by Bob Pacelli
It was 1981, and the balloon payment we had used to buy Project Artaud ten years earlier was coming due. We had no money to pay for it and were going to lose the building.
Wells Fargo said they’d give us a loan if we got the building up to code. We were under a condemnation order. This building had never been a place where one could legally live, work, and hold public assembly. There was no code in SF that would allow this so we had to write one and get the city to accept it and change the zoning laws.