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Kinetic Sculpture in Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on January 10, 2013

Jan 102013

Mission Dolores Park
The Mission District

Mission Dolores underwent a $17+ million, much-needed and beautiful transformation in 2011 and 2012. Part of the renovation was this kinetic sculpture.

The sculpture, by Lymon Whitaker is 23 feet tall.

Lyman has been a practicing sculptor for over 40 years, with a unique knowledge of materials and their application. The past 19 years have primarily been focused on creating Wind Sculptures, which are all produced by hand. The Wind Sculptures are innovative and artistic with a high degree of mechanical integrity.

Lyman feels that by placing the sculptures in settings dependent on natural elements for movement, opportunities are provided for participants to think about their surroundings. He has said that his sculptures are organic and natural like vegetation and are enjoyed best in interactive settings where they are viewed over time.

Lyman received a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on sculpture from the University of Utah in 1978. He still resides in Utah, often retreating to his off-grid yurt for inspiration.

The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2013

Jan 092013

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation
222-226 Jessie Street
Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens

Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that had prepared the 1905 plan for the conversion of San Francisco to a model of the “city beautiful” along the lines of Paris and Washington. As a result, it is not altogether surprising that the architectural ideas of Polk and Burnham should have been applied to an electric substation in a South-of-Market alley.

This noble structure is a simple (but quite sophisticated) exercise in the development of balance, line, and texture. Though the eye focuses on the ornamental, vertical, and symmetrical piercings and moldings, it is the horizontal line of the rough, red wall that catches the breath. Yet, of course, it is the elaborate applied inventions that make the plain surface more than just another brick wall. This is a building that many San Franciscans have never seen, and it is worth going out of one’s way to look at it. The above Here Today, San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage by Roger Olmsted and T.H. Watkins, 1969.

The Substation, which served as a power station until 1924 is now part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum (designed by Daniel Liebeskind). This lovely pediment sculpture is part of the original substation building.

facade_lg

The pediment sculpture is located above the left door and features matte-glazed terra cotta cherubs holding garlands above a plaque that reads 1907, the date the original building was completed. Restoration of the brick facade took six months during which time damaged pieces of terra cotta were built out using fiberglass and putty. The fixtures were then re-glazed to protect them from future environmental damage.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum addition

There are a lot of beautiful ornamentation on buildings throughout San Francisco, and like much of it, it was done by artists and craftspeople that left us with a legacy but not their name.

The Winged Lion that Holds Court in a Traffic Circle

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2013

Jan 082013

8th and Townsend
SOMA

This winged lion sits in the traffic circle at 8th and Townsend.

The lion was a gift from a former Galleria showroom owner, Jack Shears. (Shears and Windows)

The Design Center placed the lion in the traffic circle in 1988, then installed a sprinkler system and planted the lawn. The Design Center has maintained the traffic circle since then.

The lion, purchased from Haddonstone, was designed as the center piece for a fountain, with plumbing lines running internally within the piece. Wouldn’t it be nice if someday the fountain is completed.

Update: As you can see by Evan Ward’s comments. The statue was actually purchased by Mr. Poland that owned the Showplace Square and Galleria. He purchased the Saint Marks Lion (symbol of Venice, Italy) from Haddonstone, through the Shears and Windows Showroom on the urging of Jack Shears and Adam Window after a trip they made to Venice.

2 Bears in the Haight

Posted by Cindy on January 7, 2013

Jan 072013

226 Filmore between Haight and Waller
The Haight

These two bears are by Bologna based, Italian artist Ericailcane, whose website is so delightful it is worth a visit. Ericailcane makes etchings, graphic art, street art (most notably in collaboration with street artist Blu), animations, sculptures, installations, tattoos and loads of drawings. Inspired by Victorian children’s illustrations, the works are often macabre but never sad. They depict animals dressed like humans in surreal situations

Fort Point the Best Vantage Point to View the Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by Cindy on January 5, 2013

Jan 052013

It took 116 years for Fort Point to become a National Historic Site, and its life along that road was a bumpy one. Construction on Fort Point began in 1854. Thanks to the California Gold Rush, commerce was booming in San Francisco, and it was important that the portal through which valuable cargo flowed, the San Francisco Bay, was protected. The Fort, as it is configured today, is how it was originally envisioned. In 1857 a reporter for the Daily Alta California described the workmanship at Fort Point as “solid masonry of more than ordinary artistic skill which meets the eye at every point…the visitor is at a loss to determine what he admires most-the granite or the brickwork…” Once the foundation-thousands of tons of granite, brought from China-was laid, work began on the masonry arched casements that would house the guns and the troops. Originally the entire fort was to be of granite, but three years into the project the engineers decided to switch to bricks, made to their specifications on a hill just south of the fort. Master masons were hired for setting and laying the millions of bricks; they were assisted by numbers of men that had gone “bust” in the gold rush.

Slow in finishing, the Fort construction was completed just in time for the outbreak of the Civil War. The military occupied the Fort and prepared it for attacks that never came. Life for those stationed there was not easy: the thick walls, built to protect the Fort, made for dark spaces; the fog, an ever present element of San Francisco made the place cold and damp. The Bay itself also took its toll on the structure. The constant waves threatened to undermine the footings. In early 1862 work began on the 1500-foot sea wall that still remains. Again, thousands of tons of granite, this time from Folsom, California, were laid down and keyed together. The spaces were filled with cement and then covered with tar-impregnated cloth and molten lead.

