Cindy

Twitter

One Bush Plaza and Its Environs

Posted by Cindy on March 26, 2001

Mar 262001

1 Bush Plaza
Market Street Area

One Bush Plaza, also known as the Crown Zellerbach Building, stands as a monument to International Style. International style is a phase of Modern architecture that began at the beginning of the 20th century, and continues as a dominant style in corporate and institutional structures in the 21st century. The term originated from the book International Style (1952). The book documented the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture held at MOMA in New York City in 1932. International Style encompasses three elements: expression of volume rather than mass, emphasis on balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and expulsion of applied ornament.

Construction began on One Bush Plaza in 1957. Designed by a team led by Edward Basset of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (for the Crown Zellerbach Paper Company), it was the first significant building to go up in San Francisco after the Great Depression, and a stark contrast to the traditional stone and masonry buildings that surrounded it.

One of the best views of One Bush Plaza is from the Mechanics Monument on Market Street.

This International Style building was the first glass curtain-wall tower building in San Francisco. (The Hallidie Building, built in 1917, featured the first glass curtain-wall in San Francisco; it was, however, just the facade.)

A curtain-wall system consists of lightweight exterior cladding, which is non-structural and simply keeps out the elements. It can provide a variety of exterior appearances but is characterized by narrowly spaced vertical and horizontal mullions (a member dividing a window) with glass or metal infill panels. The advantage of a glass curtain wall is that light can penetrate farther into the interior of the building. In a curtain wall system, all wind, seismic and load factors are borne by the floors, ceilings and columns-this is what allows for lightweight materials, such as glass, to comprise entire exterior walls.

The monolith housing the elevators delights the eye, balancing the main building without being symmetrical.

The entire building is not done in this curtain-wall style; the elevators and stairwells are placed in a service wing hidden behind a monolithic wall clad with over five-million one-inch tiles of varying dark colors. As sunlight strikes these tiles, the reflecting colors shift and shimmer. This monolith is offset and pushed toward Market Street. Steel girders of the building stretch across the entire width of the building; this eliminates the need for interior columns and presents the occupant with an open floor plan easily adaptable to changing needs.

The building is perched on pilotis-stilts or pillars that carry the weight of a building by raising it off the ground. Pilotis not only raise the architectural volume of the building but redefine its relationship with the surrounding public space. The lobby, a three-sided glass structure, sits between these pilotis. The travertine (a form of limestone) lobby floor extends beyond these windows to allow for human passage and art installations.

Sitting on a triangular lot, the large skyscraper holds court with a round one-story pavilion sitting on a pedestal (523 Market Street). The pavilion, built at the same time, was to house The American Trust Company. Four months later the Trust Company merged with Wells Fargo Bank, who maintained an office in the building until the 1980s. Today the building houses a brokerage firm. The circular building has a precast folded concrete roof that is clad in copper.

One Bush was the first office building to be set in a plaza. The two buildings on the lot are surrounded by a Japanese-influenced garden that also designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The garden is sunken and discretely hidden from the surrounding streets. The area features river rocks embedded in concrete and bands of gray slate. While the garden provides a quiet area in downtown, it is officially a Privately Owned Public Open Space. There is no seating, and therefore the area is rendered a thoroughfare rather than a potential small park. The front entrance to One Bush Plaza faces Bush rather than Market Street-initially a cause for raised eyebrows-as Market during the late ‘50s was in decline. This is most likely why the landscaped area was not made to feel inviting, but as times have changed, it seems a missed opportunity.

This fountain by David Tolerton was part of the original plaza design.

San Francisco Chronicle architecture columnist and author John King writes about One Bush Plaza “if the tower’s clean lines are timeless, the concept of the plaza has aged poorly. It treats architecture as sculpture, and brings light and air to the street by tearing holes in the city. Reality, we’ve learned, is far more complex.”

Both One Bush Plaza and 523 Market Street were recognized as San Francisco Historical Landmarks on May 17, 1987

Market Street- Waterfall Walls

Posted by Cindy on March 25, 2001

Mar 252001

514 Market Street

This Fountain has now been replaced – see bottom of this post.

Waterfall Walls by Elyn Zimmerman

This Public Art was provided by the 1% for Public Art Program

This view is actually walking from Stevenson Street towards Market Street, which affords the nicest view.

When viewing Elyn Zimmermans web page you realize instantly this artists loves large pieces of stone.

This is the view from Market Street. The piece was Commissioned by the developer Tishman/Speyer and the San Francisco Arts Commission, in 1991.

Zimmerman was born in Philadelphia, PA, received both undergraduate and Master’s degree in Art at UCLA, and taught university level art classes from 1974 to 1986 in California and New York. She has lived in New York City since 1977 and since 2006 also partly in Ojai, CA. Zimmerman’s sculptural works range from studio pieces and private commissions to large scale, site specific projects.

This fountain was removed, and this was put in its place. No information is available regarding the new fountain.

Escalieta 1

Posted by Cindy on March 24, 2001

Mar 242001

SOMA

Financial District

49 Stevenson

Escalieta 1 by Manuel Neri – Marble – 1985

This is public art created by the 1% Public Art Program

Manuel Neri (born April 12, 1930) is an American sculptor, painter, and printmaker and a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

Neri was born in Sanger, California, to immigrant parents who had fled Mexico during political unrest following the Mexican Revolution. He began attending college at San Francisco City College in 1950, initially studying to be an electrical engineer. After taking a class in ceramics, he was inspired to become an artist. He continued his education at California College of Arts and Crafts and at California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Neri studied under Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff, taking up abstract expressionism under their influence, but later turning toward figurative art along with them.

In the late 1950s, he was a member of the artist-run cooperative gallery, the Six Gallery, along with Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, and Jay DeFeo. In 1959, Neri became an original member of Bruce Conner’s Rat Bastard Protective Association.

Neri taught sculpture and ceramics at California School of Fine Arts from 1959–1965 and was on the faculty of the University of California, Davis from 1965-1999

This is the back, notice how nicely it is juxtaposed to the skyscraper in the distance

This piece sits in front of Yank Sing Restaurant.

Market Street’s Flatiron Building

Posted by Cindy on March 23, 2001

Mar 232001

Flat Iron Building
540 Market Street
Market Street / Financial District

Built in 1913 the Flatiron Building was designed by Havens & Toepke. It is one of the few, and most distinctive extant flatirons on Market Street. Flatirons were common north of Market both before and after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, but the destruction of many of them such as the 1892 Crocker Building at Post and Market for high-rises has made them rare.

The skeletal structure of the building is well-adapted to an unusual (for San Francisco) Gothic treatment in which three-part bays are separated by thin piers of reinforced concrete scored to imitate masonry. A highly distinctive cantilevered cornice of Gothic pendants appears to be a prototype for Willis Polk’s 1917 Hallidie Building one block west. Described in 1913 as “pure English Gothic,” the medieval ornament also is used for interior railings, grilles, and elevator doors.

