Randolph Ruiz

@aaaarchitecture.bsky.social

147 Followers 195 Following

Architect, educator(SEIU 1021), casual cyclist in San Francisco & Santa Monica. Need a building? I can help http://aaaarch.com Auto-free since ‘04

A red and silver diesel electric locomotive with yellow and black trim and red billboard sized letters in a modified cooper black saying “Santa Fe”
Part of a magazine page (SP Trainline Spring 2026) showing an illustration of the San Jose Roundhouse rebuilt in Niles CA for the Niles Canyon Railway. To the left is SP Pacific #2479 on the roundhouse turntable
My photo from today on the storefront of the Original Whistle Stop. A grey one story building labeled “Model TRAINS” with a blade sign the says “Original Whistle Stop Trains” topped by an illustration of SP steam locomotive number one, C.P.Huntington
Three red and white statler-made Caltrain emu trains noses are nearly aligned at the San Francisco terminal
Mid century modern charge with dark red upholstery on a base and shell structure made of nearly parallel stainless steel rods spaced closely together to form a cage-like surface with gentle curves.
Rendering of the Rapid Transit History Center at the Western Railway Museum. Image shows a BART train in a dark room with mock-ups of a station, cab simulator, dispatch facility, and a portion of the transbay tube.
The latest from the tracker estimating our arrival in Oakland at around 2 AM
ASM transit train tracker map showing most of California at 8:54 PM. Train number 14 is represented as a black rectangle just north of Paso Robles.
The bulk of the text on this instagram post is about a gauntlet track built on the south shore to nudge trains that don’t stop around a passenger platform. I responded, “The through tracks should be straight” and it has 294 likes.
Very blurry photo of a rocket on a launch pad next to a large industrial building emblazoned with a US flag and the logo of a poor investment opportunity
An empty styrofoam “Maruchan Instant Lunch” sits on a light grey table in an Amtrak Sightseer Lounge but in 1994 with a view to the sea beyond
Diagramatic Map of Santa margarita California showing the route of Amtrak 11 and 14 in blue along with the then location of a tardy train 11. Also a loop of narrow gauge track north of town on the Santa margarita ranch, which is a privately owned and operated for entertainment.
Airbus A400M appears to sit amongst the rolling green hills of central California just above the tree-lined channel of the Salinas River. You can’t see the airstrip from below, so it looks out of place
Stone rip rap and precast concrete grade crossing panels cover the railroad right of way from the tracks to the property line to prevent encampments
Newark PCC at night at stop on Market street in the rain
A crowd in the low dozens hold aloft signs and listen to bullhorn speeches in from of an SF City hall closed for a football-related private event. A woman in the right foreground is wearing a Swedish chef puppet claiming that the the Nordic country’s elimination of the wealth tax should serve as a model for us. Given the everything of it all, it’s pretty clear they are actually anti-billionaire
Krause-Maffei locomotive restored by pacific locomotive association at the Niles Canyon Railway. A red and grey diesel locomotive in a scenic rural California landscape
Interior of Amtrak sightseer lounge car with curved windows where the walls meet the ceiling, table seating, and a number of people sitting around
CCA building from across landscaped courtyard. Large windows have school branding decals spelling out: “CCa California College of the Arts”
A skinny mid century modern apartment building with seven floors rises from a mostly 2-story neighborhood of duplexes and single family houses. It has an open stair and walkways on the south facing, street side of the building
a square image is divided horizontally with a light blue top-half and a pale yellow bottom-half. The yellow field is overlaid with dotscreen of pink clouds. A large "2026" extends the yellow field up into the blue half. A pinwheel-like logo that is secretly the negative space of two back-to-back letter "R"s appears to rise into the blue field leaving behind a wake of progressively transforming shapes that to a sharp eye can be seen to emerge from the old AAA logo at the bottom of the image. Below the "2026," it says "ruiz rapoport" in black on the right side of the card.
A map maybe. It’s about 12 pixels wide?
Map of Oakland with poorly drawn pink lines representing proposed routes. One goes north from Alameda parallel to Broadway and splits past downtown with one line following San Pablo to 580 and reconnecting with existing tracks at emeryville. The other branch loops around Lake Merrit to bring the line back to existing tracks near Fruitvale. Another line connects the existing line from Fruitvale to the central Oakland station from the south
A picture of the Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry. A curved blade of stainless steel-clad building slices up toward the sky while reflecting its blueness and light. Other cured stainless forms loom behind it in shadow.
Amtrak “three sheets” logo in dark blue on the stainless steel side of a superliner coach. A hatted goober may be seen reflected in a coach window.
A dark blue architecture monograph named “alameda (more boss architecture)” by Jones, Partners: Architecture sits on a somewhat familiar looking black leather lounge chair
California license plate “TAXMUSK” in yellow on black plate on a dark grey Tesla.
Same building from the other side hunting at bilateral symmetry and showing pop-out on side of second floor
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster drives into an eerily empty parking lot at Walley World
