Cindy

Twitter

Lincoln Park Steps

Posted by Cindy on August 10, 2015

Aug 102015

Lincoln Park
End of California Street

Lincoln Park was dedicated to President Lincoln in 1909. At the terminus of California street just past 32nd Avenue sits the Lincoln Park Steps. These steps date to the time of the park and were the access for the surrounding neighborhood. If you simply sit on the benches at the top of the hill you can enjoy views of downtown and fog permitting, the East Bay hills.

A photo from the early days of the area

In 2007 Friends of Lincoln Park began a campaign to have the stairs structurally supported and brought back to their glory days.

With the help of the San Francisco Parks Alliance, William Duff Architects and BV builders the stairs sit more elegantly than ever.

Artist Aileen Barr, who has been on this website many times for her tile stairways and other tile work around San Francisco, was the lead artist on the project.

From left: Riley Dotey, Phylece Snyder and Aileen Barr

From left: Riley Doty, Aileen Barr and Phylece Snyder

She was aided in her efforts with tile setters Riley Doty and Phylece Snyder. The tiles, stamped periodically with the names of the project’s donors and sponsors, came from Fireclay Tile and Heath Ceramics.

The project was done in two parts.

Phase 1 consisted of the structural improvements and art tiles for the top bench and retaining wall. This phase was completed in 2010. You can see pictures and read about that phase here.

Phase 2 included the structural repair and tile placement to the stairs, pillars and midway benches. The cost of the structural repairs was funded in part by a grant given to Friends of Lincoln Park for $180,000 from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, Community Opportunity Fund. The grant was contingent on the success of Friends of Lincoln Park to raise private funds of at least $250,000 to cover the cost of the art tiles and installation

Visit Aileen Barr’s website for a larger view of her work.

Monumento al Cimmarón

Posted by Cindy on July 31, 2015

Jul 312015

Monumento al Cimarron by Alberto Lescay

The Monumento al Cimarrón, by Alberto Lescay, or Monument to the Runaway Slave is in the Cuban town of El Cobre. El Cobre is home to the cathedral that houses Cuba’s patron Saint the Virgin on Caridad.

Lescay has said “I feel the spirit of that work in others and I think I’ve found a road, because it is a very open proposal, not at all schematic or dogmatic and those are very universal codes that are expressed in it.”

Lescay goes on to say that being a cimmarón is an attitude toward life, and will continue to exist as long as any trace or expression of slavery exist in the world, because “being free, never being fettered, is the most humane attitude there is.”

Cimmaróns were enslaved Africans who had escaped from their Spanish masters and lived together as outlaws. The term Cimarrón comes from the Taino word ‘si’maran’ meaning “the flight of an arrow”.

The sculpture requires an approximately 400 step climb after traveling for approximately 1/2 mile on a dirt road, but is well worth the visit.

Lescay has been in this site before with a piece in Santiago de Cuba.

Promised Land

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2015

Jul 172015

10th and Market Streets
Mid-Market

As part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art program this 3500 square foot Public Open Space, at the corner of 10th and Market Street, was designed by Topher Delaney and Calvin Chin.

The “official” description reads:” …cartographic layers of maps reflecting the exact location of the site in graded finishes of granite reflecting a scaled map 1:42 of San Francisco, bisected by intersecting granite trapezoids. One is etched with topographic lines indicating the California Coast and the other is etched with the watercourses of the Sacramento River which flows into the Richmond Bay surrounding San Francisco. The confluence of these two trapezoidal maps is the reason the ground upon which Promised Land is located in the city of San Francisco as we know it.”

The “flooring” for Promised Land is a map linking the delta to the bay to the ocean, with the flow of water carved into the granite like a woodcut. Much of this from staff cartographer, David Swain.

There are two granite monoliths on one is the word Promised etched and then filled with gold coloring, on the other, in the same type face is Land.

The installation continues along the side of the building incorporating more of the stunning granite.

I am thrilled to see such a visceral and organic installation on this corner. It should really help to bring the mid-market area forward into a more human space.

The project costs were in the neighborhood of $1.7million.

Center of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on July 13, 2015

Jul 132015

UN Plaza
Civic Center

What in the world is that brass cross in the middle of UN Plaza? That is Joel Pomerantz of Thinkwalks pointing to something most San Franciscans probably don’t even know is there, or why.

This is the spot used to measure the distance to and from the City of San Francisco to other cities around the world. Why here? Because this is where our original city hall once sat.

The Hall of records is the round building in the front, City Hall is the taller one in the back.

A common misconception is that distances shown on highway signs are always measured to the location of the main post office in the municipality. According to the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): “The primary point of a populated place is the center of original place, if known, such as the city or town hall, main post office, or town square regardless of changes over time.”

The “X” is easy to find if you follow the Longitude and Latitude markers that represent San Francisco’s place on the map.

The granite used in these pieces is the same Sierra Granite used to build city hall.

These items were part of the 1995 redesign of the UN Plaza to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter around the corner in the Veterans War Memorial Building.

This redesign was done by landscape architect Andrew Detsch, of Berkeley, CA.

Hellenism in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2015

Jul 072015

This plaque sits, somewhat neglected in an ivy bed at the corner of 3rd and Folsom Streets at the Moscone Center. I, like so many people, have seen it, read it, and continued on my way. I began wondering what was behind it.

