Chapter 10 Conclusion The neighborhood of Diamond Heights is a unique resource in San Francisco. The Redevelopment Agency project is an essay in localized Modernist architecture, planning and landscape design. While, in postwar America, tract housing and suburban sprawl became dominant forms of development, the Diamond Heights project utilized many of the principles of suburban development and merchant building, but with an innovative emphasis on neighborhood unit planning, diverse housing typologies, and socioeconomic diversity. It is often difficult for people to conceptualize postwar tract housing as “historic” or “significant.” Whether it is because the postwar period doesn’t seem old enough, or because they don’t like or appreciate the Modern Movement aesthetic, or because they don’t believe that architecture or design that is mass-produced is special enough to be considered significant. In understanding the significance of Diamond Heights, it is crucial to understand a variety of thematic contexts: the Modern Movement in architecture and design (both nationally and regionally in California and the Bay Area), building culture of mass-production, housing and [10-1] Intact original landscaping and play features at the Christopher Playground at the Diamond Heights Neighborhood Center; looking south at houses on Gold Mine Hill. [Hannah Simonson]
suburbanization trends, urban renewal, and redevelopment. While some of the resources (buildings, structures, sites, or objects) in Diamond Heights are potentially individually significant as defined by the National Register of Historic Places and San Francisco landmark legislation, Diamond Heights is best understood as district or cultural landscape due to the importance
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