Category: Civic Center
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Harvey Milk
City Hall Supervisors Legislative Chamber Civic Center This is the only bust of a supervisor in San Francisco’s City Hall. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office. Milk won a seat as a San Francisco supervisor in 1977. He served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing…
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Goddess of Progress
City Hall South Light Court Goddess of Progress by F. Marion Wells The plaque that accompanies her reads: On April 17, 1906, the dome atop San Francisco’s City Hall that was completed in 1896 supported a twenty foot statue by F. Marion Wells. The Goddess of Progress, with lightbulbs in her hair, held a torch…
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Fletcher Benton at Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness Civic Center Titled, Balanced Unbalanced T, this Steel and Flat Black Enamel piece sits on the exterior second floor of Davies Symphony Hall, it is accessible at all times via a staircase that can be accessed off of Grove Street. The piece, done in 1981, is by Fletcher Benton, who has been…
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The Doors of Court
400 McAllister Civic Center This building houses the Superior Court of California and was designed by Mark Cavagnero and Associates. * There are three identical doors at the entry to the building. They were designed by Albert Paley. Paley’s work can also be found at 199 Montgomery Street. Albert Paley is a modernist American metal sculptor,…
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Great Seal of California
505 Van Ness at McAllister Civic Center This is the Edmund G. Brown State Office Building. Built in 1986 and designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merril, it is one of the anchors of the San Francisco Civic Center. The seal was created by sculptor Rosa Estebanez. Estebanez’s life has been described as a remarkable story…
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Henri Crenier’s Telamones
Civic Center San Francisco City Hall These telamones by Henri Crenier have always taken my breath away. They sit on the Van Ness side of City Hall. Telamones (plural) or Telamon are sculptured male human figures used in place of columns to support an entablature. They are also called Atlantes (plural) or Atlas. They are…
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Henri Crenier adds Beauty to San Francisco City Hall
City Hall San Francisco Civic Center San Francisco’s City Hall has an art collection of its own within its walls. This is about the art work that graces the building. City Hall was the cornerstone to the City Beautiful Movement in San Francisco. On City Hall there are two tympanums each holding a sculpture by…
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The Masonic Temple – 25 Van Ness
Masonic Temple 25 Van Ness Civic Center Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville were the architects of this, the second Masonic Lodge in San Francisco. The first lodge, at 1 Montgomery Street, was built in 1860 and burned down in the 1906 fire. In 1911 the Masonic Temple Association, headed by William Crocker, laid a…
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The Beaded Quilt
214 Van Ness Avenue Civic Center This “Beaded Quilt” sits on the outside of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired building on Van Ness Avenue. According to the Please Touch Garden Site this mural is part of a LightHouse community arts initiative created by dozens of blind San Franciscans. The mural is created out…
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San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement
San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco. The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and…
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Richard Mayer at Hastings Law School
Civic Center Hastings Law School 200 McAllister at Hyde * I would like to extend a big thank you to Suzanne Parks, the Volunteer Art Curator at Hastings Law School for this information. This sculpture is titled “Gary Diptych #1” and is by San Francisco Bay area artist Richard Mayer. He loaned Hastings the sculpture…
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Firefly on the new SFPUC Building
525 Golden Gate Avenue Civic Center This is the new Public Utilities building in San Francisco. It is touted as one of the more “green buildings” built in the US. Four egg-beater-like wind turbines are on view behind a 200-foot-high, 22-foot-wide curtain of polycarbonate squares called Firefly. Ned Kahn’s Firefly is a lattice of tens of…
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Parisian Street Artist Tags the Asian Art Museum
McAllister and Hyde Wall of the Asian Art Museum Civic Center UPDATE: The artist on this is actually an artist from Iowa that goes by TheUpside. Apparently the UpTown Almanac and I spotted this one at the same time. Here is what they wrote: Tim Hallman, the Asian Art Museum’s Communications Director, dropped…
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Dancers and Musicians on the Performing Arts Garage
Civic Center Performing Arts Garage Grove and Gough Streets * * The Dancing Musicians and The Dancer by Joan Brown 1986-1986 Bronze Joan Brown has several pieces around San Francisco. These pieces were commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commision. The flautist and guitar player are twelve feet high and five feet wide and…
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Kenzo’s Octopus on Fell Street
Civic Center/Hayes Valley * 155 Fell Street This is titled Big Octopus and is by Kenzo. Kenzo, (Aleix Gordo Hostau) is from Barcelona, you can see his other work around San Francisco here or his own flicker photo stream here.