The most well known Flatiron in San Francisco is most likely the The Sentinal in North Beach, but since this is actually called The Flatiron Building the two are often confused.

Flatiron buildings are among the earliest skyscrapers. Their triangular shape was determined by real estate parcels created by diagonal streets, such as Market Street, that sliced through streets designed on a grid. They were named for their resemblance to clothes irons of the period.

The most famous flatiron building is the Fuller Building, of New York City and generally considered that city’s first skyscraper. It was designed by Daniel H. Burnham and built in 1902.

Charles I. Havens was born in New York in 1849 and arrived in California in 1856. Havens served for twelve years as City Architect of San Francisco, designing many of the early schools, none of which survive. He died in 1916.

William H. Toepke was born in California San Francisco July 12, 1870. He attended public schools and then entered the office of William Mooser in 1886 to study architecture. Four years later he became an employee of C.I. Havens and formed a partnership with Havens in 1897 that continued until 1915. Toepke died in 1949.

Totem Phoenix

Posted by Cindy on March 22, 2001

Mar 222001

Financial District/SOMA

595 Market

at Stevenson and 2nd Street

Totem Phoenix by Dan Dykes

The piece is registered with the Smithsonian. The piece was done in 1988, is stainless steel and weighs one ton.

Dan Dykes is a site-sensitive sculptor who works in a variety of media, including stone, bronze and stainless steel. His work synthesizes various forms of nature, fusing diverse images to capture the vibrancy of life. He is a recognized master of metal fabrication and has travelled nationally teaching for the International Sculpture Conference. He was educated at the University of Oregon and is well known for his totem pieces.

He presently resides in San Diego, California.

Admission Day Monument on Market Street

Posted by Cindy on March 21, 2001

Mar 212001

Admission Day Monument

Market, Post and Montgomery Streets

Like the Mechanics Monument down the street, this work is by Douglas Tilden. Commissioned by Mayor James D. Phelan and unveiled on September 5, 1897. The monument commemorates the admission of California into the Union. The angel atop the statue is said to have been modeled after the artist’s wife. The angel carries an open book, inscribed “September 9, 1850” the date California became a state. The miner holds a pick behind his back, is armed with a six-shooter and is waving a flag in his left hand. The monument stood for 51 years at the intersection of Mason, Turk and Market streets. It was moved to Golden Gate Park in 1948 and returned to Market, Post and Montgomery streets in 1977 after lobbying by the Native Sons.

The unity of our empire hangs on the decision of this day. W.H. Seward

On the Admission of California U.S. Senate 1850

This fountain is dedicated to the native sons of the Golden West to commemorate the admission of California into the union. September the Ninth Anno Domini MDCCL

Tilden lead a fascinating and somewhat tragic life. An interesting biography can be read here.

The bear is the symbol of California, however, I tried everywhere to find out the significance of the octopus, to no avail. I did find this – but have NO way of knowing if there is an actual connection. The Octopus: A Story of California is a 1901 novel by Frank Norris and the first part of a planned but uncompleted trilogy, The Epic of Wheat. It describes the raising of wheat in California, and conflicts between the wheat growers and a railway company. Norris was inspired by the role of the Southern Pacific Railroad in events surrounding the Mussel Slough Tragedy. It depicts the tension between the corrupt railroad and the ranchers and the ranchers’ League. The book emphasized the control of “forces” such as wheat and railroads over individuals. Some editions of the work give the subtitle as alternately, A California Story.

Monadnock Building

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2001

Mar 202001

Monadnock Building

685 Market Street

San Francisco

The Monadnock building has a fascinating history, and their website does a nice job of laying it out. They also describe the murals:

The twenty-four foot barrel-vaulted atrium lobby has outstanding Tiepolo-inspired trompe l’oeil murals, featuring famous people from the city’s past, by the Evans and Brown Co.

The theme of this mural is “San Francisco Renaissance.” It is painted in the Renaissance Baroque style trompe l’oeil (which means to fool the eye) and chosen because the facade of this building was inspired by that period. That is why all these San Francisco and California characters are dressed in such costumes.

East Wall

On the east wall, to the far left, the man holding the newspaper is Dr. Walter Lum. He founded the Chinese Times, managed it for thirty-five years, and became a leading civil rights advocate for the Chinese by the 1970s.

The next figure, in red, is Supervisor Harvey Milk, the camera shop owner who rose to become the nation’s most powerful advocate for gay rights. Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone (not depicted) were both assassinated in their City Hall offices in 1978.

The blonde lady is Lotta Crabtree. A popular actress, singer and comedian during the Gold Rush years, it was Lotta who in 1875 donated the fountain you see across the street from the Monadnock Building. This was modeled after a prop from one of her plays. (The fountain has appeared in this site before)

In the green tunic is a very young-looking Bernard Maybeck. He was the architect responsible for designing the Palace of Fine Arts (1915) and numerous other landmark buildings in the Bay Area, including part of the UC Berkeley campus and the First Church of Christ Scientist, also in Berkeley.

The lady in pink is Isadora Duncan. Born in San Francisco in 1875, Miss Duncan achieved international fame in Europe as the founder of modern dance. She was a dazzling figure who danced in flowing robes and bare feet.

The last adult, in black, is Mary Ellen Pleasant, or Mammy Pleasant, as she was popularly known. She was, by legend, a mysterious and powerful figure behind the scenes during the Civil War years of San Francisco, as she championed the cause of blacks all across the nation.

The children, Max and Chloe, are the son and daughter of Don Baker, a former Eastdil Realty developer who engaged the services of artists Mark Evans and Charlie Brown during the building’s renovation.

On the opposite wall, we have just four figures with names. The boy on the far left and the lady on the far right playing the mandolin are nameless or generic.

Second from the left, the tall man in blue is the great public benefactor and San Francisco mayor (1895), Adolph Sutro. Initially gaining wealth and fame from his mining techniques and investments in his own Comstock Silver Mines of Nevada, Sutro at one time possessed 1/12th of the land in San Francisco.

The man in the yellow vest is John Muir. A prolific writer and explorer who successfully campaigned for the preservation of forests, Muir is often referred to as the inspirational father of the national park system.

The next figure, in glasses and what looks like a Robin Hood hat, is Herbert Law. A patent medicine king of the 1890s, and a former owner of the Fairmont Hotel, Law was the developer who placed this building here in 1906.

The last portrait with a name is opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini, one of Italy’s greatest coloratura sopranos. In 1910, on Christmas Eve, she sang “The Last Rose of Summer” to over a quarter-million people right across the street at Lotta’s Fountain.

This is the ceiling panel. The mural company Evans and Brown has an extensive body of work that can be found on their website.

