www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/us/12armory.html
Enlarge This Image Jim Wilson/The New York Times People gathered on Thursday to protest the building's new occupant. com, an online pornography company devoted to bondage and sadomasochism. Peter Acworth, the companys founder and chief executive, said he planned to turn the armory into a full-fledged film studio, with dirty movies shot in the basement and less-dirty ones shot upstairs. I want to make films like Secretary, Mr Acworth said, referring to the 2002 mainstream hit about a woman who has a kinky love affair with her lawyer boss. But somewhere between his purchase and the first paddling, Mr Acworth has run into strong opposition from a group of neighborhood activists who long feared that the armory, vacant since 1975, would be converted into something truly taboo: condominiums. Some of the previous efforts to use the armory were derailed by anti-gentrification forces who wanted more affordable housing in the Mission, an economically and racially mixed area where hipsters and the homeless are represented in equal numbers. But this time around, opponents insist they are not being prudish, just prudent, considering the buildings proximity to schools and families. Everybody thought it was going to be housing, and then mid-January, we get this bomb, said Anita Correa, who runs an arts theater in the neighborhood. Ms Correa added: The new owner said they would create jobs. Mr Acworth said his business was totally legitimate, with safe working conditions, willing and well-paid models, and a condom-only policy. com had about $20 million in revenue and about 70 full-time employees, Mr Acworth said. I think its something that many more people are into than would otherwise admit, he said. It doesnt look like abuse, so it attracts people that are curious about it. coms main Web site shows women in a variety of painful-looking rope ensembles. Some are naked, some are nearly naked and some are, indeed, smiling. Mr Acworth said he was looking to expand his fast-growing business and fell in love with the castle-like armory the moment he laid eyes on its lower levels. com plan is the latest chapter in the long and somewhat tortured history of the armory, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built between 1912 and 1914, the brick-and-mortar building has long been a redevelopment challenge for San Francisco, with its landmark status and the citys famously vociferous activist set derailing plan after plan over the last three decades.
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