‘Aaron Curry,’ July 1990. (Jacob Rosenberg)

Join filmmaker and photographer Jacob Rosenberg and historian/co-curator and Docomomo-NOCA Board Member, Ted Barrow, PhD, for a conversation on the past, present, and future of San Francisco's Embarcadero Plaza. This dialogue will be parsed through the lens of EPICENTER, the landmark exhibition chronicling the birth of modern street skateboarding at the plaza (aka EMB). Through Rosenberg’s archival photography, video, and sound, EPICENTER captures the people, style, and raw civic energy that transformed a public space into a global cultural engine, reshaping skateboarding, image-making, and the city’s creative identity. With the plaza now entering a decisive moment of redevelopment, this talk explores what made EMB matter, why it still matters, and how San Francisco can evolve without erasing the cultural memory embedded in its streets and architecture. The program will feature select visuals from the EPICENTER archive and a spirited audience Q&A, inviting a wider dialogue on legacy, placemaking, preservation, and what comes next.