Lotta’s Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 19, 2001

Mar 192001

Lotta’s Fountain

Market Street at Geary and Kearney

Lotta’s fountain is probably one of the best known landmarks and pieces of public art in the city. It is also the oldest surviving monument in San Francisco, Lotta’s fountain was donated by singer/dancer Charlotte Mignon (Lotta) Crabtree in 1875. Lotta began her career as a young girl performing for miners in the gold country and went on to become one of America’s most popular stage performers. The fountain was cast in Philadelphia, shipped to San Francisco on an 18,000 mile sea journey around Cape Horn reassembled and presented to the citizens of San Francisco.

After the 1906 earthquake, the fountain, which was one of the few remaining structures downtown, became a meeting point for many people trying to reassemble their families. The city holds a ceremony here every April 18th at 5:12 a.m., the moment of the mainshock, attended by earthquake survivors and dignitaries.

In 1998 the fountain went through a complete restoration. The iron had corroded so badly from the inside out, that the fountain had become a danger. It took four months and $160,000.

This plaque was added later.

Chicken Tetrazzini was named after Luisa Tetrazzini, the famous Italian coloratura soprano opera singer. In those days it was common for chefs at great hotels to name their dishes after celebrities. It is not known for sure, who and where the dish was named, but as a San Franciscan I am partial to the story that Palace Hotel Chef Ernest Arbogast created Chicken Tetrazzini in 1904 when Tetrazzini sang to great acclaim in San Francisco and was featured in daily articles in the San Francisco Chronicle. Or maybe Arbogast gave the dish its official name after the 1908 New York debut when Tetrazzini had a second triumph in San Francisco.

Another possibility is that the dish was premiered after Tetrazzini gave her famous outdoor Christmas Eve concert in 1910 before an estimated quarter of a million people at Lotta’s Fountain. That concert came about when two New York impresarios began feuding over which controlled her New York opera contract. When they attempted to get an injunction to prevent her singing in any theater until their legal squabble was settled, Tetrazzini, who loved the worshipful audiences in San Francisco, headed to the City vowing to sing in the streets if she had to. Although no injunction was issued, she carried out her promise with the open air concert that has become legendary.

Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges

Posted by Cindy on March 18, 2001

Mar 182001

Lining the 200 Block of Stevenson Street
Off of 3rd near Market

Locks and Keys For Harry Bridges was commissioned by Millennium Partners/ WGB Ventures Inc and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. The piece is by artist Mildred Howard, who has been in this site before.

Howard is known for her sculptural installations and mixed media assemblage work, Mildred Howard has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Adeline Kent Award from the San Francisco Art Institute, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and a fellow-ship from the California Arts Council.

When Howard was asked how she came by the image of a key and lock for the project, she answered that she was inspired by Harry Bridges as he opened up doors and that her locks are open to reflect that.

Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901–March 30, 1990) was an Australian-born American union leader, in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which he helped form and led for over 40 years. He was prosecuted by the U.S. government during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. His conviction by a federal jury for having lied about his Communist Party membership was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1953.

Market Street Angel

Posted by Cindy on March 17, 2001

Mar 172001

720 Market Street

Angel by Stephen de Staebler

Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote this in 2002 “Several years ago a winged bronze figure by Bay Area’s sculptor Stephen de Staebler appeared without fanfare, nestled against a building facade on Market Street.

Looking gnawed by time, as de Stabler’s figures typically do, it reads as an elegy for the waning of humanism, in the symbolic form of a ruined angel. By not overreaching in scale, content or its bid for attention, the piece achieves an improbable grandeur ”

From DeStaebler’s obituary in the New York Times:
Stephen De Staebler, a sculptor whose fractured, dislocated human figures gave a modern voice and a sense of mystery to traditional realist forms, died on May 13 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 78.

The cause was complications of cancer, Jill Ringler, his studio archivist, said.

Mr. De Staebler found his medium when he met the pioneering ceramist Peter Voulkos at the University of California in the late 1950s. Impressed by the expressive possibilities of clay, he began making landscape-like floor works.

In the late 1970s he began coaxing distressed, disjointed humanoid forms from large, vertical clay columns. Colored with powdered oxides and fired in a kiln, they presented potent images of broken, struggling humanity.

“We are all wounded survivors, alive but devastated selves, fragmented, isolated – the condition of modern man,” he recently told Timothy A. Burgard, a curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who is organizing a De Staebler retrospective. “Art tries to restructure reality so that we can live with the suffering.”

Stephen Lucas De Staebler was born on March 24, 1933, in St. Louis. While working toward a bachelor’s degree in religion at Princeton, he made art on the side and spent a summer at Black Mountain College studying painting with Ben Shahn and Robert Motherwell.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1954, he served with the Army in West Germany. He enrolled at Berkeley intending to teach art in the public schools but, after receiving his teaching credentials, earned a master’s degree in art in 1961.

He exhibited widely, particularly in the Bay Area, where he taught for many years at the San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco State University.

In 1988 Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., organized the traveling exhibition “Stephen De Staebler: The Figure.” Reviewing the show at the Neuberger Museum of Art at the State University of New York, Purchase, Michael Brenson, in The New York Times, noted the enigmatic, disjointed nature of Mr. De Staebler’s art.

“In his human comedy, wholeness has no meaning,” he wrote. “His men and women — when it is clear that they are men or women — seem like pieces of a puzzle without a key.” By this time, Mr. De Staebler had begun working in bronze as well as clay.

“Matter and Spirit: Stephen De Staebler,” his retrospective, is scheduled to open at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in January 2012.

Mr. De Staebler;s first wife, the former Dona Curley, died in 1996. He is survived by his wife Danae Mattes; a daughter, Arianne, of Berkeley; and two sons, Jordan, of Oakland, Calif., and David, of Bishop, Calif.

“The human figure is the most loaded of all forms because we live in one,” Mr. De Staebler told Mr. Burgard, the curator. “The figure obsesses not just artists, but human beings. It’s our prison. It’s what gives us life and gives us death.”

Two Old Banks Still Stand Proud

Posted by Cindy on March 16, 2001

Mar 162001

Grant Avenue and Market Street

Many critics of historical preservation projects complain that the process leaves the building frozen in time. Adaptive re-use proves that this does not need to be the case.

Adaptive re-use, which adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features, can also a sustainable form of development that reduces waste, uses less energy and scales down on the consumption of building materials. San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square remodel in 1964 marked the first adaptive re-use project in the United States and San Francisco has never looked back.

A prime example of adaptive re-use in San Francisco can be found when comparing the two, classic Beaux Arts buildings that make up the stately entrance onto Grant Avenue from Market Street, the one street in San Francisco that comes closest to embodying the City Beautiful movement espoused by Daniel Burnham.

Coincidentally, both buildings were originally banks. Standing at 1 Grant Avenue is San Francisco Landmark #132: built in 1910 as the Savings Union Bank it was reconfigured for retail through adaptive re-use in the 1990s. The Savings Union Bank was designed by Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville. Both gentlemen were graduates of MIT and began their San Francisco practice in 1898.