The Greek immigrant community was one of the largest and most conspicuous communities South of Market prior to the 1960s. Greeks had begun coming to San Francisco even before the 1906 Earthquake, the community grew rapidly prior to the First World War as Greeks escaped their own war-torn and poverty stricken homeland. Many made their way across the country as railroad workers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (December 9, 1923) by 1923, 11,500 Greeks lived in San Francisco. In that year, San Francisco contained 26 Greek-owned coffee houses, 380 Greek grocery stores, and 120 Greek shoe shine stands. Many other Greeks worked in auto repair shops, banks, or upholsterers’ shops. Some with transit experience got jobs with the San Francisco Municipal Railway. San Francisco’s Greek community, although dispersed across the city, was centered on the intersection of 3rd and Folsom streets. For a while, the presence of so many Greek businesses gave the area the name Greek Town.

The First Holy Trinity Church

What is left of this vast Greek population in the South of Market area is Holy Trinity. This edifice, the first Greek Orthodox Church west of Chicago, was founded in 1904 at 345 7th Street. The church was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. It was rebuilt, at an original cost of $20,000 in 1907 with additions throughout the years immediately following. In 1964 the church was sold to St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The architect for the second church was an S. Andrio and the contractors were R.R. Thompson of San Francisco. In 1922, the church was radically remodeled and the architect for that job was John Bowers of San Francisco.

According to volume 7 of the Architect and Engineer “the building will be of frame construction, ornately decorated, the dome and roof being supported by eight pillars.

The San Francisco Call on October 15, 1906 reported “New Church Plans Approved by Representative Greeks Edifice Will Be Built on Seventh Street. A new Greek church on Byzantine Greek lines of architecture is destined to rise in San Francisco, according to the plans accepted by the Greek Society. A meeting of representative Greeks was held yesterday afternoon at 1735 Market street, at which the plans were displayed and discussed. The edifice, which will be called Holy Trinity, will be located at 317 Seventh street, and will cost more than $20,000.

In addition to the church a school will be attached, in which the children of the Greek population of over 3000 in this city will be educated. The church itself is to be ornately decorated, the dome and roof being supported by eight pillars. The building will measure fifty feet by seventyflve. The architect Is S. Andrio. –

The historical photos are from the great website for Hellenistic history in San Francisco San Francisco Greeks.

Compton’s Cafeteria

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2015

Jun 272015

Corner of Turk and Taylor
Tenderloin

Funny how a plaque can stop you and educate you about something you may have known nothing about, and at the exact same time leave out so very very much of the story.

If you were to hear about this event during those times you would have been told that in Gene Compton’s Cafeteria at the corner of Taylor and Turk Streets, in August 1966*, a person, described as a “queen” threw a cup of coffee in a police officers face. The police began arresting “queens” and a riot broke out. The riot included around 50 to 60 patrons, and an unnumbered amount of police.

*The exact date of the riot is unknown because 1960 police records no longer exist and the riot was not covered by newspapers.

Photo Courtesy of Shaping San Francisco and FoundSF

While hard to believe in our more progressive times that it was unlawful to crossdress or impersonate a female in San Francisco in 1966. The harassment of “effeminate” gay males was prolific and since discrimination was so prevalent, often the only type of employment open to the transexual, drag performing and “gay” population was prostitution. The one thing that has not changed was that the tenderloin was a place to ply your trade.

Another thing that has not changed is Glide Memorial’s open heart and helping hand to the situation. Glide began a program titled Vanguard to help trans and gay youth improve their living situations. Vanguard had been holding their meetings at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria.

To continue the story in the words of Susan Stryker, author of Screaming Queen:

“Late one August night in San Francisco in 1966, Compton’s Cafeteria was hopping with its usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and other down-and-out regulars who found refuge there from the mean streets of the seedy Tenderloin neighborhood. The restaurant’s management, annoyed by a noisy crowd at one table that seemed be spending a lot of time without spending a lot of money, called the police—as they had been doing with increasing frequency throughout the summer. A surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton’s clientele, grabbed the arm of one of the queens.

She responded unexpectedly and threw her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupted: plates, trays, cups, and silverware flew threw the air at the police, who ran outside and called for backup. Tables were turned over, windows were smashed, and Compton’s queer customers poured out of the restaurant and into the night. The paddy wagons pulled up, and street fighting broke out in Compton’s vicinity, all around the corner of Turk and Taylor. Drag queens beat the police with their heavy purses, and kicked them with their high-heeled shoes. A police car was vandalized, a newspaper stand was burned to the ground, and—in the words of the best available source on what happened that night—“general havoc was raised in the Tenderloin.”

According to Strykers’s Screaming Queens the next night, more transgender people, hustlers, Tenderloin street people, and other members of the LGBT community joined in a picket of the cafeteria, which would not allow transgender people back in. The demonstration ended with the newly installed plate-glass windows being smashed again.

All of this was three years before Stonewall.

If you would like to explore further, Susan Stryker’s documentary is titled Screaming Queens . The fascinating story, by the author and filmmaker, about how the movie came about, can be read here.

The building today 2015

The building itself has a wonderful history as well. It was designed by architect Abraham M. Edelman and built in 1907. At that time it was the 115 room with 50 baths Hotel Hyland. It became the Hotel Young in 1908, The Hotel Empire in 1911 the Chapin Hotel in 1920, the Hotel Raford in 1923 the Tyland Hotel and then the Warfield Hotel in 1982 it is now the Taylor Street Apartments.