After the Civil War the Fort was abandoned, except for a caretaker. It did, however have a dozen men garrisoned there during the 1906 earthquake. After all the men were out safely, they noticed that the entire hillside wall had moved away from the rest of the building by eight inches. The Fort was abandoned, and plans to turn it into a detention barracks were adopted. The Fort was remodeled, and yet, never did become detention barracks. The World War I troop buildup brought the Fort back into use as housing for unmarried men. During this time the Fort was also used as a “base end station,” which located the positions of attacking ships and controlled the firing of seacoast guns, mortars, or mines to defend against them. Abandoned once again after WWI, the Fort fell into severe disrepair.

Damage caused by the 1906 earthquake: tie rods were positioned, and the wall was pulled into place and anchored back to the main structure.

The interior courtyard with the original cast iron columns and capitals

In the early 1930s funds were being raised for the new Golden Gate Bridge. Engineer and designer Joseph Strauss initially felt the Fort would be an impediment to the bridge and wanted it gone. In 1937, however, after a tour of the Fort and the realization of its superior craftsmanship, he wrote to the Golden Gate Bridge District: “While the old fort has no military value now, it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason’s art. Many urged the razing of this venerable structure to make way for modern progress. In the writer’s view it should be preserved and restored as a national monument.”

Graffiti left by prisoners from Alcatraz sent to repair Fort Point in 1914

World War II found the Fort again refurbished and armed with Anti Motorized Torpedo Boat guns. The Bay never saw any action during the war, and the rapid demobilization after WWII left the military with a relic. Preservation enthusiasts started to organize beginning in 1947, but no government agency would step in and claim the Fort. In 1959, a group of retired military officers gathered together and formed the Fort Point Museum Association. They raised money and public awareness, and in 1970 President Richard Nixon signed a bill designating Fort Point a National Historic Site.

The Fort has four small jail cells. They now function as offices for the park rangers.

Prisoner art work, found on the jail-cell wall

Garrison Gin, used to move cannons to the upper floors

Fort Point is now part of the United States Park Service. It is open Friday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Candlelight tours are given in January and February. A full report of the history of the Fort, as well as its construction and restoration documentation can be found on the the National Park Service website.

Presidio’s Arguello Gate

Posted by Cindy on January 4, 2013

Jan 042013

Arguello and Pacific
Entry to the Presidio

The Arguello Gate was built by the Army in 1896. The designer was architect J.B. Whittemore. The gate was commissioned in 1895 and installed between 1896 and 1897.

Over the decades, it experienced much wear and tear, including being hit by a truck in 1996. This collision knocked off one of the beautifully carved sandstone capstones. Additionally, one of the large piers upon which the capstones sit had a crack so sizable that a passerby could see through to the other side.

In 2008, the Presidio Trust worked with master carver Oleg Lobykin, founder of Stonesculpt, to repair the historic gate and its adjacent walls, and to recreate the intricate carvings on the capstone. “We very much respect the labor which went into creating something like that. It’s a monument. It’s an artifact. It’s a piece of history. So we try to preserve it as much as we can,” said Lobykin.

In 2009, the Presidio Trust was honored with a Preservation Design Award in the Craftsmanship Category from the California Preservation Foundation its efforts.

Essayons is the motto of the US ARMY CORP of Engineers. The literal meaning of essayons is “let us try” in French. It is the only non-latin motto in the U.S. Army heraldry.

The US Army Corps of Engineers was created during America’s War for Independence, with the support of professional French Military Engineers. Today, that French heritage is still seen not only in its motto but within the language of the Engineer – “abatis,” “gabions,” “fascines” and “pontons” — all have their roots in 18th century France.

A reader sent me the following, that I found very interesting:

You know that American Eagle with the olive branch and arrows? During peacetime the eagle is supposed to be facing the olive branch while during wartime it faces the arrows. This means that U.S. military officers need to buy a new hat when a war starts. Admiral Spruance was too cheap for that so in pictures from WW2 he is usually the only one with the eagle facing the olive branch.

Yes I had to look up Admiral Spruance, this is what Wikipedia had to say:

Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral in World War II.

Spruance commanded US naval forces during two of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Battle of Midway was the first major victory for the United States over Japan and is seen by many as the turning point of the Pacific war. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was also a significant victory for the US. The Navy’s official historian said of the Battle of Midway “…Spruance’s performance was superb…(he) emerged from this battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history”. After the war, Spruance was appointed President of the Naval War College, and later served as American ambassador to the Philippines.

Spruance was nicknamed “electric brain” for his calmness even in moments of supreme crisis: a reputation enhanced by his successful tactics at Midway.

Rattlecan Blasters go back in Time

Posted by Cindy on January 3, 2013

Jan 032013

1340 York Street
Mission District

This mural is part of the SF StreetSmARTS program. Painted by Rattlecan Blasters in 2011. Rattlecan Blasters consists of graffiti artists, Cameron Moberg (aka Camer1 from San Francisco) and Aaron Vickery (aka Fasm from Modesto). The duo teams up frequently to paint church youth rooms and exhibit in art shows. They have traveled to several states to use their rattlecan skills on commissioned murals. They have several other murals around San Francisco.

In this are JW for Justin Werely, a friend of Camer1 whose name is on the right. The blue letters above say AMP which is the graffiti name of the third painter Buddy Raymonds.

I asked Cameron why the dinosaurs, he said that he had been reading a lot about them to his son and just likes them.

Zoe Ani and the SF StreetSmARTS program

Posted by Cindy on January 2, 2013

Jan 022013

2840 San Bruno
Excelsior District

M.K. Zoe Ani’s work ranges from representational to abstract landscapes. Her perspective is enriched by her Hawaiian and American Indian heritage. Her experience is one of a dichotomy of two cultures separated not only by a vast ocean, but also a mindset that is reflective of the dissemination of each indigenous group. She developed her skills in drawing during her travels and forged a unique art education by pursuing opportunities to learn and work in alternative settings.