This steel frame building is clad in gray granite. Six Ionic columns hold up its massive pediment 38 feet high. This modified domed temple is derived from the Roman Pantheon. The pediment, designed and sculpted by Haig Patigian, houses a Bas Relief of Liberty. Patigian, an Armenian by birth who spent most of his career in San Francisco, was one of the cities most prolific sculptors during his time.

At one time the front was graced with bronze doors. These doors consisted of four panels designed by Arthur Mathews and were said to be “descriptive of the historical succession of the races in California.” First the Indian, then the Spaniard who was typified by a Franciscan monk, next a miner representing the “American” and then an allegorical representation of a San Franciscan shown as the ideal figure of a youth beside a potter’s wheel modeling one of the new buildings in the city. Those doors have been replaced with glass.

Interior of Retail establishment at 1 Grant Avenue (photo courtesy of Goldstick Lighting Company).

Inside are eight Tavernelle (an old building stone term that means spotted or mottled) marble Corinthian pilasters and columns thirty feet high. These support the main cornice, which is surmounted by an attic and coffered ceiling. The walls are not of marble but of Caen stone. Caen stone is a limestone quarried in France near the city of Caen. It was first used in the Gallo-Roman period. (the period when Gaul was under Roman influence)

Across the street, also built in 1910, at a cost of $1.5 million, stands the Union Trust Company Building, San Francisco Landmark #131. Union Trust merged with Wells Fargo Bank in 1923. The building still houses a Wells Fargo Bank branch.

Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Public Library.

Clinton Day was the architect of this Neoclassical Beaux Arts building. According to the July 1, 1908 San Francisco Call “The structure at Market Street and Grant Avenue Will Be Handsome and Commodious.” Day came from a distinguished California family. His father was State Senator Sherman Day and co-founder of College of California, the precursor to the University of California Berkeley. Clinton Day was a graduate of College of California.

This modified temple design is without a pediment. Its beautiful layered façade consists of carved granite ornamentation, derived from classical antiquity that includes ten columns, a bracketed overhang and a roof crowned by a balustrade parapet. This is all accented by dark iron window framing. The curvature on the Market Street side grounds it nicely to its location.

This well-heeled area of Market Street makes these two banks stand proud, unlike the rundown Mid Market area that holds the Hibernia Bank.

Pediment at 1 Grant Avenue designed and sculpted by Haig Patigian.

The Humboldt Bank Building

Posted by Cindy on March 15, 2001

Mar 152001

785 Market Street

When the 1906 earthquake struck, construction of the Humboldt Bank Building was already underway. Fortunately only the foundation had been laid, leaving the architect the leeway to make necessary changes. The architect, Frederick H. Meyer, used this opportunity to incorporate every known fire and safety feature of the time into the new structure.

The Humboldt Bank Building is a classic Beaux Arts building. One of the many Beaux Arts principals Meyer incorporated into the design was a hierarchy of space. In this case, a grand entrance lobby is topped by 19 floors of functional office space.

The entryway to the tower features a highly ornamented arch. Arched windows tied together with banded pilasters punctuate the tower-another classic Beaux Arts feature. All of this is complemented with richly detailed ornamentation.

Meyer chose to crown the building with a highly stylized dome. This dome was originally intended to mimic the Call Building, which survived the 1906 fire, but was subsequently altered so much in 1938 that it stands today, a former shell of itself.

In his second (post-earthquake) attempt, Meyer kept his original design for the façade, but changed the structural design significantly.

The exterior shell of the building was redesigned to be all concrete. Originally the entire building was to be clad in Colusa stone-from Colusa County, CA-however, Meyer knew that Colusa stone spalls (chips) when exposed to heat, so he limited the Colusa stone to the first three floors and clad the remaining floors in a terra cotta veneer.

The original plans called for the floors to be made of hollow tile; this was changed to reinforced concrete. Throughout the building, metal trim was used in place of high quality oak, at almost double the price.

The exterior windows are wire glass. Wire glass-thick glass with embedded chicken wire-is meant to prevent glass from shattering in the case of fire.

Many buildings built prior to the fire had water towers placed on their roofs. However, Meyer noticed that these often shook loose during the earthquake, rendering them useless in case of fire. As a result, the Humboldt Bank Building has standpipes and hoses on all floors. These are served by via pneumatic (not electric) pumps from a water tank in the basement.

Meyer saved his most advanced work for the elevators. Elevators often work as an air column during fires, and can feed a fire very rapidly. Meyer worked to separate the elevator shafts from the rest of the building. First, he completely lined the shafts in concrete. Then he placed “automatic doors” on the top and bottom of the shafts. If fire were to occur, the doors would close, isolating the elevator shafts from the rest of the building.

While the 1906 earthquake and fire were tragic, the lessons learned from the catastrophe spurred design innovation. This is what allows us to continue to enjoy such great buildings as the Humboldt Bank Building.

Market Street Clock

Posted by Cindy on March 14, 2001

Mar 142001

870 Market Street

Samuels Clock

Purchased by Albert Samuels in 1915, (the year of the Pan Pacific Exhibition) the Samuel’s clock was originally in front of Samuels Jewelry Store at 5th & Market Streets.

In 1943 Mr. Samuels purchased the property at 856 Market and moved his company. The clock was moved to its present location and remained in operation until August 1967, when it was placed in storage during the construction of BART. Because of conflict with the Market Street beautification and tree-planting scheme, the clock almost didn’t make it back, but after strongly expressed public opinion, the clock was reinstalled in October 1970. Albert S. Samuels died July 9, 1973. The business was sold a few years later. The clock was granted landmark status December 1975.

Mystery writer Dashiell Hammett once worked for Samuels Jewelers writing advertising copy. Hammett used the clock in Samuels ads and referred to it in at least one of his mystery stories.

One of the finest street clocks in America

Erected by

The Albert S. Samuels Co.

Dedicated to the public of San Francisco

Insured by Lloyds of London

Any person damaging same will be prosecuted

Path of Gold Street Lamps

Posted by Cindy on March 13, 2001

Mar 132001

Market Street

The Ferry Building to Castro Street

Known as the Path of Gold due to their golden hue which emanates from yellow sodium vapor lamps the 33-foot high lampposts along Market Street were designated historic landmarks in 1991.

The 327 Path of Gold standards are a legacy from the City Beautiful movement of the early 20th century, which also gave San Francisco the Civic Center. Their distinctive color and pattern of light identify Market Street from distant viewpoints.
The Winning of the West bases by sculptor Arthur Putnam feature three bands of historical subjects: covered wagons, mountain lions, and alternating prospectors and Indians.

Willis Polk designed the base and pole in 1908 for United Railways’ trolley poles with street lights. The City required the company to provide highly ornamental poles, with lamps and electricity, as the price of permitting the much opposed overhead trolley wires.

The tops were designed in 1916 by sculptor Leo Lentelli and engineer Walter D’Arcy Ryan, whose lighting designs for the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915 had inspired emulation on the City’s principal thoroughfare.

This project was linked to graft payments to Mayor Schmitz, political boss Abe Ruef, and seventeen of the eighteen members of the Board of Supervisors.

