AND HE MUST WEAR THE CONE OF SHAME: San Francisco Orders Property Owner to Build Exact Replica of Demolished Home.

Back in late 2017, Ross Johnston tore down a two-story home he owned in the city’s Twin Peaks neighborhood, intending to build a larger house on the same site.

The destruction of the home—known as the Largent House and designed by famed architect Richard Neutra back in the 1930s—angered neighbors who bemoaned the loss of a historic building. It also pissed off city officials, who had issued permits for the house to be substantially redesigned, not demolished in its entirety.

On Thursday, the city’s Planning Commission made what the San Francisco Chronicle is calling an “unprecedented” decision. In a 5–0 vote, it ordered Johnston to build an exact replica of the house he destroyed, save for the addition of a new plaque explaining the details of the building’s demolition and reconstruction.

Mao would have understand the purpose behind the plaque.