(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)
Yay! Thanks Chris. I enjoyed your write-up, as always. I’ll gladly take the Dish sub. I know I’m probably not eligible to win again, but I assume I’m allowed to enter again, for sporting reasons? My sleep was delayed by a couple of hours last night by this week’s image, which I think I’ve figured out.
“Sporting reasons” is the heart of the contest! His full entry for this week’s image was detailed and impressive, landing just one window away from the right one. He signed off, “Thanks for the Saturday adventure.”
Here’s a followup on last week’s contest from the wine geek in San Francisco:
It was great to read the Alaskan globetrotter’s submissions and write-up last week. Every week he does not disappoint. He tackles each subject with insight and nuance that enlightens me. Good stuff. And some day I hope we read about Valya’s experiences in Hawaii …
The globetrotter writes:
Thanks for all the responses from the Khabarovsk View. Along with the usual interesting and diverse content, we were impressed by how many nailed the View, and only slightly distressed that a few people recognized who sent it to you. It’s either a sign that we have been playing this game too long, or that we have shared too much.
We were amused that anyone would go to the trouble of preparing a meal in our honor and wish we had even a sliver of the talent it would take to pull off a from-scratch, Russian-Alaskan feast. The joke around here is that we assemble rather than cook food, but we did try to honor their effort Sunday evening by stopping off at the Eastern European store in Anchorage for some frozen pelmeni (a standard at our house):
I’m sure they weren’t as good as the homemade variety, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually had baked Alaska. I guess I’ve never seen the point of tampering with the culinary perfection that is ice cream by adding cake and meringue.
On to this week’s view, a long-time sleuth writes:
I think I finally got one … and it only took more than a decade.
He got it indeed, as did almost a hundred others. From the super-sleuth in West Orange:
What a fun contest this week, and one that was absolutely made for me. And yet I couldn’t give it the time that it deserved! There are so many interesting clues — from the enormous cargo ships barely visible in the distance (they’re “RoRos,” or “Roll-On-Roll-Off” vessels) to the cable-stayed bridge that I couldn’t quite place … if only I had the time ...
My best guess, then, is the enormously dense area around Shenzhen in China, which has no shortage of bridges or cargo ships.
Failing a good guess, I’ll contribute a story that I hope others will find interesting. Several cargo companies are experimenting with wind-powered cargo ships that work without sails:
(Getty Images)
It’s a story I’ve only seen covered in The Economist, where the science editor is clearly equally fascinated, but as far as I understand it these ships use massive vertical rotors, encased in sail-less pillars, to create thrust by reducing air pressure in front of them them and increase air pressure behind them. So one day this view may feature “tall ships,” in the sense of tall sail-less rotor masts, coasting into the harbor once again.
That sleuth follows up:
Oh my god. Chris, can you tell I’ve only ever spent a grand total of 48 hours in California? We’re looking at the SAN FRANCISCO skyline!!!
Yep. From another sleuth who also initially thought it was a view from abroad:
My first thought was actually Istanbul — I was trying to think of cities that spread across a large body of water and the skyline in the distance looked somewhat like Istanbul. But I quickly realised the foreground was far too American to be Istanbul.
So my focus changed to the bridge as I figured there weren’t many bridges with nearly 45 degree bends in the middle. I’m sure your stateside readers will have picked out the bridge more easily than I did but after some sleuthing, I figured out where it was.
So did the super-sleuth on Park Avenue:
From one socialist paradise last week to another this week. But since I like my socialism with a dash of champagne, I will take this hotel over the Russian Far East.
From the super-sleuth in Vancouver, WA:
Another challenging view, with a cleverly framed photo! I figured out pretty quickly it was looking towards downtown Oakland and across the bay to San Francisco. Then it took awhile to find the spot from which the photo was taken.
Chini circles the spot, as is tradition:
From the wine geek who lives down there:
I expect that the other Bay Area super-sleuths will nail this VFYW. (How many of us are there? I count four.) But I also expect that there will be a very high success rate in this contest because the Bay Bridge and Salesforce Tower are so recognizable. It will be fun to read the results and hear the takes from the non-Bay Area sleuths.
The super-sleuth in DC decodes a clue:
The key clue for me was the gas station. Even though you blurred out the name, I assumed it was a Chevron station based on the blue stripe on the canopy, as well as the prevalence of the Chevron brand in California. So I searched for “Chevron stations in [city redacted]” in Google Maps, which quickly led me to the [building redacted], which is just up the hill from this gas station.
A previous winner in Charlottesville got a clearer view of the Chevron station:
I figured the easiest way to narrow this down was the gas station in the foreground of the image, so I searched for gas stations in [city redacted] on Google Maps and used street view to find one that matched. After a few attempts I located this Chevron station that backs up to a white three-story building:
From the super-sleuth in San Mateo:
I had been hoping that this week’s VFYW would be easier than the last two, but you’ve gone beyond easier.