Abraham (or Abram) M. Edleman (August 19, 1863) was the son of a Polish-born American rabbi living in Los Angeles. While most prolific in Los Angeles, with many buildings on the National Historic Register, he often worked in partnership with firms in San Francisco.

Edelman began his own practice in Los Angeles in the 1880s; he became a member of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1902 and remained a member until 1941.

Edelman’s education came from having worked as an apprentice for various architects in San Francisco, which most likely is how his name became attached to this particular building.

Playground Mosaics

Posted by Cindy on June 23, 2015

Jun 232015

Father Boeddeker Park
295 Eddy
The Tenderloin

These little eggs sit in the playground area of the newly revitalized Father Boeddeker Park. They were created by Laurel True of True Mosaics.

Laurel has a degree from School of the Art Institute in Chicago and Parson’s School of Design of New York. She presently is balancing her time between Oakland, California and New Orleans, however, she travels all over the world teaching the art of mosaic.

Laura is also responsible for the Sun Spheres on Ocean Avenue.

Bruce Hasson’s Ark

Posted by Cindy on June 15, 2015

Jun 152015

Father Boeddeker Park
295 Eddy Street
The Tenderloin

The Ark – 1985 – Bronze

This piece, by Bruce Hasson, sits in Father Boeddeker Park. The statue, as well as the park have essentially been inaccessible to everyone until the parks 2014 renovation.

According to the plaque that sits with the statue “Following a 1983 trek in the Peruvian Andes, Hasson was inspired by the mysteries of Inca stone work. The Ark resembles a large geological artifact. It is symbolic of a sanctuary that protects life and a reminder of the importance of preserving endangered animals and their natural habitat.”

Hasson lives and works in San Francisco, and is responsible for other iron work around San Francisco.

Hasson was originally payed $20,400. In 2010 the Ark underwent a $21,000 renovation thanks to the Koret Foundation’s donation to the ArtCare program. The piece has the concrete base repaired, it was cleaned and then a protective coating was added.

Redding School Self Portrait

Posted by Cindy on June 8, 2015

Jun 082015

Boeddeker Park
295 Eddy Street
The Tenderloin

Redding School Self Portrait by Ruth Asawa and Children of the School

The Asawa piece is a tribute to Father Alfred Boeddeker. Boeddeker was the Franciscan priest who founded St. Anthony’s Dining Room and he is the park’s namesake. The 4- by 16.5-foot bas relief wall mural is a portrait of Boeddeker surrounded by children. Asawa was assisted by 100 schoolchildren from Redding Elementary School. The childrens’ images were initially created out of pastry dough, then coordinated into an overall design by Asawa. The piece was originally installed in 1985 and is made of glass fiber reinforced concrete.

Ruth Asawa was a favorite of this author, and she has appeared many times in this site. Asawa passed away in 2013.

Labyrinth in Duboce Park

Posted by Cindy on June 2, 2015

Jun 022015

Scott Street
Lower Haight
Duboce Triangle

This labyrinth was part of Duboce Parks revitalization plan. The plan, funded by Friends of Duboce Park, began with fundraising in 1997 and took years to accomplish. The labyrinth was laid in 2007.

It was proposed by Friends’ Janet Scheuer, who had walked labyrinths all over the world. “We need to create a quiet spot for people,” she said. She volunteered to “own” the project, find funding and work with designers. Hal Fischer headed up the fund raising. They raised $90,000, with $5000 from San Francisco Beautiful, $25,000 from the CPMC Davies Campus that adjoins the park, and $10,000 from Charlotte Wallace and Alan Murray. Rec and Park contributed around $80,000, says landscape architect Marvin Yee, Capital Improvement Division.

The Scott Street site had been occupied by a play structure in the shape of a pirate ship. Toxic, closed down and rotting away, it was ripe for extreme makeover. Janet recruited designers Richard Feather Anderson, a founder of the Labyrinth Society and Willett Moss, CMG landscape architect to create a labyrinth. The 23 ft. wide multi-circular path was sand-blasted into concrete. A border of mosaic tiles made by members of the community surrounds it, and a commemorative tile collage of the pirate ship graces the concrete bench facing the path. …

The joyous opening celebration April 28, 2007 was short-lived when the labyrinth was closed two days later due to the misapplication of anti-graffiti coating, damaging the labyrinth surface and making it slippery. A reopening eventually took place3 seven months later, on Nov. 2. One of the city’s most unique open space features is now a multi-use area. “People are doing tai-chi, picnicking, reading, walking and meditating,” says Janet happily, adding, “and it all works.”…From the Neighborhoods Park Council.

On this mosaic pedestal sits a labyrinth that allows sight-impaired and other visitors to trace a path with their fingers.

It says in both cursive and braille: With eyes closed, trace the grooved path from the outermost edge to the center with one or more fingers. The center is the halfway point. To complete the journey, retrace the path from the center outward.

This spot where Duboce Park now occupies was originally to be a hospital. However, Colonel Victor Duboce, after serving with the First California Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, returned to the city and was elected to the Board of Supervisors. He died on August 15, 1900 and was buried in the National Cemetery, at the Presidio. Upon his death the city changed Ridley Street to Duboce Street and decided to turn the land into Duboce Park (1900) rather than a hospital The park became a tent city after the 1906 earthquake, sheltering displaced residents from all over the City.

