, a nod to a similarly situated San Francisco institution, Zeitgeist (and co-helmed by the same Farm League group that runs Uptowns wildly popular Drakes Dealership). MacArthur Annex also harbors some of the DIY passion and creative energy thats fueled the Bay Area music and art scene since the 00s.

The same low-key, like-minded friendly excitement sparked by indie co-ops, backyard house parties and pop-up art openings was in the air at the annexs Second Sundays open studio, music and art event in February.

Kids in brightly colored sunglasses slouched outside the annex as the No Worries food truck served up vegan Filipino platters next to Rolling Sloanes stand selling pop tarts and pecan pie slices. In the courtyard inside, visitors plucked 60s sundresses and 80s dolman-sleeve knits from Ringo Vintages racks and sniffed candles in Foggy Notion, the apothecary owned by former Vetiver cellist and photographer Alissa Anderson.

Near a table of goodies raffled off as an ACLU benefit, neighbors checked out the sculptural works by Kristina Lewis in a space shared by Small Works and Sweeney/Kaye Gallery. Listeners watched from the floors overlooking the courtyard as local band Never Young generated waves of shoegaze pop below. It felt like an indie utopia in the making, dreaming in solar-powered, sustainably built boxes. While some of the faces were familiar, others were new. Here are some of the more genre-bending tenants of MacArthur Annex.

Contact Records

Politicized, passionate and veterans of local bands Grass Widow and Trainwreck Riders, respectively, Hannah Lew and Andrew Kerwin know the score and the married San Francisco natives were convinced theyd never get to live the Bay Area dream.

For years now, weve been feeling like everything is out of our reach, and all these people with a ton of money are setting up a paradigm we cant exist in. Then this came about, says Lew of the 19-by-7-foot space that houses their store, Contact Records. It feels a little dystopian to be in a shipping container. Is this what we can really afford in 2017 in the Bay Area?

Thanks to subsidized rent, the pair were able to open the first storefront at the annex, and judging by the smiling regulars and customers flipping through the vinyl at a recent Second Sundays, its holding its own simply by serving up what its owners love.

The Sheer Mag, Big Star, Kleenex and Liliput LPs, and international pop obscurities, in the front window announce Lew and Kerwins fascinations. Between the crammed, multilevel bins of vinyl, a rakishly tilted shelf of cassettes and a turntable listening station, they pack a lot of inventory into the sunlit space.

Their only conditions: The LPs have to be in great shape and the music has to be good. Otherwise they carry every genre, making sure to rotate in gems like, say, the odd Beatles Butcher cover. And Lews proud that they can cater to the neighborhoods nostalgic old-timers as well as indie nerds and beat makers searching for fresh samples, all while selling their collectibles at fair prices.

Theyd been stockpiling LPs for years before they learned of the annex. Quitting their jobs at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records in S.F. and Oakland, they embarked on an epic cross-country record-digging trip across the Midwest to gather even more inventory.

We kind of have the luxury of only carrying stuff we believe in, says Lew, who also plays in Cold Beat and releases music by bands like Tropic Green. We dont have to carry Taylor Swift records.

Lower Grand Radio

Unity was in the air upstairs at MacArthur Annex at Lower Grand Radio in February.

Next to a compact broadcasting setup read: a mixer and laptop friends toting skateboards checked out an exhibit of candy-colored decks painted with cuddling nude dudes created by Unity Skateboardings Jeffrey Cheung. Meanwhile, Alex Shen, who runs the Internet radio station, was selling mixtapes and giving away copies of Everybody Sk8s, a zine filled with anecdotes from badazz womxn/non-cis-male skateboarders and rollerbladers.

Everybody was on the same page that day, Shen explains later by email, while on tour in Japan with his band, Meat Market, and his group with Cheung, also called Unity.

Jeffrey has always been into skateboarding but felt like the common culture around it lacks the presence of queer identity. Unity skateboarding has been an outlet for him to blend painting and skateboarding while bringing people together to do something much like Lower Grand Radio, without the pressure of outside regulations, Shen says of his space mates. Just get together with friends and do something positive and affirming set the bar as high as we want. Maybe no bar at all, you know what I mean?

Shen started his Internet radio project after volunteering at KALX and DJing for UC Santa Cruzs KZSC. It seemed like the perfect way to keep busy and meet new people.

There are so many people doing radio streams with legendary programming around the world, but it did feel really good to do it from my windowless garage and go live whenever it felt right.

His mission, like that of the best public radio, is centered around his community and free-form, uncensored mobile programming Anyone can DJ for Lower Grandwhether theyre a friend like Andrew Oswald, who runs Secret Bathroom Recording Studio, or teens at the Oakland Public Library, where Shen works. Techno, dance hall, funk, metal, womens issues all are permitted. (The shows are archived at http://www.lowergrandradio.com.)

I think as you get older, it is easy for your world and community to get smaller, Shen continues. I thought creating a space for people to hang out and share music with, potentially, an infinite amount of people, or anyone with an Internet connection, would be really cool.

The Hanged Man Co.

Foraging florist, fortune-teller and printmaker Matthew Drewry Baker clearly believes in magic, both within and without, as he puts it on Instagram.

