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The Carved Tree of San Francisco Zoo

Posted by Cindy on September 24, 2014

Sep 242014

San Francisco Zoo
In Front of the Mother’s House
Lakeside

This carved seat, surrounded by animals was done by Sean Eagleton, well known for his huge wood carvings on long dead trees. He prefers to call them “healing poles”. Shane feels that the huge healing poles, once planted at various points all over this earth will bring solace to Mother Earth and those that inhabit it.

Shane “Tonu” Eagleton is a Polynesian master wood carver, whose work can be found in Golden Gate National Park, the San Francisco Zoo, Presidio National Park, the California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, and Shoreline Amphitheater.

Shane has served as the Artist-In-Residence for The Cultural Conservancy in San Francisco, where he worked to preserve sustainable indigenous art traditions and use environmental art to educate people about the preciousness of the planet. Through Shane’s ecologically-based sculptures, wood block prints, furniture, and healing poles, he communicates the importance of using natural products from the Earth that have been abandoned as waste. All of Shane’s wood is salvaged from parks, dumps, and landfills. Through the restoration of indigenous wood carving traditions, Shane inspires communities to re-connect with their roots, protect endangered species and cultural traditions, and celebrate the mana (spiritual life force) that connects all things in the universe.

Koala

Penquin

Mother Kohola sculpture by Shane Eagleton on display at Crissy Field on San Francisco Bay at the Pacific Islanders Cultural Association’s Aloha Festival in 1996. It is carved from a single 5 ton 40 foot long 2000 year old abandoned redwood log salvaged from a defunct sawmill in Mendocino County, California.

Gwynn Murrill at the San Francisco Zoo

Posted by Cindy on September 15, 2014

Sep 152014

San Francisco Zoo
Sloat and The Great Highway
Lakeside

Cougar III by Gwynn Murrill

Gwynn Murrill is a Los Angeles based artist who received her MFA from UCLA in 1972. Murrill has three sculptures at the San Francisco Zoo. Cougar III and Tiger 2 are at the front entryway and Hawk V is located at the Koret Animal Resource Center.

Tiger 2

Gwynn Murrill has always worked with animals as her subject matter. Stripped of surface detail the sculptures are almost abstract in form.

Hawk V

The Arts Commission purchased Hawk V for $29,000. Tiger 2 was purchased for $85,000, and Cougar III for $65,000. All three sculptures were purchased with funds generated by the City’s percent-for-art program, which allocates 2% of capital projects for art enrichment.

While I think that all three of these sculptures are lovely, and truly adored by children that visit the zoo, I am not sure why Ms. Merrill (while a Californian, not a San Franciscan) has been given the exclusive commissions for the bronzes in the zoo. There are many bronzes sitting throughout the zoo and they are every bit as spectacular, including two by local Doctor Burt Brent.

Maternite

Posted by Cindy on September 8, 2014

Sep 082014

Jewish Senior Living Group
Orignally known as Jewish Home of the Aged
120 Silver Avenue
Excelsior District

Ursula Malbin was born on April 12, 1917, in Berlin to Jewish parents, both doctors of medicine. While in Germany she worked as a cabinet-maker. In 1939, a few weeks before World War II, but after her family had already left the country, she fled Nazi Germany, alone, penniless and without a passport.

She found herself in Geneva when the war broke out, and there she met the sculptor Henri Paquet, whom she married in 1941. Since 1967, Ursula Malbin has divided her creative life between the Artists’ Village of Ein Hod in Israel and the village of Troinex near Geneva in Switzerland.

Maternite was a gift to the Jewish Home by Mr. and Mrs. Victor Marcus in 1970.

According to the Jewish Home Website:

The Jewish Home of San Francisco first opened its doors to residents in 1891. The complex has undergone many periods of development, including the construction of a Brutalist-style tower known as “Annex A” in 1969, designed by Howard A. Friedman, and its associated courtyard and fountain in 1970, designed by Lawrence Halprin. The courtyard is enclosed by Annex A (now known as the Goodman Building) and the Beaux Arts-inspired Main Building on an almost 9-acre site.

The design for the courtyard employs a central fountain, a generous expanse of lawn and deciduous and evergreen trees to create an urban oasis for residents. The fountain is composed of a series of cascading, rectilinear, overlapping concrete planes, animated with water that streams over them and collects in a shallow sunken pool. The concrete planes form an almost stage-like horizontal surface, upon which reclines a mother and child sculpture by Israeli artist Ursula Malbin. The fountain and its foreground apron are nestled into a shallow-sloping lawn edged with a curvilinear concrete seat wall and wide sidewalk with moveable seating. A mixture of pine trees and pollarded sycamores create a buffer along the courtyard’s edge.

The significance of Halprin’s own Jewish heritage and his role as an active member of the 1970 Jerusalem Committee, assessing the city’s master plan at the time of this commission, brings a unique cultural dimension to the importance of this Bay Area project.

****

Although you must enter the main building to access the garden, the Jewish Home is extremely accommodating, and this was not a problem what-so-ever on the day that I visited.

Native Sons of the Golden West

Posted by Cindy on September 2, 2014

Sep 022014

414 Mason Street
Union Square

The Native Sons of the Golden West Building on Mason street is an eight story, steel frame structure, with a highly ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick.

Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of men associated with the discovery and settlement of California. They are (starting at the bottom and moving up and to the right): Cabrillo, General John A. Sutter, Admiral John Drake Sloat, Peter Burnett, General A. M. Winn, James W. Marshall, John C. Fremont and Father Junipero Serra. These were sculpted by Jo Mora, who has been in this site many times before.

In the front of the building at the second floor are six terra cotta panels, the work of Domingo Mora and his son, Jo. The scenes are: “The Discovery of California”; “Civilization”; “The Raising of the Bear Flag”; “The Raising of the American Flag”; “The Pioneers”; “The Discovery of Gold.”

