An important part of the counterculture of the 1970s, Project One, sometimes described as a technological commune, was an

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, U.S. Located at 1380 Howard St. in an 84,000 square foot warehouse, formerly an abandoned candy factory, the community functioned from 1970 to 1980 and was the first "warehouse community" in San Francisco. Occupied by a shifting mix of students, craftspeople, artisans, sculptors, filmmakers, and technologists, Project One was anchored by a number of organizations. The community had no formal organizational structure. Decisions were made through a voluntary weekly meeting of members who made decisions based on a consensus of those present. Project One was initiated by architect Ralph Scott, a former student of

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

, and rapidly became an interdisciplinary learning environment. Central to the concept was Symbas Alternative High School, founded by Scott and located in a large, high-ceiling space on the first floor. Many of these resident non-profit organizations and small businesses were brought in to serve as resources for the students, who were also members of the larger community. Students found mentors who offered skills training and the opportunities to practice new skills. See also

community of place A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town ...

Construction

When this abandoned, 84,000 sq. ft. warehouse was first leased in 1970, all previous internal walls and structures had been removed from the basement, four full floors and penthouse. It was completely empty except for the structural supporting columns that held the four stories up. The building was constructed with

steel reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

. When it was first occupied, the people who lived and worked there designed and built all the walls, hallways, work and living spaces as well as the electrical and plumbing systems. As not all had previous skills in construction and remodeling there was a lot of

on-the-job training On-the-job training (widely known as OJT) is an important topic of human resource management. It helps develop the career of the individual and the prosperous growth of the organization. On the job training is a form of training provided at the wor ...

, reflecting a strong

do-it-yourself "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

ethic which was common in the

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

. Since there were a wide variety of skills available within the community, it was rarely necessary to hire outside contractors.

Anchor Organizations

Airwaves

Principals:

Larry Bensky Larry Bensky (born May 1, 1937) is a literary and political journalist with experience in both print and broadcast media, as well as a teacher and political activist. He is known for his work with Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley, Cal ...

, Barry Kearson (aka Barry Michaels)

Alternative radio Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

production

Apples Daycare

Principal: Rashid (née Ray) Patch served as front man for a gang of 4-year-olds. Operating from 6:00am till 7:30pm, Monday through Friday, Apples Daycare was situated on the fourth floor, at the south corner of the building. Six to a dozen of the 15-18 enrolled pre-schoolers came each day. Setting off on foot they explored San Francisco: riding buses, walking neighborhoods, watching parades, attending free concerts in the parks and free movies at the library, attending public presentations of spiritual leaders and teachers. The kids met a bunch of Buddhist abbots, rinpoches, lamas, roshis, Sikh gurus, Taoist priests, kung-fu masters, archbishops, swamis, Orthodox monks, friars, rabbis, and Sufi shaykhs; all of whom would find time to give the kids their blessings. The parents were artists, exotic dancers, actors, rock&roll musicians, political activists, techies, nurses, social workers, a park ranger - all childcare early-adapters, most screened and referred by the San Francisco Childcare Switchboard.

Blossom Family Studios

Principals: David, Nancy and daughter Annie Blossom Blossom Studios was a rehearsal space and recording studio for the Blossoms and other musicians. The Blossom's were part of the original

Fifty Foot Hose Fifty Foot Hose is an American underground rock band that formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s, and reformed in the 1990s. They were one of the first bands to fuse rock and experimental music. Like a few other acts of the time (most notabl ...

and the band for the touring production of Hair.

Body Politic

The journal of the

Medical Committee for Human Rights The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) was a group of American health care professionals that initially organized in June 1964 to provide medical care for civil rights workers, community activists, and summer volunteers working in Mississi ...

, Body Politic was edited by Dr.

Larry Brilliant Lawrence Brilliant (born May 5, 1944) is an American epidemiologist, technologist, philanthropist, and author, who worked with the World Health Organization from 1973–1976 helping to successfully eradicate smallpox. Brilliant, a technology pate ...

db Associates

Principals: Peter de Blanc, Liz Barto, Dennis Rice, Steve Sultan, Jeff Neiman, Ray Patch, John Halpern, Vana Veness DB Associates, located in the basement of Project One, was the successor to Tomorrow, Inc., which had originally been incorporated in Chicago in 1968; most of the team had worked together since 1967. As Tomorrow, Inc., the crew had designed and built nightclubs and discothèques, high-tech light-shows, custom film and projection systems, special-effects lighting systems, recording studios, radio studios, and produced concerts and music festivals. DB Associates designed and built custom electronics, sound and lighting systems, amplifiers, mixers, specialized custom computer and communications equipment. A typical project was the Electric Symphony Orchestra, where a small 40-piece classical orchestra had pickups attached non-destructively to every instrument. All the sound signals from each instrument source were run through custom designed delay and phase shift circuitry, and then through a multi-channel mixer, so that the stereo signal for each single instrument was multiplied, and also separated in space. So, for example, one violin at a single location would be heard as 4, 6, or 8 violins, all with slightly different timbre, in different physical locations in an orchestral section.