83 McAllister

Posted by Cindy on May 27, 2015

May 272015

This is the Methodist Book Concern. The book concern, established in 1789 in Philadelphia, was the oldest publishing house in the United States and used Abington press as their trade imprint. It is now the United Methodist Publishing House and it is the largest general agency of The United Methodist Church.

The Methodist Book Concern furnished reading material to church members and helped support ministers, who received liberal commissions for selling the publications. ”The preachers still feel the need of the press as their most potent ally in their work,” said The Methodist Review in 1889

Notice the MBC along the roof-line

The building was designed by Lewis Parsons Hobart (January 14, 1873 — October 19, 1954) an American architect whose designs also included San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.

Hobart received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied at the American Academy in Rome and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Hobart played a role in the rebuilding efforts of the San Francisco Bay Area following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, designing several buildings, including the Methodist Book Concern that was completed in 1909.

Hobart became the first President of the San Francisco Arts Commission in 1932 and was also appointed to the Board of Architects for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

The Methodist Book Concern was built on the site of the Yerba Buena Cemetery.

“Sixteen More Graves Discovered on Site of Yerba Buena Cemetery. Nine more bodies were uncovered by workmen excavating for the Methodist Book Concern’s new building on City Hall avenue and McAllister street yesterday, on the site of the old Yerba Buena Cemetery, one of the oldest burial grounds in the city of San Francisco, now in the heart of the great down town district. This makes a total of twenty-five graves that have been discovered on this site since excavation was begun last week. The first grave was discovered on Friday afternoon, with a well preserved headstone erected in 1851.
When it became known that the workmen were excavating on the site of the famous Yerba Buena Cemetery, a great crowd collected to watch the uncovering of the graves. Many rotted coffins were discovered, but in every case, the bodies had completely decomposed, owing to the damp and sandy nature of the soil, and only a pile of bones remained to tell that a human being had once been interred there.

By Tuesday night the workmen had uncovered the remains of sixteen bodies and these were placed in a little box and left for the Coroner. No one was sent form the Coroner’s office on Tuesday night, however, and when the workmen went to work yesterday morning all the skulls in the collection had been stolen. It is presumed that they were taken by medical students, or ghouls. What remained of the sixteen bodies was taken away by the Coroner’s deputy yesterday afternoon, and the bones will be reburied to remain until, perhaps, the advance of civilization once more unearths them in the midst of a populated district.”

The Yerba Buena Cemetery was abolished by the city hall act, passed by the State Legislature of 1869-70, providing for the removal of the cemetery and the erection of a City Hall on the property. The validity of this act was fought long and hard in the courts, on the ground that the tract was sacredly dedicated as a cemetery, and the fight was carried to the Supreme Court of the State in the case of San Francisco vs. P. II. Cannavan, who was at that time a member of the Board of Supervisors. The act was upheld, however, and the cemetery was removed in 1871.

That portion where the bodies are being found was one of the lowest spots in the cemetery, and it is probable that the graves which are being unearthed may have been covered by sand before the cemetery was removed. The graves are from twelve to twenty-five feet below the surface.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 9 April 1908.

The building does not sit flush with the street because its original address was City Hall Avenue. These streets were all changed when the new city hall was moved off of Market Street after the 1906 Earthquake.

The original address of the Methodist Book Concern was 5 City Hall Avenue. Sanborn 1905 map

The Methodist Book Concern location today

After having served as the Church of Scientology building for many years, the building has undergone a substantial seismic renovation and is now condominiums.

The African American Monument of Savannah’s Riverfront

Posted by Cindy on May 19, 2015

May 192015

Savannah Riverfront
East Side – near the Hyatt Elevator
This monument was built in 2002, designed by Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) professor Dorothy Spradley, it shows a family embracing with the chain of slavery at their feet.

Maya Angelou’s Poem

“We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together. Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even some joy.”

Dorothy Spradley was born in 1946. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Agnes Scott College, 1967 and a Master of Fine Arts, from the University of Georgia, 1976.

Two Worlds Apart

Posted by Cindy on May 19, 2015

May 192015

Julliet Gordon Low Federal Building-Telfair Square
124 Broughton
Savannah, GA

Two Worlds Apart by Ned Smyth

Produced by Ned Smyth, these pieces were in conjunction with an exhibit at the Telfair Academy in 1992.

Two Worlds Apart by Ned Smyth – Fiberglass, Stone and Mosaic

A World Apart

Posted by Cindy on May 19, 2015

May 192015

The Center of River Street, on the west side of the Hyatt tunnel
Savannah, Georgia

This World War II monument is also known as “The Cracked Earth” monument. The two halves of the globe are split, representing the conflict of a world divided. Inside are the names of all who served from Chatham county, Georgia.

A World Apart

The dream of the Chatham County Veterans Council, this memorial took ten years of fundraising to accomplish.

Architect, Eric Meyerhoff, was approached by the City of Savannah to help design the memorial. “This was a World War, and I wanted that theme,” Meyerhoff said. “The world was divided. Pacific theater. European theater. And I came up with the world apart.”

Meyerhoff’s firm was instrumental in the revitalization of the riverfront.

The monument itself was created by Brandell Studios, headed by sculptor Kim Brandell.

Grasses and Wildflowers in the Tenderloin

Posted by Cindy on May 18, 2015

May 182015

Father Boeddeker Park
259 Eddy Street
The Tenderloin

Father Boedekker Park has gone through a much needed and highly anticipated refurbishment. The $9.3 million face-lift to the Tenderloins only multi-use park was long over due. The $9.3 million renovation was made possible with a $4.93 million grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, more than $3.3 million of private contribution from corporate business donors, and funds from The Trust of Public Land, as well as more than $1.7 million of City’s general fund, open space fund, and Parks Bond.