Sadly, due to the awning on the building it is impossible to see all 6 of the panels. I was unable to find photos of the other two anywhere, to share with you. This is the best I could do, by blowing up a photo I took from across the street.

The third Floor is marked by a line of the symbol of the State of California, the Golden Bear.

The California Bear and the Phoenix, the symbol of San Francisco, also grace the front of the building.

The Association purchased the lot from the Congregation Ohabai Shalome, for $42,500. The original Native Sons of the Golden West building built in 1895, burned down in the 1906 Fire and Earthquake.

The cost of the new building ws approximately $210,000.00

The architects of the new building were August Goonie Headman, Persio Righetti and E. H. Hildebrand, of Righetti and Headman, a firm that operated for 5 years during the post Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

The Contractor was P.J. Walker and Associates and the foreman on the job was Mr. J.S. Fifield.
The corner stone of the new building was laid February 22, 1911. It is the old corner stone saved from the fire with a new stone covering it.

Hans Shiller Plaza

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2014

Aug 272014

Corner of Peabody and Leland
Visitation Valley

Opening in March 2001, Hans Schiller Plaza was the first Visitacion Valley Greenway site to be completed. Construction was supervised by the Trust for Public Land with funding from the Columbia Foundation founded by the late Madeleine Haas Russell. The gift was made in memory of her friend Hans J. Schiller.

Hans J. Schiller was a Bay Area architect and environmental activist. Mr. Schiller’ s career spanned more than 50 years. Schiller settled in the Bay Area in the 1940s and established the firm, Hans J. Schiller Associates, in Mill Valley. Schiller’s passion for his work was matched by his commitment to ensuring that people from all walks of life had access to parks and open space. It was these commitments that lead to his appointment by Governor Jerry Brown as Commissioner of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission in 1978.

The Landscape architect on the project were Sarah Sutton and Chris Kukula of Wolfe Mason and Associates.

The Visitacion Valley Greenway is composed of a linear series of six publicly owned parcels (each a block long), cutting a swath through the heart of Visitacion Valley. Over a period of 16 years it has been developed by the members of the Visitacion Valley Greenway Project in partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (SFRPD) and the Trust for Public Land. Originally a PUC easement, it took 5 years of negotiations to gain permission to build the Greenway. The Visitacion Valley Greenway is a Parks Partner of the San Francisco Parks Trust.

Visitation Valley Greenway would never have been possible without the tireless effort of artists Fran Martin, Anne Seeman and Jim Growden.

Fran Martin, Design Coordinator for Visitacion Valley Greenway was responsible for the tile work.

Fran holds an MA in art and worked as a sculptor until 1995. In 1994 she began working full time as a co-ordinator of the Visitation Valley Greenway Project.

Jim Growden was the designer for the entry gates and fencing.

Jim received an M.A. in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972. Jim worked as a sculptor of wood and steel, for 25 in San Francisco. In 1993 he moved to Visitacion Valley where he became involved with the Visitacion Valley Greenway.

Jim Growden has created 8 of the Greenway’s 12 signature gates and finials, as well as the cut steel images of native animals and plants seen at the Native Plant Garden, as well as on Leland Avenue.

Fran Martin created 2 of the Greenway’s gates, weir walls, tile work and patios with columns sites.

Tying One on for Big Game

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2014

Aug 212014

Michael sculpted this for his father-in-law Cecil Mark, a big Bear Backer. Cecil was a natty dresser who always dressed to the nines for football games. Though the photograph does not show it well, there are little Cal bears on the tie. Michael was also proud of the fact that he caught the very small stomach of thin and fit Cecil.

The sculpture was painted by one of Michael’s dearest friends, Dennis King, a phenomenal painter.

Yes the title is a double entendre, as tail gate parties were a big part of every game. Michael once commented to Cecil that he had been to so many Cal games that when he was old and senile he will think he attended Cal. Cecil’s retort was “well you could have done worse”.

Michael then carved this for his Mother-in-Law, Lois Mark. It is of soapstone and I know that at the time there was a great story that went with it, most likely Michael trying to embarrass Lois regarding the nude male figure, but alas, the story is forgotten.

The Apple of My Eye

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2014

Aug 212014

Michael H. Casey often did sculptures just for fun. They also would show his personality, as you can see by the half eaten apple.

In this photograph is “Breezehead” one of his favorite cats. Michael was a cat person, and Breezehead, while not the brightest bulb, as you can tell by her name, gave him years and years of enjoyment and great stories to tell.

This was another sculpture he did for fun, he titled it On the Outside Looking In. Neither of these sculptures are around today, in fact, most likely, they never left the clay stage, they were just for Michael to unwind and have fun.

Decorator’s Showcase

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2014

Aug 212014

Photo from the San Francisco Chronicle – November 14, 2010

Palmer Weiss commissioned Michael H. Casey to design the base for the breakfast nook table she used in the 2010 Decorator’s Showcase. Palmer was a true professional and delight to work with, sadly many designers looking for a bargain on the table afterwards were not as professional.

The table was originally sculpted in clay by Michael, then Michael H. Casey Designs created a mold and cast the final piece in plaster.

Carved Plaster

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2014

Aug 212014

Michael H. Casey worked to build this “Giacometti” lamp by building up wet plaster. After the shape was to his liking he spent hours and hours sanding the lamp to its final state.

Michael had always been a big fan of the Gicometti brothers, and in fact, had the opportunity to repair an original, so creating this was a very fun project for him.

Another project, done in the same way was this plaster tissue box.

The third sculpted plaster project that he did were these curtains.

Michael got an exceptional kick out of this job because the curtains are plaster and the walls are fabric.

Hell Mouths

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2014

Aug 212014

Various Locations

The clay sculpture used to make the fireplace for Bijan’s private office in his Rodeo Drive store

I am not sure exactly when the hell mouth craze took off, but Michael H. Casey had four large projects that incorporated these commissioned sculptures.