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Breathing Flower by Choi Jeong Hwa graces SF Civic Center
Civic Center Larkin Street, San Francisco * * by Choi Jeon Hwa Fabric with LEDs motor This work of art is part of Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past, an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum across the street. The plaque accompanying the work reads: The Breathing Flower, internationally acclaimed Korean artist Choi Jeong…
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Heads by Jun Kaneko, San Francisco Civic Center
Civic Center 301 Van Ness * Heads by Jun Kaneko This is a temporary installation in front of the San Francisco Opera House This is the press release that accompanied the installation of these heads: “The San Francisco Arts Commission announced Rena Bransten Gallery’s installation of two 6-foot ceramic heads by acclaimed artist Jun Kaneko…
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Performing Arts Parking Garage – Dancing in the Curve of the World
Civic Center Performing Arts Garage Gough and Grove Streets * Dancing in the Curve of the World by Josef Norris Josef Norris is responsible for the murals at Kid Power Park. This piece, done in 2003 was paid for by the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Cultural Equity Fund and the Neighborhood Beautification Fund.
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Civic Center – Hiro II
Civic Center San Francisco War Memorial Opera House Hiro II by Peter Voulkos * This piece is actually owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it was acquired in 1971. Peter Voulkos was born January 29, 1924, in Bozeman, Montana to Greek-born parents, Efrosine and Harry Voulkos, and died February 16, 2002 in…
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Civic Center – Hall McAllister
Civic Center * Hall McAllister by Robert Ingersoll Aitken – Bronze – 1904 Outside the north wall of City Hall, on McAllister Street coincidentally, is the figure of pioneer attorney Hall McAllister. McAlllister served as first presiding judge of the Circuit Board of the Pacific States from 1855-1862. The pediment reads: HALL MCALLISTER Leader of…
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Civic Center – Abraham Lincoln
Civic Center Front of San Francisco City Hall * * Abraham Lincoln by Haig Patigian – 1926 This statue of Abraham Lincoln by Mr. Patigian replaced a statue by P. Mazarra of Lincoln destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.”Lincoln was dead! A period of national mourning swept the nation immediately after his assassination. During this time, Pietro Mezzara–who…
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Civic Center – Henry Moore
Civic Center Davies Symphony Hall Corner Van Ness and Grove Street * * Large Four Piece Reclining Figure by Henry Moore – 1973 – Bronze This piece, by Henry Moore, sits prominently in the Civic Center, and an easy one to see and enjoy by anyone that visits San Francisco. In the early 1970s Moore…
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Civic Center – Pioneer Monument
Civic Center San Francisco’s Pioneer Monument, created by F.H. Happersberger was dedicated to The City by James Lick in 1894. Previously located at Marshall Square, near the intersection of Hyde and Grove, it marked the site of the Old City Hall, destroyed by fire in the earthquake of 1906. During the renovation of the new…
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Civic Center – Simon Bolivar
Civic Center Simon Bolivar a 1984 “Gift from Venezuela to the People of San Francisco.” Simón Bolívar, was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Together with José de San Martín, he played a key role in Hispanic-Spanish America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the most influential…
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Civic Center – Double L Excentric Gyratory
Civic Center San Francisco Public Library Double L Excentric Gyratory by George Rickey – 1982 The plaque reads – A gift from an immigrant Carl Djerassi to his adopted City. Dedicated by San Francisco Arts Commission May 1997. George Rickey was an American kinetic sculptor born on June 6, 1907 in South Bend, Indiana. When Rickey was…
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Civic Center – Ashurbanipal
San Francisco City Hall Ashurbanipal by sculptor Fred Parhad sits on the sidewalk of the Asian Art Museum, facing the San Francisco Library. The sculpture shows Asurbanipal wearing a short tunic and holds a lion cub in his right arm. The figure stands on a concrete base, with bronze plaque and rosettes. The statue shows the…
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Civic Center – High School of Commerce
Civic Center San Francisco 135 Van Ness Avenue There are so many wonderful building on the Van Ness Corridor, sadly, most people are driving either in or out of San Francisco and much to busy to notice them. This building is near Market Street, not far from City Hall, if you are in the…
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UN Plaza
Civic Center – San Francisco United Nations Plaza United Nations Plaza is an area off of Market Street with a walkable corridor straight to Civic Center, which includes City Hall and Herbst Theatre. The United Nations Charter was signed in the War Memorial Veterans Building’s Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the…
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UN Plaza Fountain
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…
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The Faces of 50 UN Plaza
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…