There was already some public art in the park that you can read about here, but the fence by local artist Amy Blackstone, is new.

Amy’s studio is in Hunters Point, and her love of flowers has shown in several pieces she has around San Francisco.

There are four 6X6 galvanized metal panels in the fence.

Castro District History

Posted by Cindy on May 12, 2015

May 122015

Castro Street

The Castro Street Design Project was a street improvement project by the City of San Francisco that improved the cable car turn around at Market Street and Castro Street between Market and 19th. This included the fabulous rainbow cross walk you see above and historic markers placed in the sidewalk up and down Castro Street on both sides of the street for those two blocks.

The native Yelamu people lived nearby in the village of Chutchul relocating each winter to the bayside village of Sitlintac. A creek flows past grassland and chaparral toward the bay along the path of today’s 18th street.

American settler John Hohner purchases a portion of Rancho San Miguel, Castro Street, named after a prominent Mexican Era Californio Family, makes the western border of the nascent neighborhood known as Horner’s addition.

Thousands attend the first known festival on Castro Street to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. The San Francisco Chronicle declares the celebration “A riot of hilarity and merrymaking.”. The tunnel opens in 1918.

The Nasser Brothers open the Castro Theater. The first movie palace designed by Prominent architect Timothy Pflueger. An early usherette at the theatre, Janet Gaynor, goes on to win best actress at the Academy Awards in 1929.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, A queer activist and charity group founded in 1979, organize one of the world’s first AIDS related fundraisers, a dog show on Castro Street. Local resident and disco star Sylvester is one of the judges.

A Sister of Perpetual Indulgence

National attention turns to the Castro as thousands gather to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriages in California, marking a milestone in the neighborhood’s historic role as a center for LGBT rights.

There are many more plaques along the sidewalks, all part of the City’s improvement program.

First Responder Plaza – SF

Posted by Cindy on May 4, 2015

May 042015

1245 Third Street
Mission Bay

The new City and County Public Safety Building houses the police administrative headquarters, a relocated district police station, a new district fire station, San Francisco’s SWAT team and fleet vehicle parking. Part of the design included the First Responder Plaza at the corner on Third Street, designed by artist Paul Kos who was responsible for the Poetry Garden in SOMA.

In First Responder Plaza, Paul Kos created a design around three central motifs standing for Police, Fire and Paramedic Services. A bronze bell, a seven point star and a conifer as a natural flag pole. According to Kos, “The three main elements comprise my three tenors, all unique icons, all on the same stage at the same time.”

The “All Is Well Bell” is suspended from a large red arch. Kos was inspired to incorporate a bell into his design after seeing multiple bells at the Fire Department Museum as well as in the Fire Department Repair and Maintenance shops he visited while doing research for this project.

Kos worked with bell foundry, Paccard, in Annecy, France the same foundry that cast many of the very large bells for the Campanile at UC Berkeley. (American bell foundries no longer cast large bells). The bell cost $300,000.

The seven point star, made of black granite was identified early on in his process as a respectful and poetic symbol for the Police, because it represents the department’s core values: truth, justice, fortitude, temperance, prudence, tolerance and brotherhood. The 22″ high star serves as a bench, as well as a symbolic focal point.

When full grown the conifer, the third element, will serve to provide a human touch.

The art budget for the Public Safety Building was $3.2 million. While it is difficult to determine through public records exactly what was spent on the plaza alone, it appears to be in the neighborhood of $850,000.

Spiral of Gratitude

Posted by Cindy on April 29, 2015

Apr 292015

Spiral of Gratitude is part of the $3.2 million Percent for Art Program that went into San Francisco’s new Public Safety Building.

Spiral of Gratitude, by New York artist Shimon Attie, is a suspended, 17 foot tall 10 foot round glass cylinder that is lit from a skylight above. The cylinder is inscribed with a poem that contains sentiments of survivors based on information gathered in interviews by Margo Perin with the relatives, partners, and co-workers of police officers who were lost in the line of duty.

There is also a text in bas relief behind the cylinder on the concrete wall.

Photo Courtesy of SFAC

Spiral of Gratitude

Let us turn together in this circle of remembrance as the light shines through our words.
And we lift our gaze toward the sky to honor the men and women who risk their lives in the line of duty.
See their courage gleaming through the glass, spilling through the words of our love.
Band with us to celebrate the beloved behind every star.
Draw on their courage, their strength, their honesty.
Let us raise our heads together into this spiral of memory
to honor the sacrifice that ripples through time, through the generations.
Never do we have the gift of goodbye.
The only choice is to carry on, make our peace.
An object in motion keeps moving forward.
The voices of the fallen echo every day,
their reflection mirrored in the warmth of a smile,
the glint of an eye, the tilt of a head.
The time spent together was too short
and the missing long.
They are the fallen
and we must not fall.
We can move back or forward, upwards or down, but we cannot remain still.
We must rise to protect, as they did.
In their honor we must persist,
turn our pain into compassion,
never forget the man, woman, child they were,
and lift our heads as we ascend toward the light.

While it is difficult to determine the exact cost of the project from public documents, it is clear that is exceeded its $700,000 budget.