Bijan incorporated many of them in his Rodeo Drive store in 1999. They were used as shelving, and then there was one that served as a fireplace in his office. If you go to the Bijan website you will see that the fireplace is still there and the design has been incorporated in the glass within the store.

This was the clay that served as the model for the plaster shelving in the Bijan Rodeo Drive Store

The shelving ready to ship to the Bijan store in Beverly Hills

Then there was the one that served as an outdoor fireplace

Another that served as an indoor fireplace

This is the clay model for the indoor fireplace

The fun thing about this fireplace is that you could see it from the front gate, it became more dramatic as you got further onto the property.

This client, in 2002, even added a custom sculpted lion fountain to really make their backyard pop. It is important to remember that everyone of these were individual. Each time a new sculpture had to be done. Michael H. Casey would sculpt a full model in clay and then Michael H. Casey Designs would produce the final product either out of plaster or cast stone, depending on the particular job.

The clay model for the outdoor fireplace in Southern California

Here is the clay model for the fountain. Take a look at those curls; hair, mane and curls are repetitive and take hours and hours of sculpting. Michael once said working on it was like listening to Yanni music.

Vivande

Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2014

Aug 192014

670 Golden Gate
San Francisco

In 1993 Vivande Restaurant opened a second, larger and moral formal restaurant at 670 Golden Gate Avenue. They wanted to recreate the front door of the famous house designed by Federico Zuccaro in 1591 just of the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Michael H. Casey, of course, put his own spin on the entryway, especially in the use of his own wild eyebrows.

The statement in the back behind Michael says “Quanto Basta” which means “enough”. Michael was studying Italian at the time and was proud of his command of the language.

He is shown here in front of the finished sculpture the night of its unveiling. Michael H. Casey Designs always held a large party when a sculpture was completed, but before it was cast, as they always looked their very best in clay.

The owner of Vivande, Carlo Middione sadly closed Vivande after sustaining injuries to his sense of taste and smell in an auto accident in Spring of 2007.

Michael’s drawing for the planned entryway

The building is now an insurance company. When the property managers realized that the restaurant was closing they called Michael to ask how hard it would be to remove the face. Michael said that it was simply made of plaster and would not be difficult, and that he would like to help to ensure that it was not damaged, as possibly it could go someplace else. The manager, said, no we LOVE the face, however, it might be inappropriate for some businesses, fortunately the insurance company loves it too.

I have left the post it note that Michael put on this article when he laid it on my desk. It truly shows his unique sense of humor. I do not know why the photo of the director was taken in front of the mouth, I must assume the interview took place at the restaurant because the article does not say.

Selling the Sizzle not the Steak

Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2014

Aug 192014

Palace Court Subdivision
Las Vegas Nevada

Around 1996 Robert Symons hired Michael H. Casey Designs to manufacture 2 guard houses for Queensridge. This was a potential housing development in the Las Vegas Desert. Michael always said they were to sell the sizzle, not the steak, as there was nothing there at the time.

The guard houses were made in pieces out of GFRC so that they could be trucked to Las Vegas and put together at the job sites.

Hotel Pacific

Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2014

Aug 192014

300 Pacific Street
Monterey, California

Michael H. Casey sculpted these fountains for the Hotel Pacific in 1986.

The joy of working on a beautiful hotel such as this is that you get to stay there while installing the fountains. It became the go to place to stay whenever we were in the Monterey area.

Including when Michael H. Casey and Cecil Mark sailed the “Question Mark” a 36′ sail boat to Monterey and back.

Parget

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2014

Aug 172014

California State Capitol

Parget was common throughout the California State Capitol, but like much work throughout the ages it was lost due to remodeling for new amenities such as electricity and air-conditioning, as well as adding desks and finding more space for an ever growing government.

A painted fragment was found when workers removed a duct and the decision to replace much of the parget was made. The problem was, how? There were many theories tossed about, but eventually, Michael H. Casey, a chef at the Black Pearl in Newport, Rhode Island, prior to becoming the Artist-in-Residence at the California State Capitol realized that the most intelligent, and simple solution was pastry tubes.

Michael originally sketched the pattern that was found. It was decided to recreate the parget in seven of the rooms, but the time involved in hand drawing the patterns for this would have been cost prohibitive. It was finally decided to send the drawings to a large printing company. The drawings were then perforated and black chalk was sprayed through the perforations, placing the patterns on the ceilings.

Michael eventually hired, Diana Durand and Robert Dunham to aid in the work. Diana went on to establish herself as one of the pre-eminent people doing parget in the country.

After having done this work for quite a long time, Michael often was heard to say that Michelangelo NEVER laid on his back to paint the Sistine Chapel, only Charlton Heston did. Michael said it would have been physically impossible to get the proper range of motion and have an area large enough to properly see what you were doing if you were laying on your back.

He would happily repeat that story with an “I told you so” when it was proven true after the Japanese restored the Sistine Chapel and found Michelangelo’s scaffold drawings.

Parget is a very labor intensive, and therefore, expensive art form. For that reason, there is very little call for it. Michael had the opportunity to do it on just a handful of homes, this one, in Marin county was a recreation of marsh birds found in the area.

This was for a client in the Bahamas.

Chimney Rock Winery

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2014

Aug 172014

Chimney Rock Winery
5350 Silverado Trail
Napa Valley, California

1989

This was our first big job as Michael H. Casey Designs. The winery, at the time was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hack Wilson. The Wilson’s had been the Coca-Cola distributors in South Africa and they wanted to bring the Dutch-Cape style architecture of Mrs. Wilson’s homeland to the Napa Valley.

