I have no idea what my favorite building in NorCal is...I've never been! That's why I need the book, to school up on it!

While it definitely isn't Mod, I am absolutely in love with the new California Academy of Sciences building that will soon be finished in Golden Gate Park. I am a donating member, and one of my favorite perks is the great in-progress pictures they include in the member magazine. The gradually flowing Living Roof is gorgeous, and beautiful architectural design permeates the building. The spiral walkway surrounding the "Rainforests of the World" exhibit, the Flooded Forest tunnel, even the gaudy railing surrounding the swamp exhibit (that's an homage to the original building), every inch has been thought out and is pleasing on the eye. Even better, once completed it will be the largest LEED-certified public building.
The best view is from the tower in the de Young, though their website has very impressive time-lapse videos and 3D visualizations. I'm in love. http://www.calacademy.org/newacademy/

Don't know if this is located in Northern CA, but I love the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant that was designed in the 1930's-40's in the shape of a cruise ship.

Where is that amazing house in the second picture! It looks like the Frank Lloyd Wright waterfall house inverted toward the sky.

On the subject of FLW, one only has to look at the Marin Civic Center to know that modern architecture is alive in N. California. The problem, is that the largest city in N. Calfironia, San Francisco, is better known for its painted ladies (Victorians) than any sort of modern architecture.

Pinning down a favorite is tricky, but in San Francisco, I love the Crown-Zellerbach Building on Market and Bush St. It's an elegant office building, perfectly proportioned and calming with its fern-covered recessed gardens spanned by graceful bridges, setting the building apart from the hubbub of the city.
Then, to prove my schizophrenic design sense, I also love the quirky Sea Ranch Chapel; existing easily within its beautiful natural surroundings, but also posessing a sculptural quality, impending motion.
I think what I love about these buildings is their subtlety and the 'comfort' of the structures in what they are - much like the people of Northern California who are so often genuine and true to themselves.

juice2 - The house in the second photo is the Brubeck House in Oakland. To read a little more about it, click on the Brubeck name in the link below:

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/excerpts.php?isbn=081184353X&store=books

I grew up on the east coast (what else is new, SF-dweller?), and my first introduction to the concept of NorCalMod would have to be reading and envisioning "The Serial" when it first came out as a spiral-bound book. Those peeps in Marin sure were wacky/cool/bohemian to my teen-aged self. That sensiblity is largely gone these days, with the exception of my beloved Bolinas. However this weekend, after living in SF for 21 years, I made my first venture to The Sea Ranch for an extended weekend in a newer house in the development. What I found there was the epitome of NorCalMod - a planned environment within the natural surroundings that really worked for me. The architecture is slick but not overly ostentacious and constantly with an eye on how the houses will fit into the coast, fields, hills, and hedgerows. It was just nice and my new favorite NorCalMod "building".

Northern California has several buildings that were the trendsetters for their era. The Transamerica building, a corporate icon, the Hyatt Embarcadero, one of the first hotels with an atrium. But my favorite building in Northern California is the Marin County Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

I'm not a Wright fanatic, but on my first visit to California, we happened to be driving up US 101 and seeing the exit for San Raphael, I suddenly remembered it was there. We exited, and found it. Like Wright's homes, the entrance is through a comparatively tiny doorway under an arch beneath the building, once inside, the building reveals its grandeur, a 2-3 story atrium a football field long with a domed, circular public library at the end. As you walk through it, you notice all the building design features that are common today, but were unique in the 50's when the center was designed. Laid out along the ridge of a hill in the shape of a boomerang, with nice views of the bay area, this is probably one of the most spectacular modern public buildings in the country.

The Dominus Winery Building by Herzog & de Meuron. Talk about capturing the spirit of the landscape and function of the building. They also did the de Young Museum here in SF, and I have always loved their way with the skin and texture of a building.

My favorite building in Nor Cal is a small glass treehouse in Inverness. The Hi House.
Yes, it is a glass tree house... lifted up above the ground, very swiss family robinson-esque... if SFR took place in the seventies.
Floor to ceiling windows make up 80% of the houses walls. It almost feels like you are in a fish bowl of sorts.
The windows let in the sun to highlight the plush shag carpet but high enough above the tree line to utilize the moonlight at night.
The only way up to the treehouse is by electric tram, and once you are up there, you feel secluded,
It doesn't hurt that this is the place that I proposed to my fiancee... making it my favorite building.

Tried to comment from work, but was having trouble -- as a few have said, FLW's Marin County Civic Center is my absolute favorite No Cal building. On top of all it's wonderful features and mod-looks that still look somewhat futuristic today, what's really great about it is how it embraces the automobile in such an elegant fashion. (And let's face it, what's more Californian than embracing the automobile!) And lastly, it's fantastic that the public realm was willing to take on progressive architecture -- a wonderful reflection of the forward thinking people in Marin and all the Bay area!

take a look at it here:

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Marin_Civic_Center.html

Growing up in the South Bay, I used to love driving up the coast on 280 North because it guaranteed a glimpse of "The Flintstone House". Built in 1976 by architect William Nicholson, the marshmallowy white structure took shape through a process of constructing a rebar and balloon structure and then spraying it with concrete and gunite.

Not long ago I just about gasped when I rounded the corner of highway 280 and my beloved building had been painted orange! The travesty wasn't so much the shade but how the autumn color made the building disappear right into the dry hillside it perched upon. Orange or not, it is still my favorite building in NorCal.

Follow this link to see a picture of it: http://www.jims-pages.com/foison/images/flintstones.jpg

The most beautiful building in San Francisco, and my favorite, is old Mission Dolores. The thick plastered adobe walls support a gloriously ornate ceiling. If the Mission were a home it would welcome any style because its simplicity transcends style

The Coast Guard House near Pt. Arena, south of Mendocino, makes me smile nonstop. It is, indeed, an old coast guard house reinterpreted as a bed and breakfast. The structure retains most of the original features, such as a cartography table in the room I occupied. The whole place feels workmanlike and useful, yet warm.