His MacArthur Annex studio and shop is an expression of that belief. Baker has transformed his container space into a wildly romantic jewel box with witchy, deep blue-green walls ornamented with vintage perfume bottles and other treasures and presided over by twisting masses of jasmine mixed with freesia and calla lilies, all drawn from friends Bernal Heights gardens or foraged from the edges of busy byways.

I think a lot of florists overlook fennel, for instance, by the freeway and in the cracks of the sidewalk it grows to such an exuberant height, Baker says. Passion vine theres a huge lot by the side of the Bernal Heights freeway that doesnt belong to anyone and nobody cares about.

We live in the Bay Area and theres so much beauty, he adds. We dont have to necessarily fly flowers out of Holland. Why use pesticides and poison? I try to forage and glean as much as I can myself because a lot of farmed things are too straight up and down, too perfect, anyway. I want it to resemble how things naturally grow in the wild, not a product of agribusiness. I want things that are a strange shape or have their own movement.

At a recent March Second Sundays event, branches of yellow mustard blossoms and nasturtium greet strangers at the door. Boughs of plum and Michelia Magnolia hover near the door near moon calendars by artist friend Annie Axtel.

Beneath a cumulus cloud of dried hydrangeas, Baker resplendent in a jaunty straw hat, striped tank, strings of beads, and turquoise and silver bangles and rings is giving tarot readings on a lace-layered table. Ive always thought the Tower and Five of Wands cards were bad news, but conventional interpretations fall away in Bakers fortune-telling sessions, in a way that feels deeply intuitive.

Flowers and divination correlate weirdly, Baker muses. When youre foraging, walking around and driving around and looking to see whats growing wild, you make mental maps of your area. Its similar when youre paying attention to whats going on with yourself and the energy. You make mental maps and its more about paying attention and being really observant.

Inspired and tutored by his gardening, tarot-reading mother, as well as former employer and Foraged Flora author Louesa Roebuck, the Martinez-bred Baker started the Hanged Man Co. three years ago.

Baker also makes rune symbol-embellished talismans and linocut cards, which evolved from his drawing and printmaking studies at the Academy of Art University.

Florimancy, of course, plays into his divination work and hes been studying the lost language of flowers for a series of divination dinners to begin this spring. My card is the Hanged Man a card thats apt for my business, he offers. Its about removing yourself from the thick of things and honing your instincts, using action through inaction, allowing things to come to you and trusting youll be on the right path.

Theres something about nature, the floral arrangements, and not trying to force it, letting a branch thats so strange dictate to me. I use it as an ally and not something to fight against.

Kimberly Chun is an East Bay freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com.

Ship this

MacArthur Annex harbors tenants ranging from Robin Sloan, best-selling author of Mr. Penumbras 24-Hour Bookstore, to pop-up shop Doublewood Denim. Look for these makers and shopkeepers:

Aloeswood Beauty: Wild-crafted, organic plant products are at the center of aesthetician, bodywork specialist, yoga teacher and nutritional coach Christy Swensons practice. The Alaskan-born, self-described healer offers facials, dry-skin brushing, hot stones, cupping, Tibetan scalp massage and foot reflexology. No. 301. https://christy-swenson.squarespace.com/

Foggy Notion: Local music watchers got an eyeful of owner Alissa Andersons band photos and album art during the 00s. Now her shop (its moniker calls back to the Velvet Underground tune) gives you a snapshot of Bay Area and Cali crafters in the form of organic skin care, ceramics, totes and backpacks, honey, kitchen goods and fragrance, along with pop-up appearances by Have Company zine and book concern. No. 102. https://foggynotionsf.wordpress.com.

La Loba: The name hints at the old souls behind these eternal pieces. Beth Naumann of Oaklands Hellbent hand-makes draped brass and fringe collar necklaces, jewelry, hairpins and sculptural mobiles, whereas local designer Gina Di Girolamo strives for ease and simplicity of form in her silk, linen and hand-dyed rayon tops and dresses. No. 103. http://www.shoplaloba.com.

Sweeney Kaye/Small Works Oakland: Women artists are the 2017 focus at this compact gallery shared by Sweeney Kaye and Small Works Oakland. No. 108. http://www.sweeneykayegallery.com.

Waterandstone and Stace Fulwiler: California College of the Arts instructor Amy Morrell based the bold geometric curves of her latest mini collection of hand-forged brass pendants on the human form. Expect handmade leather sandals, slides and clogs by Stace Fulwiler at this shared showroom, open during Second Sundays. No. 107. http://www.stacefulwiler.com; http://www.watersandstone.com.

MacArthur Annex: 644 40th St., Oakland. https://macarthurannex.com, http://www.facebook.com/

macarthurannex.

Contact Records: No. 104. https://www.facebook.com/contactrecordshop/, Instagram: @contact_records/.

Lower Grand Radio: No. 208. http://www.lowergrandradio.com, Instagram @unitymart

The Hanged Man Co.: No. 109. http://thehangedmanco.bigcartel.com, Instagram: @thehangedmanco/

Kimberly Chun

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Shipping containers launch creative enclave in Oakland - San Francisco Chronicle