The design was given to Michael H. Casey. The Wilson’s wanted to replicate the oldest winery in Cape Town, Groot Constantia. The tympanum sculpture was originally done on the Cloete Wine Cellar by Anton Anreth. It is titled the Rape of Ganymede. It depicts the myth of Zeus, in the form of an eagle/swan, abducting the youthful and gorgeous Ganymede to become his cup-bearer. There are putti arranged throughout the front row of wine vats and bunches of grapes tying the entire thing together.

As any good artist does, Michael did not copy exactly. He assured people that you will find several of his friends faces amongst the putti and his wife’s backside in one as well.

Ganymede being abducted by Zeus forms the center of the sculpture.

As you can see, Ganymede is fairly well endowed. When asked how much is enough, Michael always said that he was a benevolent God, but not so much that Ganymede looked silly.

An observant person will also notice that from the clay to the GFRC cast the sculpture is now reversed. This happens in the molding/casting process.

The sculpture was done in three parts out of GFRC, and then set into the existing tympanum.

The sculpture was used for years on the winery’s public relations media.

The Napa Register, November 17, 1989

St. Mark and St. Matthew of Grace Cathedral

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2014

Aug 172014

Grace Cathedral
1100 California Street
San Francisco, California

Saint Mark

Saint Matthew

Michael H. Casey was honored to have been chosen to sculpt both Saint Mark and Saint Matthew for Grace Cathedral in 2001 – 2002. He always felt he was chosen due to the fact that he mentioned seismic stability during his interview.

The sculptures were life sized, originally sculpted in clay with the final product in cast stone.

Michael’s Proposal for Saint Mark: Saint Mark has been described as a rebel. His gospel is terse and direct. Much has been made of the ordering of the events in his gospel, almost as if he wrote down Saint Peter’s teachings as they occurred to him. I have shown him as a younger man, in his early thirties, strong and vigorous. He has stopped in mid-stride, as if impatient to jot down a thought before it’s forgotten. He is dressed in typical Roman garb, because so much of his writing was thought to have been done there. The folds of the clothing, as well as the tall, slender figure are meant to conjure up images of the Saints depicted in the Gothic cathedrals of Europe He is shown with his iconic symbols, the lion, reflective of the incident where Mark’s faith in God converts his father, and the broken sandal, because his first convert was a cobbler he visited to repair a shoe.

These clay original photos were taken in Michael H. Casey’s studio

Saint Matthew in clay at Michael H. Casey’s studio

Michael’s notes for Saint Matthew: Saint Matthew is derived largely from Caravaggio’s painting. Because he came to Christianity late in life, after a successful, if not too popular, career as a tax collector, he is depicted as a much older man, almost elderly. His garb, again derived from Caravaggio, is more typical of the East, where his ministry lay. The drapery is again reflective of his future Gothic surroundings. His is captured here at the moment of the angel’s appearance, hopefully depicting the awe and wonder of the occurrence. The angel, though his iconic symbol, plays a much larger role in this sculpture than that of a mere identifier. On reflection Saint Matthew is captured perhaps a split second later than in Caravaggio’s painting. His tax roll book forgotten, it has lowered of it own weight and is about to be dropped completely. I suppose this is symbolic of Matthew dropping his old, Judaic life to follow the path of Christianity.

Michael always felt that the one person at Grace Cathedral that never got credit for all his hard work on making these happen was Fermin Nasol, so I would like to give him credit right now.

Michael also told a funny story about first meeting the art board : “When we had the first meeting, I entered the room and they were all seated around a conference table; three on the long side, one at each end. The remaining long side – my side – was empty save for the lone chair right in the center. After shaking hands all around and making introductions, I went to sit down, but as soon as I touched the chair, I jumped up saying “Wow that seat’s hot!!!” It broke the ice!

The sculptures, not including installation, cost $32,550 and were paid for by a grant from the Skaags Foundation.

Creatures in the Assembly

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2014

Aug 162014

California State Capitol
Assembly Chambers

Artists that worked on the California State Capitol Restoration left little tidbits of themselves throughout the project. Michael H. Casey was no different. When installing the ornamentation that he had worked on in the Assembly he added a little creature that expressed his feelings about the goings on in the Assembly Hall. This little fellow happens to face the dais and says oodles about Michael’s sense of humor.

Look to the left of the coffer

While no one every actually has stated who was responsible, it seems silly that it remains a secret now that Michael is no longer alive. I also believe that most people find it such a vital part of the artistic quality of the capitol that its removal would cause much consternation today as damage to any of the fine quality artwork he produced.

A reproduction of the little guy. As you can see it was a quick and whimsical piece of satire.

Minerva

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2014

Aug 162014

California State Capital
Senate Chambers

According to ancient Roman myth, the goddess Minerva was born fully grown. Just as Minerva was born fully grown, so California became a state without first having been a territory. Minerva’s image on the Great Seal symbolizes California’s direct rise to statehood.

Minerva originally was in both chambers but sits only in the Senate today. Michael H. Casey sculpted the new minerva that resides in the present Senate Chamber.

Minerva is actually cast in plaster with a bronze paint finish. Michael H. Casey was the Artist-in-Residence for the California State Capitol Project at the time that he sculpted Minerva. The General Contractor on the project was Continental Heller and one of the partners of the firm was Cecil J. Mark, who, ten years later, would become Michael’s father-in-law.

The unattributed photos are from the book California State Capitol Restoration, A Pictoral History, by Lynn G. Marlowe.

Necklace of Lights

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2014

Aug 162014

Lake Merritt
468 Perkins Street
Oakland, CA

Originally shut down during World War II, the Necklace of Lights circling Lake Merritt fell into complete disrepair and remained non-functional for many years, The Lake Merritt Breakfast club started a campaign in the 1980’s to raise money to restore the iconic Necklace of Lights. Once the project was complete, they commissioned Michael H. Casey to produce a stand to hold the dedication plaque.