Zoe began drawing as a teenager in southern Oregon. She began painting at The Art Students League in New York City from 1998 – 2002. She worked primarily in oil. She continued to pursue her craft in her tiny studio in Brooklyn, NY. In 2005 she transitioned from working in oil to encaustic painting after attending a workshop at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

The transition from oil to beeswax required more space to breathe. The natural inclination for expansion and a shift in perspective brought her full circle back to the west coast after twelve years in New York City. She has immersed herself in her new surroundings working out of a bigger studio located in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco, CA.

This is part of the SF StreetSmARTS program.

Wes Wong and the Phoenix Hotel

Posted by Cindy on December 31, 2012

Dec 312012

601 Eddy
The Tenderloin

This long series is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program. The artist is Wes Wong, he is part of the Fresh Paint Crew.

Fresh Paint, a San Francisco Mural painting crew aims to defy assumptions of what is possible with a spray can. The group is comprised of and collaborates with some of the best aerosol painters from the Bay Area and beyond, creating innovative murals in San Francisco. Concepts vary in aesthetic tone from photorealistic to illustrative, utilizing the large pool of artistic backgrounds within the crew. They produce murals that fit with their environment and are easily digestible for everyone from blue-collar workers to aerosol art fanatics.

Wes Wong is a visual problem solver living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He works in various aspects of the web by day: branding, user experience, user interface design, web marketing and front end; while painting big murals by night. His background in graphic design has brought a unique approach to mural work, striving to build a strong visual concept that relates to the space or client’s vision, often times finding a mixture of the two.

He quit the typical aerosol life years ago to start a family and focus on professional work. The spray paint itch was hard to kick, so Wes shifted his focus to persuing walls where he can produce large scale murals.

The wall is part of the Hotel Phoenix, the neighborhood is rough and the graffiti prolific. The purpose of StreetSmARTS is to help prevent graffiti by having property owners hire select artists to paint a surface that has been vandalized in the past, in hopes to prevent further vandalism.

San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement

Posted by Cindy on December 29, 2012

Dec 292012

San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco.

The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking.

The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright white. The beauty of the main court, the well-planned balance of buildings, water, and open green spaces was a wholly new concept to the visitors of the fair. Dignified, monumental and well run, the White City boasted state-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems. All of this was in sharp contrast to the grey, urban sprawl of Chicago in 1893.

Chicago – 1893 World Columbian Exposition – (Photo courtesy of Boston College)

The City Beautiful Movement was a response to failing urban life. An attempt to improve cities through beautification, it was hoped that the solution of social ills would inspire civic loyalty, and make city centers more inviting to the upper classes, in hopes that they would return to them for work and therefore spend money.

The City Beautiful Movement used the language of the Beaux Arts (Fine Arts) Style. This style was named after the art and architecture school of Paris the Ecoles des Beaux Arts and flourished between 1885 and 1920.

The Beaux Arts is a classical style with a full range of Grecian and Roman elements, including columns, arches, vaults and domes.

General defining elements include the following:

Symmetry
Highly ornamented exterior decorations
A single architectural element as the center of the building composition. This could be an over-scaled
archway or a dramatic line of columns.
A dramatic roofline, often with sculptured figures
Monumental steps approaching the entrance
Floor plans that culminate in a single grand room
Axial floor plans so that vistas can be obtained throughout the building

Classic Elements of Beaux Art Architecture.

The City Beautiful Movement began in San Francisco in 1904, when James Duval Phelan, former mayor and president of the “Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco,” invited Daniel Hudson Burnham to town. Daniel Burnham was the indisputable “Father of City Beautiful.” He was the Director of Works for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and took a leading role in the creation of master plans for a number of cities.

Burnham’s group proposed that a new Civic Center complex be built at the corner of Market and Van Ness with radiating grand boulevards. A landscaped park would begin at the Civic Center and extend to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Twin Peaks was to be crowned with a neo-classic library overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plan created neighborhoods, which would be accessed by a grid pattern, and tied the transportation systems to scenic views. The groups’ plan prescribed careful treatment of the hills and streets and even took into consideration the issues of building costs, maintenance and upkeep.

The War Memorial Veterans Building – San Francisco

The War Memorial Opera House is almost identical to the Veterans Building.

In 1906 the earthquake and fire presented the City Beautiful movement with a blank canvas-with one caveat, the merchants of San Francisco, eager to regenerate commerce, would have the final say as to the direction of future building in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, there was still a significant Beaux Arts influence in a number of buildings that were built after the earthquake, and the Civic Center we know today is one of the finest examples of the movement.

The Bill Graham Auditorium

The Beaux Arts buildings that create the heart of Civic Center include City Hall and the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) completed in 1915 in time for the Pan Pacific Exhibition, the War Memorial Opera House and the War Memorial Veterans Building, the Main Library and the State and Old Federal Buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.

These classic buildings give the San Francisco Civic Center a visual cohesion that should encourage visitors to sit and enjoy this area. Sadly, due to the continued onslaught of vagrancy, the City of San Francisco has destroyed the central park area, Civic Center Plaza, that brings the buildings together.

“The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better public space is the undesirables problem,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. “They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem.”

The Civic Center open space has no benches, and if you are looking for a place to sit, you will find poorly maintained lawns interrupted by sparsely planted annuals. A colonnade of pollarded London Plane trees stands like sentinels over a vast bed of decomposed granite that used to house a reflective pool. While the Asian Art Museum has often placed intriguing and world-class art in the plaza, it is not yet enough to make the average citizen want to visit.