A timeline to help simplify things:

1916: The original installation, from the Ferry Building to Seventh Street, was a cooperative effort by private companies including Pacific Gas & Electric. To service the tall poles, PG&E invented an ancestor to the cherry picker.

1920s: Path of Gold tops were added to the Winning of the West bases from Seventh Street to Valencia Street.

1972: As a component of the Market Street Beautification program which followed BART construction, all the poles and ornaments were replaced with replicas and fitted with new high pressure sodium vapor lamps.

1980s: The original Path of Gold standards were used to extend the system out Market Street to just beyond Castro.

Lentelli was born in Bologna, Italy. He studied in both Bologna and Rome and worked as a sculptor in Italy. Immigrating to the United States in 1903 at the age of 24, Lentelli initially assisted in the studios of several established sculptors. In 1911 he entered the Architectural League exhibition and won the Avery Prize. The following year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Chosen to provide sculptural ornament for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Lentelli moved to San Francisco in 1914.

Brightening Mid-Market

Posted by Cindy on March 12, 2001

Mar 122001

982 Market Street
The side of the Warfield Theater
Mid-Market

This piece, finished in May of this year (2014), was done by Clare Rojas (who has been in this website before), along with the 509 Cultural Center.

The mural was sponsored, to the tune of $40,000, by the Walter and Elise Hass Fund.

Thanks to the Creative Work Fund, I was able to find this photo of the work in progress, as well as an explanation of the piece.

“The proposed mural will be a natural outgrowth of Rojas’s earlier work, which was overtly feminist and employed surreal or unreal figures in a narrative intent. She plans to re-integrate symbolic figures within a large-scale abstract composition for the mural.”

Due to the height of the building, the mural is easy to spot from many parts of town. Due to the historic nature of the Warfield, the mural will only be up for one year.

Os Gemeos First Go Around

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2001

Mar 112001

Mid Market

near 6th

Untitled by Os Gemeos

Os Gemeos means “the twins” in Portuguese and is pronouced “Ose Zhe’-mee-ose.” These two identical twin brothers (born 1974) hail from São Paulo, Brazil. Their real names are Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil’s own style. Their work often features yellow-skinned characters but is otherwise diverse and ranges from tags to complicated murals. Subjects range from family portraits to commentary on São Paulo’s social and political circumstances, as well as Brazilian folklore. Their graffiti style was influenced by both traditional hip hop style and the Brazilian pixação movement.

There is a rather long, but great interview with the cousins and a wonderful collection of their work here.

Os Gemeos on Market Street

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2001

Mar 112001

1007 Market Street
Mid Market

This piece, sponsored by The Luggage Store Gallery and Funded by the Graue Family Fund for Public Art was done by Os Gemeos in September of 2013.

Os Gemeos have been in this website before. They are twin brothers from Sao Paulo with a wonderful and very distinctive style.

According to Juxtapoz: Many years ago, the Brazilian twin art duo, painted this exact roof. It was an impressive piece, but upon their recent return to San Francisco, the two decided to revamp with something new. In this new version, local graffiti martyr, Tie and the recently passed, Jade make special guest appearances on the attire of their fashionable spray painting character.

I wrote about their original piece quite a while ago and you can see it here.

Photo Courtesy of Juxtapoz Website

To see what this piece looked like before its upgrade click here

The Eastern Outfitting Company

Posted by Cindy on March 10, 2001

Mar 102001

1017 Market Street
Mid-Market

This gorgeous building sits on Market between 6th and 7th. It has been sheathed and scaffolded for quite awhile now, and it is a pleasure to see that it has come out from behind its blanket much better for the stay.

The seven story building, with its terra-cotta finish and steel frame construction has a unique steel and glass façade that begins above the ground floor retail space and is framed by Corinthian pillars. The giant Corinthian order columns and capitals are constructed of terra-cotta tiles; and the entablature, seemingly so massive, is in fact hollow—a galvanized-iron box. The words Furniture and Carpets stand out from that galvanized iron entablature reminding us that at one time it was the Union Furniture Store.

During the restoration they have put back the 700 lights that go around the windows. They had simply been empty holes for many many years now.

To see some gorgeous photos of the building prior to its make over, visit Mark Ellinger’s wonderful piece Grand Illusion.

The building was designed in 1909 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.

A shot of the windows before restoration:

Rainbow Warrior

Posted by Cindy on March 9, 2001

Mar 092001

1061 Market Street

San Francisco

This little piece has got to just make you smile. It is by the Rainbow Warrior, Ernest Doty.

Doty is from Albuquerque, New Mexico and presently lives in Oakland. He has lived a fascinating life which was covered in an interview at Oakland Art Beat.

An excerpt: I’m a high-school dropout, 10th grade was my last year, and I’ve always been an artist, that’s what I always wanted to be when I was a kid. I guess I forgot it for awhile when I was in my early 20s. I was an alcoholic, and once I gave up alcohol I got back into art and making it a career. I made a whole life switch, stop eating the bad foods, stopped that 9-5 job, got back into making art, making it a full time job. Art helped me focus in a lot of ways. Before it just seemed I would wake up most days, hung over, doing a job that I hated, only wanting to go home and relax; I was completely unhappy with every aspect of my life, but art helped me find focus, helped me find myself again.

His website doesn’t mention his rainbow work, but here is an interview with him regarding the rainbow work he did in Albuquerque.

An excerpt from the article about his motivation… “About three or four years ago … I was feeling really depressed and I had this notion that if I went out and painted a rainbow, maybe someone would see it and feel what I was feeling or feel anything as intensely as I was. The first one I did, I just literally dumped the paint over the side of a pretty ugly, abandoned, alleyway building. It came out OK but not like any of the ones I’m doing now.”

What do you say to the people who don’t like your rainbows?
I painted it for anyone who wants a moment to themselves, or a moment to remember or imagine. To the people that have responded negatively, I challenge them to come and look at it. Don’t look at it on your TV or online or in a newspaper; come see it. Don’t look at it knowing it’s graffiti. Just look at it for what it is. Who can hate rainbows? The rainbow [itself] is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, all you have to do is look for it.

The Hibernia Bank at the Heart of MidMarket

Posted by Cindy on March 9, 2001

Mar 092001

1 Jones Street
MidMarket

Imagine walking down the Champs-Élysées, or Fifth Avenue between 49th and 60th Streets, and when you hit the middle you hail a cab just to go two or three blocks, then get out and continue walking.

This is what has happened to Market Street in San Francisco. The street that best epitomizes the concept of the City Beautiful Movement has a large gaping hole in the middle. The area around 6th and Market has been taken over by the less fortunate, and they have made it their outdoor hotel.

The area between 5th and 10th on Market Street is often referred to as the Mid-Market area in San Francisco. Like many problematic areas it is worse at its center. This area has plagued the City of San Francisco since the 1960s. There have been many mayors, and many commissions putting forth ideas, but no action and no solutions.