Ecology Center Press

Principal: Raymond Baltar, Sr., a printer and founder of the Ecology Center. and

International Bird Rescue International Bird Rescue is a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates injured aquatic birds, most notably seabirds affected by oil spills. Founded bAlice Berknerand members of the Ecology Action, including veterinarian James Michael Harris, D ...

ECOS

Founded 1971. Principals: Ralph Scott, Ray Krauss, Mya Shone, Mary Janowitz, Sherry Reson, Craig Mosher, Andy Bucchiere

Eric Dollard Labs

Principal: Eric Dollard Located in the basement of Project One, electrical engineer Eric P. Dollard conducted research in ultra-high-voltage electrical and electronics devices. Dollard was systematically reconstructing some of the systems and techniques originally developed by

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''

Philo Farnsworth Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many crucial contributions to the early development of all-electronic television. He is best known for his 1927 invention of t ...

in the early 20th century. At Project One, Dollard had been able to repeatably produce stable "ball lightning" effects using high-voltage plasmas.

Fort Help

The first San Francisco

Methadone clinic A methadone clinic, or substance use disorder services clinic (SUDS), is a clinic which has been established for the dispensing of medications used in the treatment of opiate dependence —historically and most commonly methadone, although buprenor ...

, Fort Help, founded by Dr. Joel Fort.

Imageworks Film Processing

Principals: Jeff Neiman, Albert Neiman. From Albert's 2020 obituary: "In 1970, Albert became one of the original members of Project One, a unique urban collective located in an old candy factory South of Market. Here he established Image Works, a motion picture lab that supported the independent and student film community."

KPOO KPOO (89.5 FM) is a community radio station licensed to San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Nor ...
Community Radio

An alternative music and news radio station

Optic Nerve

Principals: Lynn Adler, Sherrie Rabinowitz, Jules Backus, Jim Mayer,

Bill Bradbury Bill Bradbury (born May 29, 1949) is an American politician who served as a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as the 23rd Oregon secretary of state from 1999 to 2009. Bradbury was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2010 Oregon gube ...

, Ben Tarcher
Founded in 1970 as a photography collective focusing on social issues and American culture, in 1972 Optic Nerve began working in video as well as photography. Their first production was an hour documentary about Project One. Optic Nerve’s early video documentaries explored rodeos, beauty pageants and the world of owner operator truck drivers.. These were among the first independently produced video documentaries to be broadcast on Public Television. They collaborated with local artists groups such as

Ant Farm A formicarium or ant farm is a vivarium which is designed primarily for the study of ant colonies and how ants behave. Those who study ant behavior are known as myrmecologists. History The formicarium was invented by Charles Janet, a French ...

. In 1973, the collective moved around the corner from Project One into an undeveloped loft space. The Optic Nerve studio became an important venue in San Francisco's alternative media community, hosting public video screenings, performances, video shoots, and some very good parties. In 1980, three past members formed Ideas In Motion as a for-profit partnership continuing the ideals of Optic Nerve within a sustainable financial structure.

Resource One

Conceived by Pam Hardt as a ''people's computer center'' and operating with a donated XDS-940

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

from TransAmerica Corporation, Resource One became the first public computerized

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

(bbs). Principals: Sharon Altus, Bart Berger, Mike Chadwick, John Cooney,

Lee Felsenstein Lee Felsenstein (born April 27, 1945) is an American computer engineer who played a central role in the development of the personal computer. He was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club and the designer of the Osborne 1, the ...

, Henry the Fiddler, Pam Hardt, Bob Hemmer, Efrem Lipkin, Chris Macie, Gary McCue, Chris Neustrup,

Jed Riffe Jed Riffe is an American filmmaker and founder of Jed Riffe Films + Electronic Media. For over 30 years his documentary films have focused on social issues and politics including: Native American histories and struggles (Ishi, the Last Yahi, Cal ...

, Steve Robinson, Ford Turping, Paul Ward, Fred Wright.

Community Memory

Created in 1973 by

, Efrem Lipkin, Ken Colstad,

Jude Milhon Judith udeMilhon (March 12, 1939 – July 19, 2003), in Washington D.C., best known by her pseudonym St. Jude, was a self-taught programmer, civil rights advocate, writer, editor, advocate for women in computing, hacker and author in the ...