Dealing with the homeless problem in San Francisco has never been one of calm and reason; making the area scream, “go away” has not worked. It is time to find a way to bring vibrancy and humanity back to the area. It is time that the city slowly works its way back to the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement within its own Civic Center.

The State of California building

Beautification of a Utility Box by Malik Seneferu

Posted by Cindy on December 28, 2012

Dec 282012

3rd and Oakdale
Bayview

This utility box was painted by Malik Seneferu.

Malik is a self-taught and extremely prolific African-American artist that has created more than 1,000 different pieces of artwork, including paintings, murals, and mixed media projects in the past 25 years. Despite the fact that he has no formal college training, Malik’s art has hung in many different professional arenas throughout the world, such as galleries, museums, magazines, and newspapers.

While growing up in the 1970s and 80s, Malik saw his peers going to jail and getting killed. Living a life of crime did not appeal to him, so he chose to follow his dreams and began creating art. His interest in art became a pursuit for spiritual, mental, and physical elevation. In addition to creating original art pieces, Malik works with communities that have seen hardship.

This piece was sponsored by the SF Housing Development Corporation with support by the Bayview Opera House, 4800 Home Owners Association and the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center.

April Berger paints the Mission

Posted by Cindy on December 27, 2012

Dec 272012

3300 Block of 18th
Mission District

April Berger is an artist who has been living and creating art in San Francisco for thirty years. Her work is primarily non-figurative, which allows the viewer to have an immediate response to the color, texture, pattern, and forms that they are seeing. Her love of color has been the main focus of her works of art. “Color is an extremely powerful tool. Its impact is strong and far reaching. It promotes health, well being, vitality and peace.”

One of Ms. Berger’s goals is to have her rich color palettes beautify walls throughout her beloved city. “San Francisco’s tendency has been to have political and urban style murals. I think it’s very important to have a wide variety of styles on our city streets.”

Berger has exhibited and sold her works both nationally and internationally. She received her arts degree at SUNY Purchase in New York

This particular mural was part of April’s Paint it Forward Program.

She raised over $5000 through Kick Starter and this was the proposal:

The idea of The Paint it Forward Project came to me last year after completing a mural that I was commissioned to paint in order to cover graffiti. It’s been demonstrated over and over again that once a mural is on a wall, it no longer gets “tagged” with graffiti. The goal of the project is to collaborate on the design and creation of two new murals in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. Paint it Forward will be a true collaboration between artists who bring very different styles and content to their work.

The Paint It Forward project is about empowering our youth and beautifying our neighborhood. I will be engaging young “taggers” who have the desire to be true artists and make their mark on the world around them. If given the proper mentoring and support, these dynamic young people will develop into successful public artists, creating dynamic murals, feeling a sense of pride, belonging and responsibility to their city.

I’d like to raise $5,000 in order to pay these kids for their time, for the materials, and for a huge party to celebrate the completion of the murals.

Ruth Asawa at the Parc 55

Posted by Cindy on December 26, 2012

Dec 262012

55 Cyril Magnin
Union Square Area
Parc 55 Hotel porte-cochere

San Francisco Yesterday and Today by Ruth Asawa 1984 – Cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Ruth Asawa used baker’s clay to sculpt these panels. Ms. Asawa has many works around San Francisco. An American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture. Ruth, at the age of 16, along with her family, was interned in Rohwer camp in Rohwer, Arkansas at a time when it was feared the people of Japanese descent on the West Coast would commit acts of sabotage. It was the first step on a journey into the art world for Ruth. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she said of the experience: “I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am.”

The Apexer and Mona Caron Collaborate on Market Street

Posted by Cindy on December 24, 2012

Dec 242012

1100 Market Street
Mid Market

This piece is by Ricardo Rickey, also known as the Apexer. The flower is courtesy of Mona Caron. Both Mona Caron and the Apexer have several murals around San Francisco.

The mural is on the outside of a pop-up store called the Trailhead. Sprouting from the community-conscious and creatively driven minds at The Luggage Store, this new six-month-long pop-up shop includes an itsy-bitsy parklet of purchasable seedlings from the Tenderloin National Forest, mouth-watering pastries and sips by the folks at Farm:Table, art installations, and a denim-dominated workspace-slash-store managed by Holy Stitch! Denim Social Club.

This is the back of the store, where sadly the mural has been tagged.

450 Sutter, A Mayan Palace

Posted by Cindy on December 22, 2012

Dec 222012

450 Sutter Street is San Francisco’s monument to the Mayan Revival branch of Art Deco.

Art Deco draws on a variety of sources including Art Nouveau, Cubism and the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Art Deco celebrates the technological wonders of the early 20th century, the frivolities of the roaring twenties, and the hard times of the Great Depression.

Art Deco is commonly divided into three related design trends: Streamline Moderne, Classical Moderne and Zigzag Moderne. Zigzag, represented by angular patterns and stylized geometry, flourished in large cities and was primarily used for public and commercial buildings.

The Mayan Revival (also called neo-Mayan) was one of the facets of Zigzag Moderne. Mayan Revival was used primarily in the 1920s and ’30s. Although it was named “Mayan,” it drew on the motifs of many of the Meso-American cultures, such as Mexica and Aztec.

450 Sutter Street, completed in 1929, was designed by James Rupert Miller and Timothy L. Pflueger. A steel curtain-wall building, 450 Sutter broke from tradition with the building’s skin design. Miller and Pflueger covered the 26 floors with heavy Mayan Revival style patterns-undulating verticals of ornamented terracotta run from the first floor to the roof. The addition of horizontal bands of windows adds to the overall effect of richness and complexity. The street level and entry are cast in aluminum. In the lobby, cast bronze alternates with Burgundy/Levanto marble.