First, I grew up in Oakland. Second, the Salesforce and Transamerica buildings and the Bay Bridge were giveaways, but even more definitive was what my wife and I called the “Iron Monster” — the Sutro Tower — on Mt. Sutro. We lived below the tower for a number of years when I worked at UC San Francisco.
Image from a sleuth in the UK: “For once I knew the place right away, which suggests that you’ll get a lot of guesses this time. For me the key was this building in the distance, which I’ve just learned is called the Transamerica Pyramid:”
The elusive, fuzzy, will-o'-the-wisp-like image of the Sutro Tower on Mt. Sutro in the VFYW immediately caught my eye. The tower is a prominent feature of the city’s skyline, at 977 feet tall. Built in 1973, it was designed to improve TV and radio signal transmission in the Bay Area, by replacing smaller and less effective broadcast antennas scattered around the city. Its three-legged design and geometric framework make it instantly recognizable, and although it was initially met with mixed reactions, the tower has since become a symbol of San Francisco.
On clear days, the tower provides a stunning visual backdrop against the skyline, and during San Francisco’s signature foggy weather, the tower often appears to float above the mist, giving it a surreal and otherworldly charm. The tower’s location on Mt. Sutro, amidst eucalyptus trees, makes it both a technological and natural landmark.
After identifying Sutro Tower, I quickly noticed the Salesforce and Transamerica Buildings and the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge. But it’s clear that the VFYW Reimagined this week must focus on the Sutro Tower. But I wondered: should the wispy Sutro Tower in the VFYW simply be reconstituted to scale in the Reimagined? Or should we replace it with a larger-than-life “iron monster” — a monster that might rumble off Mt. Sutro into the City below at any moment? Yes!
By the way, in 1959, San Francisco’s tallest building was the Zellerbach Building, also known as the Crown Zellerbach Building or One Bush Plaza. At 308 feet and 20 stories, it was the city's first International Style glass curtain-wall tower. But today, the city’s tallest building is the Salesforce Tower. Completed in 2018, this 61-story skyscraper rises to 1,070 feet and serves as a centerpiece for offices, including those of its namesake company, Salesforce, at 415 Mission Street.
The reimagined view from the Sagaponack super-sleuth is super trippy:
From the UWS super-sleuth:
Well, I may not be able to find the window, building, or block — but I’m betting that we’ll at least have one sleuth who nails it: Berkeley. I’m even wondering: could this have been taken from his fancy (though likely imaginary) home-in-the-sky? As part of a new trend of Views from sleuth-owned properties?
The photo was actually taken by the “way out west” super-sleuth. Here’s the one in San Francisco, and he names the right building where our VFYW was taken:
I wanted to quickly respond to see if I could get in the first quick answer before looking at a map. This is almost certainly from the Claremont Resort & Club in Berkeley. (I will confirm with a window later.)
That entry was indeed the very first email sent. Closely behind that SF sleuth was — you might’ve guessed it — the cinema super-sleuth in Berkeley:
THE CLAREMONT HOTEL in BERZERKELY?!?!
Oh come on, Chris. Where’s the challenge?
Oh you’ll find out. Back to Berkeley:
Damn Chris! A view hasn’t hit this close to home since way back in contest #131. That window was only 3.8 miles from the house I grew up in, but this one’s a tenth of a mile nearer to where I live now.
And I don’t think my being a local is the only reason this feels like it may be the most recognizable skyline ever to appear in the contest unDustyfied. But I doubt even Dusty could’ve helped disguise it … unless you resorted to inflatio ad absurdum:
We’ve got the four towers of the old Bay Bridge’s western span as well as the soaring single tower of its new eastern span, with Yerba Buena Island in between. Behind the island is the Bank of America Building. (Fifty years ago when I worked on its 34th floor, it was the tallest building in the city — now, not so much.) To the left of the BofA we have Sutro Tower on Twin Peaks, and the curvilinear Salesforce Tower. To the bank’s right is the tapering Transamerica Pyramid. And finally we see the ship-to-shore cranes in the Port of Oakland (famously known as George Lucas’s inspiration for the snow walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, although Lucas is on record repeatedly and exasperatedly denying it).
I hope your inbox doesn’t explode from all the submissions you get that will at least be in the ballpark of the window. (And speaking of ballparks, Oracle Park where the Giants play isn’t quite distinguishable in the blur, but it’s hiding behind the rightmost port crane in the photo.) Here’s where the window is:
From our historian in Warrensburg:
I was very confused at first this week, because it looked like we were in San Francisco, but I also know we had a view from there less than a year ago. I eventually realized that while we’re looking at San Francisco, we’re actually across the bay.
Here’s the building reveal from the DC super-sleuth:
Ridgewood writes, “It’s funny that the week you get Mike White on the Dishcast is the same one where you feature what looks like the White Lotus of the Bay Area.”
Below is a broader view of the hotel grounds — which is the secret to the winning answer:...
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Weekly Dish to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