The sculpture was designed by Sue Associates of Oakland, California. The actual sculpture itself was done by Michael H. Casey. The piece was produced out of cast stone by Michael H. Casey Designs in 1987.

The cost of the cast stone pedestal was $4000.

South Hall

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2014

Aug 162014

South Hall
University of California, Berkeley

South Hall is the oldest extant building on the University of California campus. The entryway, originally in wood, was completely restored in GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) in 1996. The architect on the project was Irving Gonzales and the General Contractor was BBI.

Michael H. Casey Designs was hired to completely rebuild the entryway portico in GFRC. This required making molds and casting all elements. This also required sculpture where elements were missing.

True to form, as in the El Granada Building, Michael Casey sculpted a small Cal Bear, if you look very closely you will find it resting somewhere in the structure.

South Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is included in the Berkeley campus designation as a California Registered Historical Landmark and is listed on the State Historic Resources Inventory, and is a City of Berkeley Landmark.

Its entire history can be found on pages 41-44 of The Campus Guide University of California by Harvey Helfand

1940 Packard Building Comes Back to Life

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2014

Aug 162014

865 The Alameda
San Jose, California

This photo shows the Packard Buidling in 1940. Notice the wonderful sculptural detailing over the windows and the doors. As often happened during the 1960’s and 1970’s many buildings were stripped of their ornamentation to reflect the modernism trend that was sweeping the country.

In 2009 the engineering firm Biggs Cardosa, who bought the building in 2007, hired Michael H. Casey Designs to re-create all of the cast stone ornamentation that was originally over the doors and window.

The projected was done in panels, originally sculpted by Michael H. Casey, to make the installation easy. Once the sculpture was done the final product was molded and cast in GFRC by Michael H. Casey Designs.

The cohesive group that consisted of the owners, the contractor, Garden City Construction and the architect Garcia-Teague made this one of the funnest projects that Michael H. Casey Designs had the pleasure of working on.

As Michael often did, he worked from old photographs of the building to as closely recreate the original as possible.

Females Grace the Olympic Club

Posted by Cindy on August 11, 2014

Aug 112014

665 Sutter Street
The Olympic Club Parking Garage
Union Square

I have showed you the figures at the front of the Olympic Club here. But at the back, the entry to the parking garage, are 9 female nudes.

The sculptures are by Michelle Gregor. Michelle has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of California, Santa Cruz and Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University.

Michelle Gregor has taught ceramics at San Jose City College since 2002. She also teaches 3-D design every spring semester.

“Her style is described as emblematic of the unique Californian style seen in art, as it is not too representational, but has a certain serenity and spiritual feeling about it. She comes from a generation that blazed the path of abstract expressionism in the Bay Area, specifically for female artists.” The California Aggie

Ndebele

Posted by Cindy on August 5, 2014

Aug 052014

1601 Griffith Street
BayView / Hunters Point

This abstract sculpture composed of three vertical elements, is titled Ndebele and is by Fran Martin. It was installed in 1987.

I have tried three times over many many months to find this piece. It is listed at the pump station but it is actually on the side in a small gated area off of Shafter Avenue.

Fran Martin received her M.A. in Art in 1973. She fabricated and exhibited sculpture until 1995. Since 1994, she has been co-founder of and ardent worker at the Visitacion Valley Greenway Project (VVGP).

The Griffith Pump Station was built in 1985, and is part of the SFPUC wastewater enterprise system.

Heron’s Head Park

Posted by Cindy on July 28, 2014

Jul 282014

Heron’s Head Park
Evans and Jennings
Bay View / Hunter’s Point

Heron’s Head Park was “born” in the early 1970s, when the Port began filling the bay to construct what was to be the Pier 98 shipping terminal. The terminal construction never materialized, and the peninsula remained undeveloped.

Over years of settlement and exposure to the tides, a salt marsh emerged, attracting shorebirds, waterfowl and aquatic wildlife. In the late 1990s, with funding from the City and County of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Port, the California Coastal Conservancy and the San Francisco Bay Trail Project, the Port undertook a major renovation of Pier 98.

The project enhanced and expanded the marsh by removing over 5,000 tons of concrete, asphalt, metal and other debris, created a tidal channel to improve circulation, and constructed upland trails, picnic and bird-viewing areas and a fishing pier. In 1999, the former Pier 98 officially reopened to the public as Heron’s Head Park, named for its resemblance – when viewed from the air – to one of its residents: the Great Blue Heron.

Heron’s Head Park is now used for education and recreation by thousands of walkers, bird-watchers, students, and visitors from around the City and the Greater Bay area, and more than 100 bird species each year.

The sculpture was created by Macchiarini Creative Design.

Macchiarini studio and gallery was founded by Peter Macchiarini and his wife Virginia. Upon Peter’s death the studio was taken over by his son Daniel, and now, his daughter Emma Macchiarini Mankin

Daniel started basic Metal Arts & Sculpture Training 1962-1970, with his father, Peter Macchiarini. He studied at S.F. State University (1971-73) Arts Major Honor Society, Pottery, Painting, Life Drawing, Glass and Bronze Foundry course work.

Macchiarini Studios worked with The Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) group on this project. LEJ’s youth employment program trains paid interns to work on local issues relating to environmental health and food security. The interns bring a youth voice to neighborhood projects such as redevelopment of a naval shipyard Superfund site—the largest redevelopment project in the history of San Francisco.

SFAC Shame on You

Posted by Cindy on July 21, 2014

Jul 212014

1351 24th Avenue
Outer Sunset

This travesty sits in front of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Building.

The only photograph I could find was through the Smithsonian Institute.

The sculpture, titled Sailor and Mermaid, originally was made of copper sheets, cut, pounded, and welded, with bronze. It sits on a concrete pad. It was done in 1970 by Henry Marie-Rose.

Marie-Rose, who died in 2010, has been in this blog before with work both on a fire station in the financial district and about his work as a teacher. His death makes this even more tragic as it is now absolutely irreplaceable.