The building was designed and built for dental salesman Francis Edward Morgan Jr. at a cost of $5 million (including the land). The building was built specifically to house doctors’ and dentists’ offices. According to advertisements, offices could be custom outfitted with electrical and plumbing as the tenant needed. Rents began at $50 a month for three rooms and $100 a month for five. At the time of its construction, it was not only the second tallest building in San Francisco, but said to be the largest medical office building in the world.

The unusual motifs and ornamentation of this grand building received mixed reviews at the time of its opening. The San Francisco Chronicle quieted any discord with the following 1929 review:

“Speculation has been rife as to the meaning of these graceful symbols, but their meaning is negligible-they justify themselves by being graceful and attractive. They give the front of the building just enough feeling of movement to emphasize the general vitality of a severe but thoroughly virile design. They tell the passerby any story he chooses to read into them-and that is poetry.”

450 Sutter was one of the last great skyscrapers to be built in San Francisco in the first half of the century.

Cast bronze and cast aluminum lobby ceiling

Cast aluminum elevator doors surrounded by burgundy/levanto marble

RESPECT

Posted by Cindy on December 21, 2012

Dec 212012

1601 Lane
Bayview/Hunters Point

Respect

This mural is on the side of the YMCA in the Bayview. It was funded by SF StreetSmARTS program and was done by Senay Dennis, also known as Refa One.

Refa’s website had this to say about his calligraphy murals.

Style

1: a distinctive manner of expression (as in writing or speech).

Characteristics or elements combined and expressed in a particular (often unique) and consistent manner. Derived from ‘stylus,’ the Latin word for a sharp instrument for making relatively permanent marks.

Style Writing is the art form and culture I am MOST passionate about. Writing exemplifies the highest expression of my creative abilities. If there was a single body of work I had to use to represent my being,it would be the “Wild Style”. When I’m doing a Burner, my spirit is in it’s most active and peaceful state.

Bufano in Valencia Gardens

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2012

Dec 202012

Valencia Gardens Housing Project
Corner of Maxwell Court and Rosa Parks Way

These animal sculptures at Valencia Gardens were sculpted by Beniamino (Benny) Bufano. They were done in the 1930s for the Work Progress Administration Project at Aquatic Park. In the 1940s, when the federal government pulled out of San Francisco the sculptures were given to the City of San Francisco and became the charge of the San Francisco Art Commission.

There are two other sculptures that were part of this grouping. The Frog and The Seal are still at Aquatic Park.

This collection of statuary is by San Francisco darling Beniamino Bufano. They sit in a courtyard of the completely newly rebuilt Valencia Garden Housing Project.

During the work that was done at Valencia Gardens, the statues were placed at the Randall Museum for restoration and the enjoyment of the citizens of San Francisco.

The $66 million development of the new Valencia Gardens replaced 246 dilapidated and blighted housing units with 260 affordable homes for extremely-low and low-income families and seniors. Valencia Gardens is located on a 4.9-acre site between Valencia, Guerrero, 15th, and 14th Streets in the Mission District, the same location as the previous public housing which stood for over sixty years.

After almost a decade of planning, the revitalization of Valencia Gardens was made possible through a network of partnerships and collaborations at the local, state and federal levels. As a HOPE VI development, $66 million in development financing was provided by both the public and private sectors.

The design and architecture of Valencia Gardens are based on new urbanism principles that have shown to increase the quality of life and sense of community in other HOPE VI affordable housing developments. Most importantly, Valencia Gardens is integrated into its neighborhood with new public roads and walkways, as opposed to being isolated by fencing, as was the case with the previous project.

Liberty Ship at Islais Creek

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2012

Dec 192012

SFMTA Islais Motor Coach Facility
Sitting on Islais Creek in the new Shoreline Park
Indiana Street and Ceasar Chavez
Bayview

This 340′ Long Steel Sculpture is an abstract representation of the old Liberty Ships that were built in the Shipyards of this neighborhood.

The sculpture is by Nobuho Nagasawa a New York based artist. Nobuho had this to say on ArtNet

My work ranges from site-specific projects to installations and public art. I create an interactive space that is informed by the actual place — its history, people and spatial narrative. This approach requires detective-like investigation and quasi-archeological research, exploring sociological and psychological aspects of each site. Immediate physical and social context influences the form, content, and choice of materials and media.

I see my artist’s identity as inevitably “hybrid” – in my case, part sculptor, journalist, poet, architect, and urban designer. Materials and methodology follow upon the necessary diversity of evolving concepts as a project reveals its conditions. I see this process as an excavation of meanings – cultural, geopolitical, social, personal – that lie hidden within the materials themselves. By revealing personal memories, collective histories, unacknowledged myths, and contradictory issues, I try to open up key social and personal reserves that can galvanize public interaction. Art, after all, has the power to deconstruct the blockages of social energy and serve as a catalyst to new vision and public self-discovery. My goal is to create artwork that provokes and revives a site and wakes people up to the poetry of place.

I am intrigued by the sense of scale, both human and civic, and how relatively small change can enhance private experience within the public setting. A truly livable space should stand the test of time. It spurs social communication and inspires reconstruction. When history is brought to the surface through public art, it can serve as source for the renewal of cultural identity and the evolution of social values.

My goal is to create works that attract people to possibility where and as they live. The development and realization of art in public is a dialogue with a place and its time – land and substance, its past, its people, the future they create – made new, immediate, and somehow timeless.