The few stores that occupy Mid-Market sit amongst mainly boarded up buildings, they have found it easier to serve the less fortunate than try to entice other types of clientele. This leaves an overwhelming retail representation of strip clubs, pawn shops and check cashing stores. Tourists do not, and locals hesitate to, walk down this portion of Market Street, essentially ripping this grand boulevard in two.

Sitting in the heart of Mid-Market is the boarded up and abandoned Hibernia Bank Building, once proclaimed the “Most Artistic Building in Town” by the San Fransisco Call. This building is a perfect example of the fact that sometimes all the tax breaks and good intention laws cannot help.

The Hibernia Bank building is ripe for adaptive reuse, a movement that had its American beginnings in San Francisco. The city has eagerly supported the adaptation of buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. Keeping city centers alive and conserving historic buildings is an important concept, but one that can and will fail when the right cards do not fall into place.

The Hibernia Bank, which stands as the gateway to the Tenderloin District, is still looking for that properly dealt hand. A baroque inspired Beaux-Arts building, the 38,000 square foot bank with its glass domed corner entrance and grand stairway begs to be appreciated for its beauty. Sadly it has become a boarded up symbol of how down and out the mid-market area is.

Designed by Albert Pissis, Hibernia Bank opened its doors in 1892, serving Irish miners who had struck it rich in the California Gold Rush. It also served their widows by paying out 3% on savings accounts. (Ironically Albert Pissis also designed the Emporium Building, now the Westfield San Francisco Center, a mall that attracts thousands of tourists every year.)

After the 1906 quake. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Library

The interior of the building was destroyed in the 1906 conflagration, but the exterior remained somewhat intact allowing the bank to reopen just 5 weeks later.

Hibernia Bank housed a bank up until 1987. Since then the banks columned sides and carved granite walls have been spit on, pissed on and lived on, and today they are fenced in and covered with plywood. The building has been sold twice since 1987, it even served as a temporary headquarters for the San Francisco Police Department’s Tenderloin Task Force from 1991 to 2000, but today it once again stands empty and neglected.

The Hibernia Bank Building is a San Francisco landmark and yet that does not help its situation. There are minimal maintenance requirements for privately held historical landmarks in San Francisco. While at both the state and federal levels there are many tax incentives, and laws that help with the restoration, maintenance is not truly covered in any codes.

The Mills Act is perhaps the best preservation incentive available to private property owners in San Francisco. Enacted by the State of California in 1976, the Mills Act authorizes local governments to enter into contracts with owners of privately owned historical property to insure its rehabilitation, restoration, preservation and long-term maintenance. In return, the property owner enjoys a reduction in property taxes for a given period. Mills Act contracts have the net effect of freezing the base value of the property, thereby keeping property taxes low. The City’s Mills Act enabling legislation was adopted in 1996.

When financial times are good many private owners of landmarks spruce up their historic buildings, like the Adam Grant Building and 111 Sutter Street. The Hibernia has not been so lucky.

Since being sold in 2005 for a mere $3.95 million to Seamus Naughton of the Dolman Property Group, the economic times have turned sour. The building needs approximately $18 million for improvements, including seismic retrofitting, asbestos and lead paint abatement as well as disability access.

Even if these improvements can be made, one must ask if it is worth the trouble. The building will still be sitting in the middle of the worst of Mid-Market. At the same time, the restoration of this stunning beauty might be just what the neighborhood needs.

Mid-Market would benefit greatly from an influx of quality housing. Local residents sustain neighborhoods that bring life to the streets and bring in visitors. Most of San Francisco’s vital and interesting neighborhoods for shopping, eating, and drinking are in the midst of dense residential neighborhoods. It would be difficult to imagine how the Hibernia Bank could be turned into housing that would bring in the amount of money needed to turn a profit, and not be so prohibitively expensive as to instantly eliminate the type of person that would buy in a promising, but still down trodden area, and yet that is what is needed.

While San Francisco prides itself on adaptive reuse and historical preservation so many times it falls short in actual action. Preservation and restoration of the neighborhood’s outstanding historic buildings should be a cornerstone of this neighborhood’s revitalization. The Hibernia Bank, at its core, is a good place to start.

The interior central dome. Interior photos are from the real estate brochure.

Ornamental plaster in one of the offices of the Hibernia bank

IOOF Building at Mid-Market

Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2001

Mar 082001

26 7th Street
Mid Market

This is the second Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple in San Francisco, the first was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. There is a wonderful history of the past temples with great photographs at my friend Mark’s site. Check out the old photos here.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), is a global altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations. Their symbol of three links stand for Friendship, Love and Truth.

The North American IOOF was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819. Odd Fellowship became the first national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851

The building, designed by G. A. Dodge was erected in 1909. The building is undergoing construction on the lower floor, removing much of what we see today. The photo above was taken in July of 2011.

According to his son David Dodge’s Website:

On July 31, 1919, just weeks before his son David’s ninth birthday, George A. Dodge was killed in an automobile accident. The accident occurred in the tiny San Joaquin County town of French Camp—near Stockton—as a result of a collision with a Southern Pacific train. Witnesses described the driver, Robert Oliphant, a steel salesman from San Francisco, as trying to beat the train to the crossing, ignoring its warning whistles. Dodge was pinned beneath the wreckage and died instantly. Oliphant was seriously injured and taken to the local hospital.

This horrific incident snuffed out the life and career of George A. Dodge, a successful San Francisco architect.

George Andrew Dodge was born in San Francisco on September 4, 1864, the third son of David and Catherine (Gentner) Dodge, who had moved to San Francisco from New England earlier that year. By the age of twenty-six, George was established as a professional architect in San Francisco. On June 15, 1893, he married Maude Ellingwood Bennett. The couple set up house in the city and George’s business grew. Their first child, daughter Kathryn, was born in 1899, followed by daughters Frances, born in 1905, and Marion, born in 1907. By the time of David’s birth in 1910, the Dodge family had relocated across San Francisco Bay to Berkeley.

In 1903, Dodge entered into partnership with James Walter Dolliver (1868-1927) and they worked together up until Dodge’s death under the firm name Dodge and Dolliver. Together they were responsible for designing and building several public buildings around the Bay Area, including St. John’s Presbyterian Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall in San Francisco. Dodge was selected as the lead architect by the Odd Fellows Board to rebuild the Hall (on the corner of Seventh and Market Streets) after the previous building was destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906. Other projects include the San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, Tamalpais Union High School in Mill Valley, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Jail in Santa Rosa, and Carnegie libraries in Palo Alto and Woodland (Yolo County).

In Redwood City, the “old San Mateo County Courthouse” now serves as San Mateo County History Museum, which is fitting given the building’s own ill-fated history. The marker designating it a historical landmark tells the story and reads, in part: “In 1903, the architectural firm of Dodge and Dolliver designed a domed rotunda courthouse. It was completed and ready for occupancy when the 1906 earthquake demolished all but the domed rotunda. The courthouse was reconstructed between 1906 and 1910.” Visitors to the museum can still see the Dodge and Dolliver dome. (This project recently underwent a complete restoration. My husband, the late, Michael H. Casey was the sculptor of all the reproduced eagles and ornamentation within the new museum).