Iris Jazz Club

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2015

Apr 222015

Music: breathing of statues.
Perhaps
Silence of paintings.
You language where all language ends.
You time standing vertically
On the motion of mortal hearts.

by poet Rainer Maria Rilke

IRIS Jazz Club is a cultural complex located in front of in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The space, originally a cafeteria, was turned into a jazz club with the specific purpose of promoting jazz in the area.

Santiago de Cuba is celebrating their 500th year in 2015. These bronze panels were the work of Santiago born artist Alberto Lescay’s Caguayo foundation to mark this celebration. The program costs 125,400 Cuba Pesos or approximately $5000US.
A group of about 20 Cuban and German visual artists work with Lescay on the project.
*
*

Germinal*

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2015

Apr 222015

Eulises Niebla born in 1963 in Matanzas Cuba, studied at the Escuela Provincial de arte in Matanzas, Cuba from 1975-1979, He then went on to the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) Havana from 1980-1984 and then to the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). in Havana from 1984-1989

A contemporary Cuban artist Niebla works with industrial materials to create geometric three-dimensional objects, which are then painted in bright colours. These objects have been likened to the forms in children’s playgrounds and belong to an established constructivist tradition in Latin America that pushes the boundaries of the art object and encourages the spectator to participate in the work.

The Caguayo Foundation, created in 1995 is responsible for much of the public art in Santiago de Cuba through an annual symposium. This piece was part of the 2010 symposium.

The piece was titled Germinal, however, that has no meaning. It is possible that it was a typo, as often happens in these situations, it could be titled Germinar, which means to germinate.

Outer Harmony

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2015

Apr 222015

Armonia Exterior by Ramon Casas – 2013

In December of 2010, the city of Santiago de Cuba held its first Rene Valdes Cedeño Public Sculpture Symposium. Sponsored by the Caguayo Foundation and the Advisory Council for the Development of Public Sculptures and Monuments, the symposium seeks to promote sculpting in marble and metals. Armonía Exterior was a result of the 2013 Symposium, the pieces that came out of the project were put around Santiago de Cuba.

Ramon Casas graduated from the National School of Arts (ENA) in Havana in 1976, he then went on to study at the Higher Arts Institute (ISA) in Havana, Cuba and graduated in 1982.

Arco

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2015

Apr 222015

Arco by Jose Villa Soberon

In December of 2010, the city of Santiago de Cuba held its first Rene Valdes Cedeño Public Sculpture Symposium. Sponsored by the Caguayo Foundation and the Advisory Council for the Development of Public Sculptures and Monuments, the symposium seeks to promote sculpting in marble and metals. Arco was a result of the 2013 Symposium, the pieces that came out of the project are put around Santiago de Cuba.

Jose Villa has two pieces in Havana that have been in this website before and that you can read about here.

Santiago de Cuba native José Ramón Villa Soberón ( September 2, 1950) is particularly known for his public sculptures around Havana. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (The National School of Art) in Havana, Cuba and the Academy of Plastic Arts in Prague. He is a professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.

Nature

Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2015

Apr 222015

This piece, titled Nature, is by Juan Quintanilla.

In December of 2010, the city of Santiago de Cuba held its first Rene Valdes Cedeño Public Sculpture Symposium. Sponsored by the Caguayo Foundation and the Advisory Council for the Development of Public Sculptures and Monuments, the symposium seeks to promote sculpting in marble and metals. Nature was a result of the Symposium, the pieces that came out of the project were put around Santiago de Cuba.

Juan Quintanilla studied at the School of Visual Arts in Pinar del Rio in 1965. He went on to get a graduate degree in Sculpture from the National Art School in 1967. In 1973 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Praque and spent the year of 1989 studying at Pietro Tacca Institute in Carrara, Italy.

When asked about the marble of Cuba he answered (this is a rough translation)

“In our country we have different qualities of marble. I have only worked with the Siboney Grey Isla de la Juventud, but I have also made inroads into the green and black of Pinar del Río, and the cream and pink orchid of Bayamo, both high quality marbles. There are many others, but these are the ones that I most identify with. I think it is also a way to promote Cuban marble. Many people do not know you could do these sculptures in marble and have been surprised to some to see how a piece can bring out the different qualities.”

Antonio Maceo

Posted by Cindy on April 21, 2015

Apr 212015

This piece, titled Antonio Maceo sits in Revolution Square in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Created by Alberto Lescay, a Santiago born artist, it was installed in 1991. This monument is dedicated to the 19th century war hero, General Antonio Maceo. Saw-toothed “machetes” rise from the grass and surround a large sculpture of the General on horseback.

graduated with a degree in Painting in 1968 from the “José Joaquín Tejada” Fine Arts Workshop; In 1973 he added a degree in Sculpture from the “Cubanacán” National Art School. He became an Art Professor in 1979 at “Repin” Academy of Sculpture, Architecture, Painting and Graphic, in San Petersburg, Russia. Lescay now keeps a studio and his foundation in Santiago de Cuba.

Studio Lescay
Avenue Manfully No. 453 Entre 17 y 19
Reparto Vista Alegre

Lescay was the founder and creator of the Caguayo Foundation for Monumental and Applied Arts. The institution represents over 300 Cuban artists.

There are 23 “machetes” representing the date March 23 1878, when Maceo issued his “Protest of Baraguá” showing his disagreement with the Pact of Zanjón

The group that helped to get this off of the ground included the Structural Engineer Esteben Ferrer Esotiu. The project took over nine years.