Based in New York City since 2001, Nobuho Nagasawa was born in Tokyo, and raised in Europe and Japan, and received her MFA at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar through the invitation of California Institute of the Arts in 1986, where she studied visual art, critical theory and music.

This piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $750,000 in the 2008-2009 budget year.

San Francisco All Wrapped Up in a Fountain

Posted by Cindy on December 18, 2012

Dec 182012

Union Square
Hyatt Hotel
345 Stockton Street

This fountain by Ruth Asawa was commissioned by Hyatt in 1970 and completed in 1972, the fountain consists of 41 individual bronzed plaques each about 26X32 inches depicting San Francisco landmarks covering the entire circular wall of the fountain bowl and measuring over 14 feet in diameter. At the center of the high wall of the drum, you will notice HH which represents the Grand Hyatt on Union Square. Everything to the south of Union Square is to the left, everything north is to the right. The Ocean is the top boundary, the bay is at the bottom. You may recognize the Powell St Cable Car turnabout, the opera house, Nob Hill, the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Golden Gate Bridge, among many other familiar sights. In addition, you may notice fantasies such as Superman flying past the Montgomery St Skyscraper over Snoopy on his dog house or the Wizard of Oz character. Total effect is a real and unreal world where anyone can enter.

Because of Ruth’s desire to show what many many hands working together could do, help from visitors and over 100 children in the area was solicited. Rather than the traditional sculpture’s material, Asawa used a bread dough bakers clay to model the fountain. When finished the piece of sculptured dough was arranged on the panels surface and stuck down with white glue. The panel were then set aside the thoroughly dry before being taken to the fountain for casting.

Lombard Street

The French Laundry, one of the Bay Areas renowned restaurants, and at the time of this sculpture was owned by Don and Sally Schmitt, whose legacy lives on at The Apple Farm. The Schmitts sold the restaurant to it’s current chef, Thomas Keller.

Mission Dolores

The Conservatory in Golden Gate Park

Fleishacker Pool was a public saltwater swimming pool located in the southwest corner of San Francisco, next to the zoo for 47 years. Upon its completion in 1925, it was one of the largest heated outdoor swimming pools in the world.

Palace of Fine Arts

Soul Journey

Posted by Cindy on December 17, 2012

Dec 172012

1625 Carroll at Third Street
Bayview

Titled Soul Journey this mural was done by Precita Eyes in 2000. It was designed by their director, Susan Kelk Cervantes and executed by Ronnie Goodman, Tomashi Red Jackson, “Diallo” John H. Jones, Dan Macchiarini and Mel Simmons.

Under the fawn it reads: Home sickness on a quiet night…on the ground before my bed is spread the bright moonlight, but I take it for frost, when I wake up at the first light. Then I look up at the bright full moon in the sky suddenly homesickness strikes me as I bow my head with a deep sigh.

In the waves of this panel you can read this:

The soul journey of tears has slowed from people’s eyes for many years

The soul journey of tears has dropped to the ground forced through cultivated soil that has transformed their lives and wiped away their sorrow and pain from their lives.

This soul journey of tears have given us new meaning to life. By R. Goodman

This project, executed in 2000, was funded by the Mayors Neighborhood Beautification Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Carroll Avenue Associates.

Refa One

Posted by Cindy on December 14, 2012

Dec 142012

4546 3rd Street
Bayview

These two paintings on roll up doors in the Bayview are part of the StreetSmARTS program. They were painted by Senay Dennis, also known as Refa One.

“Writing is the song of my soul and the call of my spirit. This art work has a power – emanating from a higher power than myself. I have submitted unapologetically to the call of putting this work out there. However, I am also doing this with unconditional love for Life, Humanity, the Most High and that ONENESS in the universe.” – Refa One

For well over two decades, Oakland California native Refa One has been instrumental in the development of the innovative, unorthodox genre of art known as “Aerosol Art” (Graffiti Art/Writing). Immersed in HipHop culture as a youth, the walls of urban structures became his canvas. Refa One’s refined, self-styled calligraphy has earned him international acclaim amongst Spray Can Artists and enthusiasts alike. A lifetime of involvement in HipHop culture combined with his radical political awareness, has translated into a successful career as a Spray Can Calligrapher, muralist, illustrator, activist, and educator. Refa One’s design aesthetic reflects his belief in HipHop culture as a vehicle for radical political and social change. His pieces are maps of visions and reflection, capturing the intellectual value and heritage of the common urban vernacular in his work. His themes materialize in the fusion of his unique HipHop Calligraphy and his use of eclectic, cultural iconography. The end result is a multitude of powerful works that engage the spirit, intellect, and imagination.

The Coast Miwok and California History

Posted by Cindy on December 13, 2012

Dec 132012

350 16th Street and Albion
Mission District

The Coast Miwok

“We lived in harmony with the planet for thousands of years. We respected the earth and were thankful fo all the gifts it gave us

With the invasion of the outsiders our lives were shattered. We were imprisoned, forced into slave labor and punished for following our beliefs.

The California Rancheria Act of 1958 was the final blow in a long series of government actions designed to kill us off and gain control of our land. Over the next 40 years we found the strength to organize and fight those who had tried to erase us from our native land.

Through hard work and perseverance our rights were finally restored on December 27, 2000

We have a long way to go but today, there is more hope for survival and prosperity than anytime in the last 250 years.”

The Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek. The Coast Miwok included the Bodega Bay Miwok from authenticated Miwok villages around Bodega Bay and Marin Miwok.

The artist, Richard Blakely is a graduate of SFSU, he entered the art world through commercial illustration, motion picture production painting, graphic design, and motorcycle/hot rod art.