, and Mark Szpakowski,

Community Memory Community Memory (CM) was the first public computerized bulletin board system. Established in 1973 in Berkeley, California, it used an SDS 940 timesharing system in San Francisco connected via a 110 baud link to a teleprinter at a record store i ...

was the first public computerized

. One of Community Memory's founders

went on to play a central role in the development of the

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

Social Services Referral Directory

Prior to the publication and distribution of the Social Service Referral Directory, social workers and other staff in San Francisco's many agencies relied on personal

rolodex A Rolodex is a rotating card file device used to store business contact information. Its name, a portmanteau of the words ''rolling'' and ''index'', has become somewhat genericized (usually as ''rolodex'') for any personal organizer performing thi ...

es, pamphlets and lists in order to refer their clients for additional and appropriate services. Critical information within agencies changed frequently and successful referrals required up to date and complete information. The idea that a solution utilizing the Resource One computer was possible came from Charles Bolton. A design, development and implementation team at Resource One (Mary Janowitz, Chris Macie, Sherry Reson, Mya Shone) utilized their donated SDS 940 mainframe computer, programmed by Chris Macie to handle information storage and retrieval. A standardized format and data collection process resulted in agency listings printed on three-hole punch paper. Loose-leaf binders were distributed to the participating agencies, who paid a nominal fee to be mailed a monthly packet including ten new listings and ten to twenty revised listings. While some agency people sent in information as programs or capacities or locations changed, maintaining current information and adding listings depended on project staff making direct telephone contact with agency personnel. Listings were sorted alphabetically behind tabs and index pages provided an overview regarding neighborhoods, languages spoken, types of service and other critical criteria. Joan Lefkowitz joined the team early in 1974, then Katerina Lanner-Cusin came on board. The following year, a conversation with The United Way of the Bay Area, and the heads of San Francisco Social Services and the Zellerbach Family Fund, resulted in the United Way assuming responsibility. In the summer of 1994, the United Way determined they were unable to maintain the service. The

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Library Journals L ...

(SFPL) took over and renamed it the San Francisco Community Services Directory aka Community Services Data Base. SFPL maintained it as an online database through spring of 2009. Sometime in the ‘90s the library decided it was duplicative of other, mainly web-based, resources and discontinued it. People in the social services world wish it still existed and Lefkowitz, then the Library's Web Service Manager, commented that the SSRD represented a "ground breaking use of technology."

The San Francisco School of Holography

Lloyd Cross Lloyd Cross is an American physicist and holographer. As a physicist, Cross' research started in the 1950s, and focused primarily on masers and lasers at Willow Run Laboratories, at the University of Michigan. He first demonstrated maser action ...

, Jerry Pethick

San Francisco Switchboard

Founded by Al Rinker, San Francisco Switchboard was an outgrowth of the Haight-Ashbury Switchboard. SF Switchboard relocated to Project One in 1970.

1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill

In January, The Ecology Center Press, Resource One and Symbas School combined forces with the San Francisco Switchboard to coordinate communications among volunteers and organizational responses to the clean-up effort. Records kept by Public Television station KQED were subsequently destroyed. Then a Symbas student, Ray Baltar, Jr., whose father ran the Ecology Center Press, wrote of his experience "as part of a school work experience project I had scored a job as an operator for the San Francisco Switchboard on an old PBX machine, also in the building, when I started getting calls about an oil spill in San Francisco Bay caused by two Standard Oil tankers that had collided. Thousands of people wanted to know if and where they could volunteer to help rescue birds and clean the beaches, and over the next several weeks almost everyone in the building helped to build an old-‐school information hub, complete with a phone bank, whiteboards and rumor control. We coordinated with other volunteer hubs that had sprung up in Marin County, Half Moon Bay and elsewhere to try and manage the volunteer effort, and though most of the birds died, the beaches did eventually get cleaned and the effort spawned the International Bird Rescue group that has responded to many subsequent spills and has learned how to save much more wildlife."

San Francisco Vietnam Veterans Against the War - VVAW

In 1967,

Vietnam Veterans Against the War Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is an American tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation founded in 1967 to oppose the United States policy and participation in the Vietnam War. VVAW says it is a national veterans' organization ...

(VVAW) was founded in New York City after six Vietnam vets marched together in a peace demonstration. The VVAW San Francisco Chapter was one of the early groups in Project One, organizing against the Vietnam war, and counseling and assisting their fellow veterans. Principals: Lee Thorn, Mike Oliver, Jack McCloskey, Jim O'Donnell, Bob Hanson, Paul Cox, and Mike Oliver.

Symbas Alternative High School

(to be added)

Media

An hour-long documentary on Project One by Optic Nerve

References

External links

* ttps://www.bookdepository.com/American-Hippies-W-J-Rorabaugh/9781107049239 The American Hippies by W. J. Rorabaugh
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry by John Markoff

* Stewart Brand 1972 {{coords, 37.7743, -122.4144, display=title Artist colonies American artist groups and collectives Counterculture communities Hippie movement Intentional communities in California