Photo from the Potrero View

There is absolutely no excuse for this piece to be in this state, especially as it sits in front of a San Francisco government building. The San Francisco Art Commission, which is the owner of the piece, has a lot to answer for.

UPDATE

I want to thank Joe Eskenazi for this wonderful follow up article. After he read my post he tracked down someone at the SFAC and the result was this article on Tuesday August 5th in SF Weekly

Raiders of the Lost Art: Another San Francisco Sculpture Goes Missing
By Joe Eskenazi
@EskSF

For 30-odd years, Cindy Casey and her husband, Michael, renovated ornate elements of city buildings and works of art here in San Francisco. Not so long ago, Michael died. Now Cindy maintains a blog about public art here in the city.

Or, sometimes, the lack thereof. On a recent trip past the Ocean Park Health Center on 24th Avenue, she was expecting to find Sailor and Mermaid, a glorious, 12-foot high copper sculpture crafted in 1970 by Henri Marie-Rose. Instead, all that remains is a stump roughly the size of a garden gnome.

As it turns out, the statue had been gone a long time.

Years ago, the artist’s son, Dr. Pierre-Joseph Marie-Rose, a pediatrician with the city’s Department of Public Health, visited the site for a meeting. He was shocked to find only the gnome-sized stump. He was even more shocked at the nonchalant explanation health center personnel offered him: They allowed the foliage to cover the sculpture for years and, when they finally cut it back, Sailor and Mermaid was gone.

The San Francisco Arts Commission believes the sculpture was swiped in the early 1990s. Dr. Marie-Rose made his serendipitous discovery in the late 1990s. It was left to him to inform his father of the loss.

In fact, Henri Marie-Rose’s lost work could stand in for any number of Arts Commission pieces. The body is undertaking a yearslong comprehensive survey to chart the whereabouts of its 4,000-plus items, many of which are unaccounted for. The commission has additionally loaned out some 754 works to 183 city agencies and offices. It does not know where many of them are.

The list of public artwork stolen or vandalized since 2007 runs to 15 pages. Among the more memorable losses are the serial thefts of the Mahatma’s spectacles from the Ferry Plaza Gandhi memorial; the filching of plaques from the Shakespeare Garden; and the theft of all four bronze tortoises from the eponymous Fountain of the Tortoises in Huntington Park. Hundreds of instances of graffiti are documented, including one wit who chose to scrawl “Just sit your fat ass down and relax” on the bronze chairs near the Church and Duboce Muni stop.

Kate Patterson-Murphy, the Arts Commission’s spokeswoman, urged concerned residents to report vandalism and contribute to the city’s ArtCare fund.

That won’t bring back Sailor and Mermaid, however.

Henri Marie-Rose died in 2010. His sole accounting on the Arts Commission’s list of public works is a copper relief emplacement on the exterior of a fire station on Sansome Street. It is mounted several stories above the sidewalk.

And, as such, it is still there.

An Ode to the Automobile

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2014

Jul 072014

Mason and O’Farrell Streets
Union Square

The construction of the Downtown Center Garage, now the Mason O’Farrell Garage, harkens back to when the automobile was king.

San Francisco now has a Transit First Policy which specifically gives priority to public transit and other alternatives to the private automobile as the means of meeting San Francisco’s transportation needs. Essentially this means that this garage would never have been built in today’s times.

Built in 1953, and situated between Union Square and the then vital theater district, is was meant to augment the Union Square Parking Garage and contained 1,200 parking stalls.

The Downtown Center Garage is nine-levels and constructed of reinforced-concrete. Pairs of circular, spiral ramps extend up from the basement to the roof at the southeast corner of the building. The concrete slabs and walls bear the impressions of plywood board forms and the columns of the Sono-tube forms used to create them. The circular ramps are expressed on the exterior of the building as curved and slightly inclined slabs that spiral upward, helix-like, toward the roof. Thin, tubular steel railings wrap around the perimeter of the slabs, providing protection to users as well as a modern decorative motif.

The structure, featured in the 1955 Architect and Engineer was designed by George Applegarth (1875-1972).

Applegarth, born in Oakland, was a student of Bernard Maybeck, who encouraged him to train at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts.

Applegarth’s most famous works were under the commission of Alma de Bretteville Spreckles. He designed both the Spreckles Mansion and the Palace of the Legion of Honor for Alma.

In 1921 and 1922, Applegarth was President of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. During the 1920’s he had begun to make plans for the parking garage that now stands under Union Square, the project was eventually given to Timothy Pflueger and not completed until 1942. In 1952, he started researching double-spiral ramp, multi-story, self-parking structures which gave us one of his last major projects in San Francisco, the Downtown Center Garage.

A shot from the 1955 Architect and Engineer. Notice the lack of safety equipment.

From the 1955 Architect and Engineer Magazine

The shopping strip along the exterior of the building was added sometime in the 1980’s.

The Rialto Building

Posted by Cindy on July 2, 2014

Jul 022014

116 New Montgomery
South of Market

I became intrigued with this building when a friend showed me this Black and White photo in the lobby of the Rialto.

(Note: the round building on the left is the Crossley building)

The Rialto is an eight-story H-shaped plan with center light courts. It has a steel frame clad in brick and terra cotta. The eighth story is highly ornamented. The façade accommodated the lack of interior partition walls by providing a large space between the window mullions. This allowed partitions to be erected between the windows once floors were leased. Since the interior lacked dividing partition walls, tenants could rent large floor areas that could be configured according to their needs.

Originally constructed in 1902, it was reconstructed in 1910 after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The original 1902 building façade was maintained. The 1910 reconstruction consisted primarily of structural improvements.

In 1902, during the 20th century building boom, Herbert Law financed construction of the Rialto Building, as well as the Crossley Building. The Rialto was named after a commercial center in Venice, Italy, a rialto is an exchange or mart.