This picture, showing the construction, was shot in May of 2013

The symbols of the IOOF.

The IOOF shares the all-seeing eye symbol with the Masons, as both fraternities require members to believe in a higher being, a deity of some sort, though the specific religion of each member is not dictated by the fraternity. (Although many of the IOOF symbolism traces the meanings back to Judeo-Christian teachings.) The all-seeing eye reminds Odd Fellows that God watches them always.

The moon and seven stars is a symbol of the Rebekhahs. They represent the never failing order which pervades the universe of God and all of nature, and suggest to the members the value of system, regularity and precision in all worthy undertakings

The main symbol of the IOOF is the three chain links, sometimes with the letters F, L and T carved inside them, which stand for Friendship, Love, and Truth

Two shaking hands (grasping each other in a handshake) can be a symbol of the IOOF as a sign of Friendship, one of their tenets.

A higher order of the IOOF called the Encampment uses the symbols of crossed shepherd’s hooks and/or ancient Middle Eastern-looking tents. The Encampment branch of the IOOF strives to impart the principles of Faith, Hope and Charity. The crossed shepherd’s hooks symbolize that the higher order of the IOOF are like the Israelites—shepherds, watching their flocks and keeping them safe. And the tents are the tents of the wandering Israelites, to remind us we “do not permanently abide here, as we are on a pilgrimage to the grave.”

Odd Fellows Front Door on 7th Street in San Francisco

UN Plaza Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

UN Plaza
Civic Center

There is more to the U.N. Plaza fountain than meets the eye, however, typical of the City of San Francisco it took three redesigns, one public vote and a lot of back and forth (much of it ridiculous), to finally get the thing built.

The fountain was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. The Plaza was a joint effort between Halprin, Swiss architect Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke.

The fountain is intended to represent the seven continents of the world. Each “landmass” is tied together by the water symbolizing the ocean.

According to an April 26, 1977 San Francisco Chronicle article: The fountain was to be highly computerized. “On each of the nine spurting slabs of the fountain will be a wind measuring device and if it is real windy, the spurts will slow down or stop altogether to keep passerby from getting sprayed. Second, the computer will cause the depth of the waters in the fountain’s 100 foot wide basin to vary from bone dry to eight feet.”

According to the designer, Lawrence Halprin, this change in water height was to simulate the tides of the bay. None of these items were maintained properly and no longer work.

On the top stone far left is written: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation….It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” This is a quote from Franklin Roosevelt. The entire plaza was designed and built to honor the 30th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter that took place in the San Francisco War Memorial.

Designed in 1975 the fountain is made of 673 blocks of granite weighing between 3 to 4 million tons, it is 165 feet long and cost $1.2 million.

The fountain has had mixed reviews over the years. When it was dedicated in 1975, then-U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young described it as “a tribute to the U.N.’s goals of seeking peaceful resolutions to international rivalries.”

But then-Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko described it as “pretentious schmaltz . . . whose ‘tidal pools’ are supposed to simulate global oceanic action but rarely work and merely toss around empty muscatel bottles.”

The Plaza has the distinction of being in the Hall of Shame of the Project for Public Spaces, and it has been a source of controversy, anger and neglect for many years.

If you are interested in learning more about the problems of UN Plaza and how the fountain fits into these problems, there is a fabulous 30 minute radio show that you can listen to here.

The original design for the UN Fountain submitted to the SFAC

I want to thank Joel Pomerantz of Thinkwalks for going to the San Francisco library and sending me the entire file to “prove a point”. I am grateful for my friends that care about the minutia of San Francisco history as much as I do.

The Faces of 50 UN Plaza

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

50 UN Plaza
City Center

The Federal Building of San Francisco was vacated by the US Government in 2007 when they built a newer building in Civic Center. It has recently undergone a $121 million restoration and will be the offices of Section 9 GSA.

This article is about the exterior of the building.

In 1927, the government allocated $2.5 million for the Federal Building’s design and construction, although final costs reached a total of $3 million. Architect Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the building, which was constructed between 1934 and 1936.

Arthur Brown, Jr. (1874-1957) was born in Oakland, California. He graduated from the University of California in 1896, where he and his future partner, John Bakewell, Jr. were protégés of Bernard Maybeck. Brown went to Paris and graduated from the École des Beaux Arts in 1901. Before returning to San Francisco to establish his practice with Bakewell, the firm designed the rotunda for the “City of Paris” in the Neiman Marcus department store in San Francisco. Other notable San Francisco buildings include Coit Tower; San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; and the War Memorial Veterans Building. He was a consulting architect for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Federal Building is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. The six-story steel frame is encased in fireproof concrete with concrete flooring and roof slabs, important features after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The street elevation walls are constructed of brick but faced with granite, with the exception of a section of the McAllister Street elevation, which is faced in terra cotta.

Male and female mascarons (carved faces) adorn the exterior. The carvings sport different horticulturally themed headpieces, including corn, wheat, cat tails, and oak leaves. There are 18 of them in total.

Sadly it is not known who did all these wonderful carvings for the building.

Embarcadero Walk Map

Posted by Cindy on January 30, 2000

Jan 302000

[wpgmza id=”4″]

The Embarcadero Ribbon

Posted by Cindy on January 29, 2000

Jan 292000

The Embarcadero

The Ferry Building, built in 1898, sits at the foot of Market Street.

In 1953, San Francisco proposed the Embarcadero Freeway that was to connect the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. Construction started at the Bay Bridge end; after 1.2 miles of freeway were built, neighborhood organizations began to gather and oppose the project. In 1959 the Board of Supervisors voted to stop the construction, marking the first time a government body had ever taken such an action. For years, the stub of freeway running across the waterfront stood as a monument to both grand freeway construction and its opposition. In 1986 the Board of Supervisors put forth a new urban plan for the waterfront that included a measure to tear the freeway section down, but the voters, afraid of gridlock, rejected it. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake changed everything.

The Embarcadero Freeway

After the earthquake, the California Department of Transportation proposed three scenarios: 1) retrofit the damaged freeway, 2) rebuild a depressed freeway or 3) demolish the freeway and replace it with a grade level street. The third choice was determined to be the wisest and most cost effective decision.

Demolition began and the revival of the waterfront became the mission of the Port of San Francisco and the Planning Department. The Port’s goal was to attract more people to the waterfront and to transform the area from an industrial service road serving the piers to a grand urban boulevard. The planning, which had begun in the 1980s, was revamped, and construction took place from 1993 to 2000.

Freeway deconstruction doesn’t occur often. As a result, there are not a lot of successful examples for designers and planners to learn from. The deconstruction process along what is now simply called The Embarcadero in San Francisco is ongoing. As the Port and city learn how the public utilizes the waterfront area, its redesign and reconstruction continuously evolves.