A stucco pre-war 2-story apartment building lightly hints at is Schindler pedigree with corner windows and vertical accent stripes in the entry court
Vermont/Santa Monica B Line station entry pit with stairs and escalators ascending from a concrete cavern toward the light. The ceiling is festooned with colorful light strips suggesting movement and the energy of the city above
A long shadow of train stretches across a plowed field and moves with the viewer. In the distance cars zip by on a parallel rural road. The hills beyond are aglow with golden light
An internally lit modern streetcar crosses the street in the foreground in a picture looking at downtown Kansas City from a pedestrian bridge adjacent to Union Station and looking north. The street is brightly lit by streetlights. There are a few autos visible along the left side of the street.
A site diagram for California Forever showing the distribution of structured parking. There are 39 "Perimeter parking garages" shown, which are said to have up to 2,500 parking spaces each. Another 24 "District parking garages" are shown with up to 250 spaces each.
Aerial view of huge Tanforan Mall site surrounded by acres of surface parking
Bright orange BNSF AC44 freight locomotive nose with “25 Anniversary” text
Man in period appropriate grey suit and hat disembarks from grey muni #1 streetcar in 2012
A map showing part of SFO airport and Millbrae, showing a large number of overlapping green circles around the airport's people mover stations indicating that the "transit" they provide might trigger SB79 up-zoning on a few random blocks of Millbrae alongside US101
Red sign on a train platform with a train in the background. The sign indicates that cycling, skating, and skate boarding are not allowed.
Large construction site at Bundy and Exposition under an overcast grey sky. Two yellow tower cranes rise from the excavations.
The city of LA, embodied as an exhausted young woman sleeps at the end of a snitch tie where a cigar chomping robber baron labeled, “the railroads,” is redirecting a train onto a rickety elevated railroad structure labeled “To four miles of roller coaster elevated railroad.” The track straight ahead is labeled, “to a union station.”
Glasgow Subway roundrel sign illuminated at night. A red S surrounded in white, grey, and orange
Chicago L train in little Italy from street below
The underside of a very close airliner silhouetted against a grey sky
Night sky ringed with the trees and power lines of a Southern California street. In the middle is the sky is a long glowing vapor trail and plume from an ascending high-atmosphere rocket. It kinda looks like a sperm
Aerial photo map of tri-valley area with poorly drawn yellow line from downtown Livermore along UPRR to Pleasanton and then along Iron Horse Trail to the end of the BART line and continuing north to Walnut Creek
Two older diesel locomotives inside a building. The closest is largely red with a blue frame below. The white logo stretched across the nose says Santa Fe. Three white stars are in a line on the side of the nose. The locomotive is numbered 5704.
Interior of pacific electric Interurban car with plush dark teal velour seats and about six folks spread across its roomy interior. Interior walls are Seafoam green and ceiling is cream colored. The car was built in 1913 and retired around ‘63.
The architect with the other partner architect at a table in an American legion lounge with an AIA banner and an American flag in the background.
Screen shot of an incorrect google ai summary explaining the meaning of SYBAU, which is a sexist initialism that essentially means “shut up,” but the AI confidently asserts the initials are actually slang for methamphetamine because “ai” is worthless slop.
Photo shows green painted bike lane on Valencia street protected by parking from the flow of traffic
A diagram from the ikea assembly instructions show a cartoon person on phone looking with bemusement upon furniture pieces on the floor that could be taken for a model of an early modernist urban planning scheme
Middle aged white guy in a green felt hat and a light grey shirt with glasses and a graying beard sitting in front the large windows of the Amtrak sightseer lounge car. A vineyard is visible beyond.
A Duolingo screenshot in which the character Lucy suggests I say “Mis caballos coleccionan dientes.” Which is terrifying
Architectural rendering shows the interior of a museum-like space with various exhibits including a legacy BART train a cab simulator, the original BART operations control center and a portion of the Embarcadero station the ceiling is covered in linear lights parallel to the train, suggesting blurred rapid motion. The room is filled with people enjoying the exhibits including many children
A larger austere room with a glowing ceiling and white floor with control consoles and a faceted black back wall covered with feint diagrams and lights. Seven people sit or stand in the room dressed in identical white uniforms. It appears cold and dystopian
A list titled: 2024 Nominal GOP” 1. United States $29.18T 2. China $18.74T 3. Germany $4.65T 4. California $4.1T 5. Japan $4.02T 6. India $3.9T 7. United Kingdom $3.64T
View of rolling hills lit by raking golden light near sunset with brown grasses, a line of trees and a large glowing patch of yellow mustard flowers stretches across the center of the image
View from sidewalk up at the facade of an Italian renaissance inspired office bldg with an ornate arched entry below and brick walls above with a grid of windows. In between is a thick entablature into which is set a large clock and the title “SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY”
View from train of large brown “dust devil” rotating some very large pieces of plastic shearing above a plowed but empty field