Law hired the architectural firm of Meyer & O’Brien. Meyer & O’Brien, who despite only operating between 1902 and 1908, were prolific in the Financial District, designing some of San Francisco’s most prominent buildings, including the Monadnock Building, 637-687 Market Street (1906); the Humboldt Bank Building, 793- 785 Market Street (1906); the Hastings Building, 180 Post Street (1908); the Foxcroft Building, 68-82 Post Street (1908); and the Cadillac Hotel, 380 Eddy Street (1909).

Photo from Meyer & O’Brien lobby. Exact date not determined.

Terra Cotta work by Steiger Terra Cotta and Pottery Works

After the 1906 Fire and Earthquake Bliss & Faville was hired to supervise the reconstruction of the Rialto Building, as Meyer & O’Brien were no longer architectural partners and Bliss & Faville had gained prominence. Bliss & Faville was among the most established architectural firms in San Francisco during the reconstruction period after the Earthquake and Fire.

******

In June 1910, the San Francisco Call newspaper ran this article:

“The reconstruction of the old Rialto building at the corner of Mission and New Montgomery streets has begun. Dr. Hartland Law, the owner, is preparing to spend about $500,000 in rebuilding it on a handsomer plan than the original structure. The old building was erected in 1901 at a cost of $650,000.

The great fire left it a complete wreck. The walls have stood, but the steel frame was so bent and twisted most of it has had to be taken out. New steel columns have been put in from basement to roof. All the steel is being fireproofed with cement this time, instead of with terra cotta, as previously. The fireproof flooring is already in on the two upper stories. All the reconstruction work will be of class A quality throughout. The outer brick work will be cleaned and treated in some way to brighten it up and make it look like an entirely new building. The corridors will be wainscoted with marble and will have a flooring of mosaic tiling. They will be wider and brighter than in the old building. The woodwork of the building will be of oak. Metal doors probably will be put in. Special attention is being paid to the plumbing equipment. There will be a vacuum cleaning system and compressed air supplied to all the offices. There will be four high speed elevators, the contract for putting them in having already been let. The light, heat and power for the building will be supplied from a plant being constructed on a lot adjoining the main building. A special feature will be equipment for sterilizing water for drinking purposes. After the heating process it will be cooled and distributed to every suite in the building by faucets. In this and other ways Doctor Low [sic] has studiously endeavored to make the new building thoroughly modern and up to date in every particular. McDonald & Kahn have general engineering charge of the whole reconstruction work and are letting all the contracts. Bliss & Faville are the architects.”

September 1906

When the work on the Rialto Building was complete, the project was lauded as the building that restored faith in the City. The Rialto Building had been the feature of numerous newspaper articles during the reconstruction period because of its location and because the building shell had remained intact and highly visible.

Covering Construction

Posted by Cindy on June 23, 2014

Jun 232014

4th and Folsom
South of Market

This piece, sponsored by the SFAC, is by Randy Colosky. It is titled Ellipses in the Key of Blue.

According to Randy’s Website: Ellipses is the Key of Blue is 140 ft. long x 8 ft. tall, digitally printed and drawing mounted on plywood.

According to the sign on the wall next to the piece: Ellipsis in the Key of Blue is a temporary mural by Randy Colosky commissioned for the construction barricade at the site of the upcoming Central Subway Yerba Buena/Moscone Station. Colosky has worked in the building trades and is interested in the formal by products of the construction process. The imagery for this mural was crated with drafting templates used in mechanical drawing. Through repetition the template pattern becomes visually sculptural as it incrementally shifts, revealing how small movements make up a much larger gesture.

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The drafting template offers an interesting scenario in that it is a fixed pattern. Like fractals repeating in nature, the template pattern (as it is incrementally moved in the act of drawing) generates its own algorithm. According to the artist, “this fixed algorithm takes the decision making out of my hands as to the ultimate composition, which makes the drawing process more of a meditative execution of the piece.”

I personally thought it looked just like my screen when I win a game of spider solitaire. It is really and truly mesmerizing.

It is a bit tough to shoot as the surface is very, very shiny.

Randy is an Oakland based artist. He received his BFA in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute.

The Central Subway is a line being built connecting ATT Park with Chinatown, going through SOMA and Union Square, a distance of 1.7 miles at a cost of $1.578 billion. The project is funded primarily through the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. In October 2012, the FTA approved a Full Funding Grant Agreement, the federal commitment of funding through New Starts, for the Central Subway for a total amount of $942.2 million. The Central Subway is also funded by the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the City and County of San Francisco.

The three stops, this one in SOMA, Union Square and Chinatown, all are large construction sites at this time, if you are a visitor to San Francisco, that is what is happening, and will for several more years.

The SFAC funding was accomplished with Resolution number 0603-13-151: Motion to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into an agreement with Randy Colosky for an amount not to exceed $25,000 to design artwork imagery and create production files for the Central Subway: Construction Barricade Temporary Art Public Art Project for Yerba Buena/Moscone Station, which will be on display for one year from approximately mid-2013 through mid-2014.

The Sundial at Ingleside Terrace

Posted by Cindy on June 17, 2014

Jun 172014

Entrada Court
Ingleside Terrace

What is now Ingleside Terraces was the southwestern most portion of San Miguel Rancho, bordered on the west by Rancho Laguna de la Merced. Rancho Laguna de la Merced and San Miguel Rancho were apparently the last of the Mexican “ranchos” to be incorporated in what we now know as San Francisco.

