CASE STUDY SAN FRANCISCO S VICTORIAN PAINTED LADY HOUSES San Francisco has become one of the most expensive American cities to live in, a popular destination for young, highearning tech workers looking for an amazing property. Many of them have bought some of the city s Victorian houses, transforming their interiors imaginatively by working with the period features, but decorating in a multitude of styles. San Francisco s Victorian building boom began after the 1849 Gold Rush. At that time, there were around 58,000 Victorian homes in the city, many of them were destroyed in the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. Today just 14,000 remain. Originally, these houses were painted a chalky white to cover their wood structure and resemble stone. Later, during the First and Second World Wars, many were coated in a battleship grey, using surplus navy paint. And so, they remained until the 1960s, when a group of artists began experimenting with vivid colors on the fa ades from lime and vermilion 9 to gold and turquoise. People began to copy their neighbors and soon entire streets were transformed with color. The houses were called the Painted Ladies . The most famous examples are a group of houses next to Alamo Square, built in the 1890s and painted in soft pastels. These buildings have regularly appeared in films, television and advertising campaigns, gaining the epithet Postcard Row . Adapted from: https://www.ft.com/content/ca Complete the sentences. 1. ........................................... in San Francisco have 5. During the First and Second World Wars, recently become the most desirable and ........................................... was used to paint the required types of houses. Victorian houses. 2. People who bought these houses, 6. In the 1960s, the ........................................... of these transformed their ........................................... and Victorian houses were painted with vivid decorated them in different ............................................ colors by a ............................................ 3. Many of the 58,000 Victorian homes were 7. The most famous ........................................... next destroyed in the devastating ........................................... to Alamo Square are painted in and ............................................ ............................................ 4. In the past, those houses were painted 8. They are so famous that they have regularly a ........................................... to cover their wood appeared in ........................................... and gained the structure and resemble ............................................ nickname ........................................... . BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 167