Benny Bufano in the Sunnydale Projects

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2012

Dec 122012

1654 Sunnydale
Visitacion Valley

This Beniamino Bufano statue is of a Bear over the Head of Peace. It was done somewhere around 1935-1940 and stands in front of the Community Center at the Sunnydale Projects. Bufano was a prolific sculptor in his time and his work can be found all over San Francisco.

Sunnydale was built in the 1940’s as a means to house military personnel and their families, it was later bought by the city of San Francisco and converted to a low-income housing project.

The Housing Authority was created in 1938 to help poor families build better lives by creating temporary subsidized housing. Over the years, the once well-kept projects turned into havens for crime, and the services that families need to get out and move on – such as child care, job training, legal help and counseling – evaporated with cutbacks.

Sunnydale, is quite possibly the most dangerous, depressed and decrepit area of the city. The dilapidated barracks that make up the development are lined up on a hillside in the shadow of the Cow Palace, opposite McLaren Park.

An estimated 1,633 people live in the square mile of concrete housing. Once considered a nice place for a family to live, the development is now home to those who can’t afford anything else.

The above was from a February 2008 SF Gate article by Leslie Fulbright. A two part series titled Life at the Bottom.

Transverse and Column at the Balboa Park Bart Station

Posted by Cindy on December 11, 2012

Dec 112012

Balboa Park Bart Station
Ocean and San Jose Avenue

Transverse and Column by Carroll Barnes – 1977
Corten Steel 9’H x 8’W x 19’L

Carroll Barnes was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1906. He attended Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC and was awarded a national scholarship to study with Carl Milles at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills Michigan. He was awarded the California Cultural Citation from Governor Earl Warren.

Carol Barnes and his artist wife Evangel Barnes discovered the town of Three Rivers when they decided to honeymoon in Sequoia National Park, fell in love with the town, and then made Three Rivers their home. It was while living in Three Rivers that he carved the Paul Bunyan shown below.

Upon his death in 1997, Carroll Barnes left behind a large body of public work, as well as, one other Paul Bunyan, which still stands today on the grounds of the College of Sequoias in Visalia. However, The Paul Bunyan he created in Three Rivers is believed to be the largest sculpture ever made by anyone, from a single fallen sequoia.

Meagan Spendlove collaborates with Cavalier Design Studio

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2012

Dec 102012

1035 Post Street
Back of the Building on Cedar

This mural sits on Cedar Street. It was commissioned by Cavalier Design Studio which resides at 135 Post Street in San Francisco. The artist is Meagan Spendlove, whose work can be found all around San Francisco.

Meagan Spendlove, often artistically entitled as “Siloette”currently works in San Francisco, California as a conceptual artist and project coordinator. Her current endeavors include yet are not limited to achieving an MA in Integral Arts Therapy and teaching public artwork within the Bay Area.

For the last decade Spendlove has painted or promoted at multicultural events in over 50 cities around the world. Creating portraits that have become recognized primarily for their ethereal tones and vivid color spectrums. Aesthetically speaking her style has been compared to Art Nouveau, stained glass & waves.

This mural is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program.

The San Francisco Mint

Posted by Cindy on December 9, 2012

Dec 092012

The United States Mint in San Francisco, affectionately known as the Granite Lady, stands today as a result of the California Gold Rush.

When gold was discovered in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, the great gold rush began, and with it, a need for financial institutions. A mint was necessary to convert the miners’ gold into coins. Without a mint in California, all gold was shipped to Philadelphia for coining, a dangerous and expensive effort. On July 8, 1852, President Millard Fillmore signed an act authorizing the building of a mint in the state of California. The California legislature approved a resolution on April 9, 1852, that this new institution, The Federal Mint, be placed in San Francisco.

The first San Francisco mint opened in 1854 on Commercial Street. Unfortunately, it proved inadequate, especially after the discovery of silver in Nevada’s Comstock Lode. A larger building was needed.

On February 5, 1867, the lot at the corner of Mission and Fifth streets was purchased for $100,000. An additional $300,000 was allotted for the building, but the actual final cost of the building was $2.1 million.

Gold and silver vaults

Supervising architect of the Treasury Department, Alfred B. Mullett, designed the building in the Greek Revival Style-often used for federal buildings. Greek Revival structures are characterized by architectural elements reminiscent of classic Greek temples.

The foundation of the Mint consists of four-foot thick granite blocks from the Griffith Quarry in Penryn, California. The granite is interlaced with 2-inch iron bars. This not only gives the mint a sound footing for earthquakes but also deters any would-be tunnel-digging thieves. (The cornerstone of the building is still a mystery. Reportedly laid during a Masonic ceremony and filled with gold coins struck at the Mint, neither the stone nor the coins have ever been found.)

Above the granite, the building is clad in sandstone from Newcastle Island in British Columbia.

When entering the building you walk through six sandstone hexastyle Doric columns holding up a simplified entablature with an undecorated pediment and a frieze with triglyphs: all elements that typify the Greek Revival Style.

The vaults are on the ground floor. They line both sides of a central corridor and were used to store coins made of gold and silver. In the late nineteenth century, paper currency was a rarity this far west.

The main floor holds the only room the public was allowed to enter. This was the Public Office of the Mint. Here business was transacted under the watchful eye of guards patrolling above on a highly ornamented catwalk. This floor also housed the Gold Ingot Room, the Gold Vault and the Stamping Room (where the coins were made).

Beautifully ornamented brass lighting fixtures are the only decoration in the building outside of the Public Office.