The Embarcadero runs under the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Art Ribbon, one of the first projects to bring design cohesion to the Embarcadero, was a collaboration between architects Vito Acconci, Stanley Saitowitz and Barbara Staufacher. Begun in 1991, it is two miles of lighted glass block set in paving. Due to extensive committee review and resulting modifications to the project, the architects complained Art Ribbon was not the grand idea that they thought the waterfront deserved.

Restaurants and art work are a vital part of the new Embarcadero. See Cupid’s Span

Farmers Market at the Ferry Building

Art Ribbon was not only the first step in the process of turning The Embarcadero into a grand boulevard, it was also a pioneering project in which various art and governmental agencies began learning how to interact and live with San Francisco’s vibrant skateboard community.

When Art Ribbon was first constructed, the skateboard community found the sharp edges and different lengths of concrete very appealing; however, chips started appearing almost immediately in the structure from the skateboards. The differing reactions of the architects mirrored the various responses from the community.

Saitowitz asked furiously, “Can’t you understand you’re ruining something that belongs to you, the people?” Solomon, however, responded differently, “I love it that the skateboarders love it, and Stanley hates it that the skateboarders love it.” She felt that skateboarder’s usage was “part of the world.” Acconci also supported the skateboarders with this statement: “Our goal is to make spaces that free people-to make devices and instruments that people can use to do what they’re not supposed to do, to go where they’re not supposed to go.”

Pig Ears on the raised portion of the Art Ribbon

In 1999 the debate once again become a front burner issue when the city installed SkateBlocks, or “pig ears,” as the police department calls them, on the raised concrete portions of the Ribbon. SkateBlocks are manufactured in Seattle, Washington, by a company called Ravensforge. They are 3-inch high metal brackets that mount onto a surface and are designed specifically to deter skaters and skateboarders.

In December of 1999 the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter to the editor with this comment from reader Caroline Finucane: “I contend that the clips are far uglier and distracting than the skateboard marks and that the kids are actually using the benches in the only way possible. Concrete benches at the water are cold. You can’t sit on them. The Art Commission should lighten up and look at the Art Ribbon as a work in progress, thanks to the skateboarders. By the way, I am a middle-aged lady with a bad leg and I do freeze in my tracks when I hear the kids rolling, but the joy of their riding … pleases me.” Finucane went on to say that the clips were “mean spirited.”

This type of dialogue continuously confronts designers of public spaces, but it also helps to define and redefine how public space is used. Grassroots movements initiated by local communities help designers and government officials stay on top of changing attitudes regarding public property.

In the coming years Art Ribbon will be altered. The present plans call for making much of the Ribbon flush with the promenade. This will essentially make it disappear. Is this just another iteration for the promenade, a spiteful gesture toward skateboarders or the beginning of banal, bland and committee-designed public space?

Embarcadero Interpretive Signage and Walkway

Posted by Cindy on January 28, 2000

Jan 282000

The Embarcadero

Waterfront Transportation Project Historic and Interpretive Signage Program

This interpretive signage program was created in 1996 and covers 2.5 miles of the Embarcadero. The project includes 22, 13 foot high posts, vertical history stations and bronze inlays. these metal black-and-white-striped pylons are imprinted with photographs, stories, poetry in several languages and drawings commemorating the waterfront’s historical significance.

They are a collaboration between historian Nancy Leigh Olmstead and artist Michael Manwaring.

This was funded by a grant from Americans for the Arts, and California State’s Transportation Enhancement Activities

The 1852 Shoreline

Posted by Cindy on January 27, 2000

Jan 272000

162 King Street
South Beach

Here is a map of San Francisco prior to 1852.

In this map Townsend is the western-most street on the waterfront, one block northwest of King Street.

Thanks to Found SF and the Oakland Museum, you can see what the area looks like today:

If you are interested in more information about the water that lies under our fair city, I suggest you take one of Joel Pomerantz’s Thinkwalks. He is a local expert on the indigenous water of San Francisco, and gives fascinating tours around different parts of the city.

The waterfront art project is part of the San Francisco Art Commission for the Waterfront Transportation Projects.

Rammaytush

Posted by Cindy on January 26, 2000

Jan 262000

These plaques run along the south side of King Street, between the Caltrain station and AT&T Park. There are 104 of them embedded in the sidewalk. On them are engraved all of the known words of a language called Rammaytush.

The Rammaytush language is one of the eight Ohlone languages, historically spoken by the Ramaytush people, indigenous people of California. Historically, the Rammaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Ramaytush is a dialect or language within the Costanoan branch of the Utian family. The term Rammaytush was first applied to them during the 1970s.

There is very little documentation of the Rammaytush language. It consists of twenty-six worlds recorded by Father Vicente Santa Maria, chaplain of a Spanish naval ship anchored in San Francisco in 1775, a collection of words collected by an Indian agent by the name of Adam Johnston in the 1850s, and a list of twenty words and two phrases obtained in 1912 from an elderly man living in San Louis Obispo, making for a total of 104 Ramaytush words that we are aware of.

The words are:

The plaques are part of the San Francisco Barbary Coast Trail.

Lou Seal at ATT Park

Posted by Cindy on January 25, 2000

Jan 252000

Lou Seal is the official mascot of the San Francisco Giants. “Born” on July 25, 1996, Luigi Francisco Seal has been a regular part of the Giants baseball team since then. The name is a play on the name “Lucille.” Todd Schwenk, an Oakland Athletics Fan, named the mascot in a KNBR Sports Radio phone-in contest. Schwenk named Lou for the seals always hanging out on the wharves at Fisherman’s Wharf. It also refers to the San Francisco Seals, the baseball club that was a mainstay of the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1957.

The Seals Plaza statue replicates the logo of the Pacific Coast League team that played in San Francisco from 1903-1957. Sculpted by Alfredo Osorio, in 2000, the statue depicts a seal balancing a baseball on its nose.

You can even make your own stuffed Lou Seal when you attend a game.

Alfredo Osorio is from Hawthorne, California. The bronze was cast at F&M Fine Art Foundry in Buena Park, California

The Embarcadero – Sea Change

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2000

Jan 242000

The Embarcadero

Sea Change by Mark di Suvero

At Pier 40 on the lawn near the baseball park is this giant sculpture, that you can see from blocks away. Constructed in 1995 it is 70 feet tall and weights 10 tons. The circular top moves with the wind.

Marco Polo “Mark” di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended UC Berkeley to study Philosophy. While working in construction, he was critically injured in a freight elevator accident and focused all his attention on sculpture.

While in rehabilitation, he learned to work with an arc welder. His early works were large outdoor pieces that incorporated railroad ties, tires, scrap metal and structural steel. This exploration has transformed over time into a focus on I-beams and heavy gauge metal. Many of the pieces contain sections that are allowed to swing and rotate giving the overall forms a considerable degree of motion.

Older Entries Newer Entries