There is a river running underneath the project site forcing some serious engineering to be accomplished. There is over 600 tons of steel underground to keep the entire thing stable.

Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales (June 14, 1845 – December 7, 1896) was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence.

Passage of Remembrance

Posted by Cindy on April 6, 2015

Apr 062015

Memorial Court
Civic Center

In 1932 when the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building were built the project was supposed to include a memorial to veterans. The project ran out of money, and one was never made.

However, during this time the octagonal lawn in the Memorial Court has held earth from lands where Americans fought and died. This stone octagon, now encloses the earth. The Memorial has been designed so that it can be opened to accept newly consecrated earth from battlefields of the future.

In 1935 that War Memorial Complex architect Arthur Brown, Jr., recommended landscape architect Thomas D. Church be engaged to complete the Memorial Court. Church, a world renowned landscape architect, know for his gardens reflecting the Beaux-Arts tradition completed the design in 1936. His drawings reference a “future memorial” to be added in the octagonal area of the Memorial Court.

Soils from World War I battlefields were consigned there at the time of its completion. A similar ceremony depositing soils from World War II battlefields took place following the 1945 signing of the United Nations Charter in the Veterans Building. And in 1988, veterans groups held a ceremony interring battlefield soils from Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Guam, Italy, Laos, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Prior to beginning construction of the San Francisco Veterans Memorial, the soil from the center of the octagonal area of the Memorial Court was carefully removed and safeguarded.

The Young Dead Soldiers, a poem also used at the Presidio Cemetery Overlook, is a fitting poem for this spot.

The project artist was Susan Narduli of Narduli Studio. The project was completed October 2014 with $2.5 million of private donations.

Six Degrees

Posted by Cindy on March 31, 2015

Mar 312015

2825 Diamond Street
Glen Park

Six Degrees is an artwork installed in the entrance of Glen Park Branch Library done in 2007 for $36,000. The artists are Reddy Lieb and Linda Raynsford.

The circular art elements were inspired by the history and ecology of Glen Park. The circle, which the artists used as their main geometric design form, is intended to symbolize wholeness and community.

Specific references in the artwork are:

In 1889, an amusement park was built in Glen Canyon to attract potential home buyers. One of the attractions was tightrope walker Jimmy “Scarface” Williams.

Early streetcar tracks in Glen Park are silk screened on another metal circle.

An abstracted glass bat house refers to a recent mosquito abatement program that included the installation of nine bat houses near Islais Creek.
A blue painted circle represents Islais Creek.

In 1965, when there were plans to destroy the southwest portion of Glen Park to improve automobile transit, three woman—Geraldine Arkush, Zoann Nordstrom,and Joan Siebold, collectively known as the Gum Tree Girls— helped prevent that development.

The outline of a red-tailed hawk’s wings is painted on a yellow circle.
Copper cut-outs fused in glass are images of plant life in Glen Park.
A poem written by local poet Diane DiPrima for William Blake is fired into a circular glass medallion near the bottom of the artwork. The entire poem reads as follows:For Blakeby now it is too late to wonder
why we are wherever we are
(tho some peace is possible): singing on the breath
& we have had bodies of Fire and lived in the Sun
& we have had bodies of Water and lived in Venus
and bodies of Air that screeched as they tore around Jupiter all our eyes remembering Love

Reddy Lieb has a BA in art and an MFA in Glass Blowing, she lives in San Francisco. Linda Raynsford has a BFA from California College of Arts

NYCHOS

Posted by Cindy on March 30, 2015

Mar 302015

500 Geary
Lower Nob Hill

Austrian street artist NYCHOS is in town for the opening his show “Street Anatomy” at Fifty24SF Gallery on April 18th. In conjunction with the show, he has been putting up a few pieces around town.

According to his facebook page the Austrian urban art and graffiti illustrator Nychos was born in 1982 in Styria, Austria where he grew up in a hunting family. Getting confronted by the anatomy of dead animals at an early age and being an 80’s kid with an interest for cartoons and heavy metal ended up being some of the ingredients which inspired him when he started graffiti and painting at the age of 18. Over the years he developed a distinctive style which stands out – his dissections and cross sections of human and animal bodies are easily recognized. The focus and reinterpretation of dissected motives in a combination of colorful outlines can be seen as his branding. He is well known for his huge and technically outstanding art pieces in the urban environment as well as several gallery exhibitions. Nychos is the founder of Rabbit Eye Movement:

Rabbit Eye Movement (REM) originally started as a street art concept, created by the urban/graffiti artist and illustrator Nychos in 2005. It fueled and defined the artwork Nychos spread on the streets for the next seven years, and in 2012 he acquired a home for REM to live. Located in the heart of Vienna, the Rabbit Eye Movement Art Space is now a full time gallery and agency dedicated to pushing the same movement that created it.

“I created the ‘Rabbit Eye Movement’ as an homage to all the “Rabbits” out there who are active in the Urban Art Movement. It doesn’t matter what kind of mission they are following.”
– NYCHOS

Maynard Dixon and A Pageant of Traditions

Posted by Cindy on March 23, 2015

Mar 232015

The Stanley Mosk Library and Court Building
Gillis Hall
914 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA

I recently toured the newly restored California State Library building. The $62 million restoration brought the library/courts building into the modern age. (The project came in under budget at around $49 million).

Although this Maynard Dixon mural experienced a small amount of damage during the restoration, it remains in Gillis Hall for all to enjoy.