$60 million in Chinese silver dollars stacked and guarded. July 14, 1936. (Photo credit: San Francisco Public Library)

The San Francisco Mint held a highly esteemed place in the United States Treasury. In 1877 alone, the San Francisco Mint produced $50 million worth of coins. During the 1930s, more than one million came through the receiving rooms, and in 1934 one third of the entire country’s gold was housed in the San Francisco Mint.

The Mint rode out the earthquake of 1906 with very limited damage. Employees with hoses saved it from the fire.

In 1961, the San Francisco Mint was declared a landmark; in 1969, it was declared a surplus government building.

Silver delivery. August 31, 1934 (Photo credit: San Francisco Public Library)

The Mint underwent a small restoration in 1972, and the Treasury kept a small office there. In 1998, the Mint was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1994, the U.S. Treasury closed the building for seismic and security reasons. The Granite Lady sat empty, her sandstone slowly eroding.

In 2003, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society was granted a 66-year lease and began a drive to restore the Granite Lady. It is estimated that the renovation will take $90 million. Phase I, at a cost of $13 million has been completed, and funds are being raised for Phase II. At the end of Phase II, the building will be partially open to the public.

The Mint is available for private parties, and is opened once a year by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society for a History Expo.

Aero #8 by Moto Ohtake Spinning in the Richmond

Posted by Cindy on December 7, 2012

Dec 072012

851 27th Avenue
Richmond District

Aero #8 by Moto Ohtake – 2012 – Stainless Steel

Inspired by the natural elements on both macro and microscopic levels, aero #8 is a self-contained wind driven system that creates an infinite number of movements in response to changes in weather patterns.

Moto Ohtake was born in 1952 in Tokyo Japan. He holds a BFA from Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, a BFA in sculpture from the Academy of Art College and an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institue. He is presently an instructor in sculpture, three dimensional design and furniture design at De Anza College in Cupertino, California.

The video is actually of Aero #5, however they are very similar and the video will give you a good feeling of how they move.

This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for $48,000.

StreetSmARTS covers the History of Bayview

Posted by Cindy on December 6, 2012

Dec 062012

Palou and 3rd Street
Bayview

Titled the History of Bayview this is a 2011 Street SmArts mural by Bryana Fleming.

Panel 1 and 3: Originally dominated by grassland and tidal marshland, Bayview-Hunters Point has a unique history for its transformation into an urban industrial neighborhood while segregated from the metropolitan area. Slaughterhouses and their associated industries in the 1800s and shipbuilding in the 1900s drove its urbanization.

Panel 2: Constructed in 1888, the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre (known affectionately as “the Opera House” or the “BVOH”) is located at 4705 Third Street in the heart of the Bayview Hunters Point district. The Opera House is San Francisco’s oldest theater and a registered historical landmark.

Mr. Sam Jordan was born in Diboll, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy before coming to San Francisco. Soon after his arrival here in 1947, Mr. Jordan became a regular on the city’s boxing scene. He grew popular as “Singing Sam” because he sang the national anthem and other songs before and after his fights. His first year in the city, he fought in the light heavyweight championships of the San Francisco Golden Gloves Tournament, winning the diamond belt.

In 1959, he opened his bar on Third Street, known to most as Sam’s or Sam Jordan’s, a popular spot for more than four decades where neighborhood regulars, politicians and city leaders dropped by before or after a trip to nearby Candlestick Park.

Sam Jordan died in 2003, the bar is up for SF Landmark status.

If you lived on Quesada Avenue in Bayview Hunters Point before the Queseda Gardens Initiative, you would have pulled down the blinds and dreaded the inevitable dash to the bus stop or your car. But that changed in 2002 when Annette Smith and Karl Paige started planting flowers and vegetables here and there around the block. Other residents jumped in to help them, and to create art, share history, organize block events, and commit to working together to strengthen the community where they live. Together, they formed the Quesada Gardens Initiative, changed their world, and inspired all those around them.

Mosaic Planter at Beautiful McLaren Park

Posted by Cindy on December 5, 2012

Dec 052012

McNab Lake
Wayland and University Street
John McLaren Park

Monica Treanor was educated in Trinity college, Dublin, Ireland where she graduated with a PhD in Environmental Sciences. She has worked as an ecologist on all seven continents. Her experiences stretch from the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, living on a uninhabited island to the frozen Antarctica where she was the ecologist on board a tall ship expedition.

Monica’s passion for the environment and her extensive knowledge of the fine, intricate details of nature are delightfully exposed in her work as a mosaic artist. She first began her training as an apprentice tiler with “Treanor Tile” when she came to San Francisco in 2003.

Monica secured grants from First Five, and introduced young children to both freshwater and marine life. The horizontal surface of this planter box depicts life on the surface of the adjacent lake.

Fire at Fire Station #24

Posted by Cindy on December 4, 2012

Dec 042012

100 Hoffman
Castro/Cole Valley

Fire by Jaap (Jacob) Bongers – 1993

Jaap Bongers was born in Stein, Holland and studied at the Jan Van Eyck Academie of Fine Arts and the Stadsacademie of Fine Arts, both in Maastricht, Holland. In addition to his travels to Africa, Bongers also visited the United States for the first time in 1985 and settled permanently in San Jose in 1987.

This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission for $14,000.

The words are ways to say fire in several other languages.

Api – Indonesian
Apoy – Ilocano/Filipino
Feu-French
Feuer-German
Fuego-Spanish
Fuoco Italian
Hapuy-MalayoPolynesian
Ignis – Latin
Lume – Galician
Moto – Swahili/Shona (Bantu)
Uguns – Latvian
Vatra – Serbian
Vuur – Dutch

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