The sundial was dedicated on October 10, 1913, with a rather spectacular event attended by 1500 people. According to the dedication brochure: “The ceremony attending the dedication of the sundial at Ingleside Terraces was one of rare delight. It took place at the close of a warm, vivid day in the fall of the year. The sun had gone down into the ocean, leaving the sky all crimson and gold. The air was soft and still and heavily scented with the fragrant breath of flowers. Far away beyond the grassy stretches of the Terraces the sea reflected the glory of the sunset, and one might easily imagine himself in an old garden on the shore of the Mediterranean. ”

“The sundial and the four columns surrounding it were veiled and loomed shapeless against a rippling background of flowerbeds…”

There were originally four columns upon which sat the four classic orders of column capitals and then an urn. The Corinthian column urn represented manhood, autumn, and afternoon

The urn atop the Ionic Column represented youth, summer and noon. The Tuscan Column urn represented old age, winter and night and

the Doric urn shows, childhood, springtime and morning. (Photo courtesy of www.SFog.us, as I failed to recognize it in its absolute simplicity while there)

The sundial was installed by the Urban Realty Improvement Company to lure buyers to its Ingleside Terraces development. The 148-acre residence park offered a lawn tennis court, a clubhouse for social gatherings and about 750 houses priced from $6,000 to $20,000.

The sundial stands 26 feet high and 28 feet across. The sundial was first promoted as “the largest and most magnificent sundial in the world,” but that is no longer true, not even in San Francisco . A sundial in Hunters Point that has been written up in this website and you can read about here, has a gnomon (the triangular piece that casts the shadow) that is 78 feet long, nearly triple the length of Ingleside’s.

The residential area was originally the Ingleside Race Track. The race track was dedicated in 1895, but when the 1906 earthquake struck the owner offered the site as a refugee camp for survivors and the track never saw a race again.

In the original brochure this was called Sundial Park and it was designed by Joseph A. Leonard. The brochure described the park like this: “The gigantic granite gnomon of the sundial at Ingleside Terraces…bridges a limpid pool wherein two bronze seals sport at the base of a fountain…four great heart-shaped plots of grass surrounded by walks point one each to the true south, north, east and west. At intermediate points four beautiful columns… surmounted by a bronze vase upon which, in bas-relief, is told by allegorical figures the story of the four stages of man, the four seasons of the year, and the four periods of the day.”

I have also found reference to this Sundial as the Urbano Sundial, I assume because Urbano Road essentially was paved over the course of the race track.

San Francisco Flower Market

Posted by Cindy on June 9, 2014

Jun 092014

San Francisco Flower Market
6th and Brannan
SOMA

With the face of San Francisco changing so very rapidly right now, I thought I would take a look at a block of buildings that has been a stalwart in the South of Market area serving an single industry, the San Francisco Flower Market. There are only 5 grower owned Flower Markets in the United States, and San Francisco is privileged to have one of those.

A coalition of three ethnic groups founded the organizations that began the early San Francisco Flower Mart. Italian growers started the San Francisco Flower Growers Association; Japanese growers founded the California Flower Market, Inc.; and Chinese growers ran the Peninsula Flower Association. Each group brought its flower growing expertise and individual personalities to the mix. When they joined collectively in 1926, the flower industry in San Francisco changed forever. Today, two of the original stockholders operate the Mart. These stockholders are members of the California Flower Market and the San Francisco Flower Growers Association.

Darold Fredricks of the Daily Journal wrote an excellent history of the Flower Market some of which I have excerpted it here:

Before 1900, a unofficial flower market sprung up on Market Street around Lotta’s Fountain. There was a transportation system in place with the trolley cars on Market Street and others that converged in this area. Twice a week, the growers and retailers met between Lotta’s Fountain and Podesta and Baldocchi flower shop at 7 a.m. and inspection of the blooms were made, deals from buyers consummated and demand gauged for the shops.

All went well until the 1906 earthquake. Because of the increasing number of growers that sprung up down the Peninsula and the problem of keeping the area clear of large crowds, the flower market was banned from the Lotta’s Fountain area and they had to find another site at which to gather. They found a place between Montgomery and Kearny streets. This site was indoors.

Due to the destruction of many buildings and the rapidly developing market for flowers, the three main ethnic groups of growers — Italians, Japanese and Chinese — developed their own market locations. The Italians grew field variety of flowers and ferns; the Chinese raised outdoor pompons and asters; and the Japanese specialized in greenhouse-grown flowers, chrysanthemums, roses and carnations. These groups felt they could find adequate space for their wholesale market they split up. The Italians started the San Francisco Flower Growers Association, the Japanese growers founded The California Flower Market, Inc., and the Chinese ran the Peninsula Flower Growers Association. They nevertheless remained close to the Kearny/Market Street vicinity.

The growers met with increasing resistance by developers in the city as land became too valuable for only plots of flowers. With a surplus of land available down the Peninsula, groups began planting swaths of land around Millbrae and San Mateo. The San Francisco Water Department rented land in Millbrae and the Cozzolinos and Betrocchis, the Ludemanns , DelDons and a few others purchased growing land to meet the challenge of the increasing market. The Mock family settled in San Bruno and the Leong family in San Mateo.

In 1924, however the three groups relocated to large central complex at Fifth and Howard streets.

In 1956, the organization of growers moved to a new building at the corner of Sixth and Brannan streets. Here there was room for 100 vendors in the 135,000 square feet of space.

This is a fun video, made in the 1970’s, of the flower market.

In 2007 there was a lot of scuttlebutt about the closing of the flower mart, Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential commented, “This isn’t the ’50s or ’60s. No one wears corsages or orders a centerpiece for a dinner party from the florist down the street,” Stewart said. “People buy their flowers at Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s”, only time will tell.

This story was an adjunct of a friend asking me about a little fellow on the exterior of the building. Ron Chiappari at the Flower Mart and Kim Hernandez of McClellan Botanicals (where my grandmother bought her orchids, as do I) have both been very helpful in my quest to determine who he is and why he is in the sidewalk on Brannan street, alas, no one knows why. If you have any information, please contact me.. the mystery continues.

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