Titled, A Pageant of Traditions, the mural is sixty nine feet long and fourteen feet tall.

The mural, painted after the library was opened in 1928, symbolically depicts the greatest influences on the history and development of California.

The left side shows the Spanish influences on California. Amongst these you will find a Spanish explorer, Jesuit and Franciscan priests, Californios, and an Hispanic workman with his wife. These are all pre-industrial California.

On the right side one sees symbolic references to the all that lies East of California. These figures include a colonial settler, a Revolutionary War officer, Native Americans and several Afro-Americans. There is a forty-niner from the gold rush and a 1920s worker and his family.

Over the entry way is a male figure depicting Power and a female figure depicting Beauty. Three books, encased in halos, are the books of philosophy, science and art .

Considered one of the nations greatest Western artists, L. Maynard Dixon was born near Fresno, California in 1875. He was an interpreter of western landscapes and Native American themes. He was a painter, a muralist, and an illustrator. He died in 1946 in Tucson, Arizona.

Although he was primarily self-taught, Dixon briefly studied at California Institute of Design in 1893. He worked as an illustrator for several California publications before going to New York where he worked at Scribner’s and Harper’s Monthly from 1907 to 1912.

He received a bronze medal for Trail in Oregon (1915) at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

The California State Library Foundations Bulletin put out a special issue on the restoration of the building in November of 2013. It has excellent accounts of the life of Dixon and his preparation and execution of this mural beginning on page 14.

The library is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, excluding holidays.

Os Redeiros

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2015

Mar 202015

This striking and strong sculpture is by Ramon Conde and stands on the Gran Via in Vigo Spain.

Titled Os Redeiros it is of seven nude fisherman straining to pull in a net. The city of Vigo is a major fishing port in Spain.

Ramón Conde was born in Ourense Spain December 18, 1951, the son of a stone sculptor.

In 1971 he joined the Faculty of Arts in Santiago.

He has shown all over Europe and in the United States.

Other public works include the Arc de Triomphe (Lugo), the monument to Alonso III de Fonseca (in the Cloister of the Palacio de Fonseca, Santiago de Compostela), the monument to Coleman and Reverter and the Milkmaid (Ourense), the True Contrast (Pontevedra) or Homage to Emigration (in Vigo).

Conde currently has his studio is in Milladoiro, near Santiago de Compostela.

Rainbow Honor Walk

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2015

Mar 202015

Castro Street
Between Market and 20th

There are twenty individuals honored on the Rainbow Honor Walk. According to the Walks website:

The Rainbow Honor Walk seeks to honor heroines & heroes of the LGBT communities through a sidewalk tribute in San Francisco’s historic Castro district to honor their contributions. The Rainbow Honor Walk is an all-volunteer organization.

The criteria for the first 20 names to be placed on the Rainbow Honor Walk are as follows: Self expressed LGBT individuals, now deceased, who made significant contributions in their fields. Criteria for additional names to be added to the Walk over the years will change and adapt according to the wishes of the community working in concert with the Rainbow Honor Walk Board of Directors.

It would be horrifically difficult for me to bring all twenty of them to you here in one blog post, so I have chosen my favorites, beginning with Oscar Wilde, whose humor has always delighted me both in his talks and his writings, but I also found reading about the selection process by the chairman David Perry gave me insight into some others and how they may very well be over looked if you are not as aware of your history.

“One of the names that calls up a lot of personal memories and prompts a fresh understanding is Christine Jorgensen. As a child in Catholic School during the late ’50s, I was very aware of Jorgensen’s multi-media exposure. She was glamorous, a former GI, and was being touted as the first to have this challenging reassignment surgery. Then came all the heated religious talk about Intelligent Design, existing definitions of sexual identity versus anything more insightful, and – since Christine’s medical procedures had started in Copenhagen – all the comedic one-liners around the notion of going to or getting lost in Denmark. That was then. And now – 25 years after her death – a permanent, celebratory bronze plaque is about to be bolted into Castro Street and guaranteed to fire the imaginations of a generation or two who have never heard of Christine Jorgensen.”..David Perry

Randy Shilts, whose book “And the Band Played On” opened the eyes to the world of the AIDS Epidemic.

Again from David Perry…”As board chair and co-founder, I’m not supposed to have favorites. But one of them is Alan Turing, the father of modern computing. Without exaggeration, those of us who love not only LGBT history but world history know that without him breaking the Enigma Code, the outcome of World War II would have been very different. Nazi Germany was defeated because of the genius of this openly gay man. After that incredibly heroic effort, he was vilified and chemically castrated because he was openly gay. Only recently, within the last two years, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth apologized for that and Alan Turing has begun to get the recognition he deserves. ”

The total list of honorees includes:

Jane Addams (1860-1935) • James Baldwin (1924-87) • George Choy (1960-1993) • Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) • Allen Ginsberg (1926-97) • Keith Haring (1958-90) • Harry Hay (1912-2002) • Sylvester James (1947-88) • Christine Jorgensen (1926-89) • Frida Kahlo (1907-54) • Del Martin (1921-2008) • Yukio Mishima (1925-70) • Bayard Rustin (1912-87) • Randy Shilts (1951-94) • Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) • Alan Turing (1912-54) • Tom Waddell (1937-87) • Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Tennessee Williams (1911-83) • Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

The plaques are 3’X3′ and were manufactured by Berkeley’s Artworks Foundry.

Older Entries Newer Entries