Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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Systematic Saving is the Key to Success
1 Montgomery Street Financial District This pressed copper decorative marquee graces the side entrance to the First National Bank, now Wells Fargo. There are two figures, one on each side of the marquee that stand and serve as supports. Cornucopias are placed at their feet. A nude male and female figure recline on either side of…
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The First National Bank Building
1 Montgomery Street Financial District This classic Italian Renaissance bank building was designed by Willis Polk in 1908. Polk has been in this website many times. The Raymond granite entryway is only the tease to a beautiful and highly ornamented interior, replete with a carved white marble staircase; counters and benches of carved marble along…
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Jo Mora’s California Bears
1000 Van Ness Tenderloin Flanking the doorway of the Cadillac building are two spirally-fluted columns with Ionic capitals, each topped by a bear seated on its haunches. According to the Smithsonian, these were also done by Jo Mora. I have been unable to find any other attribution, and while they are in terra cotta, they…
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Jo Mora and the Don Lee Cadillac Building
1000 Van Ness Tenderloin This sculpture sits over the entryway to the Don Lee Cadillac Showroom. The sculpture is the creation of Jo Mora, who has been in this website before. This doorway pediment consists of a central shield bearing the Cadillac insignia framed by an ornately carved, stylized border with a lion’s face…
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The Don Lee Building
1000 Van Ness Avenue Tenderloin This magnificent building was built in 1921. Designed by Weeks and Day it is the largest and one of San Francisco’s most architecturally significant auto showrooms. As the private automobile became a standard commodity of middle-class American life, hundreds of manufacturers rose to meet the demand. Within this increasingly competitive…
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Richmond District Police Station
461 6th Avenue Richmond Police Station Richmond District The Richmond District Police Station was built in 1927 in a red-brick Romanesque Revival style. The Horse Barn Behind the police station this brick building housed horses with a loft to hold their feed in the back. Both buildings were renovated in 1990 and the horse building…
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Washington High School and the WPA
George Washington High School 600 32nd Avenue Richmond District George Washington High School opened on August 4, 1936, to serve as a secondary school for the people of San Francisco’s Richmond District. The school was built on a budget of $8,000,000 on a site overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The architect was Timothy Pflueger, here he begins…
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Herakut #7
McCoppin Between Gough and Valencia Mission / SOMA This mura, by Herakut is on the walls of the Flax Art Store on Market Street. Herakut has been in this website before with a piece in the Tenderloin. According to Flax’s website: In 2004 Herakut came together, finding a magic synthesis between the artistic skills and specialties of…
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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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Five Questions
Mint Plaza SOMA/Market Street Area/Union Square WHAT is on the Side of the San Francisco Chronicle Building at 5th and Minna These two sculptures are part of a large project, within an even larger project. The larger project is called the 5M project. The 5M Project is a creative development in downtown San Francisco designed…
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Jaques Schnier on Treasure Island
Treasure Island Building #1 These two cast stone sculpture represents India and were done by Jacques Schnier for the Golden Gate International Exposition. They have been known by several names, including “The Tree of Life,” but the preferred name is “Spirit of India.” These are just two of twenty that were part of the Unity…
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Adaline Kent sculptures on Treasure Island
Treasure Island Building #1 These cast stone statues are part of Adaline Kent’s group of three Pacific Islander statues that were among the twenty Pacific Unity sculptures produced for the Court of the Pacifica at the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. The two shown here are listening to a stringed instrument (most likely a ukelele)…
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Helen Phillips and the Golden Gate Exposition
Treasure Island Building #1 This cast stone sculpture is by Helen Phillips. Titled Flutist, it is from the Chinese Musicians Group produced for the Golden Gate International Exposition. This was one of a group of 20 sculptures titled Unity that were produced for the Court of the Pacific. This is from Helen Phillips obituary: Phillips…
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San Francisco’s First Airport
Treasure Island 1 Avenue of the Palms Administration Building Treasure Island was built with imported fill on the north side of Yerba Buena Island The connected Yerba Buena Island sits in the middle of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. Built by the federal government, Treasure Island was planned for and used as an airport…
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Bliss Dance
9th and Avenue of the Palms Treasure Island This piece, by Marco Cochrane , was featured at Burning Man in 2010. According to the supporting art group Black Rock : The sculpture, of a dancing woman, stands 40 feet tall, weighs 7000 pounds and is ingeniously constructed of triangulated geodesic struts. By day, the dancer’s…
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Thomas Garriue Masaryk
Rose Garden Golden Gate Park Located at the entrance to the Rose Garden just off of JFK Boulevard is this bust of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk. Masaryk was the first president of Czechoslovakia, a statesman, philosopher, liberator and humanitarian. The bust was sculpted by Josef Mařatka in 1926 and was exhibited at the 1939 Golden Gate International…
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Florence Nightingale
Laguna Honda Hospital Forest Hill / Twin Peaks This graceful painted cast stone statue of Florence Nightingale titled Lady of the Lamp is by David Edstrom and was done in 1937. The project was part of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Federal Artists Program. The statue sat in the Court of the Seven Seas during the…
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Owls and Spiders
624 Taylor Nob Hill The Bohemian Club * As this post is about the art not the club, (a controversial group at best) I will simply copy what Wikipedia says about the Bohemian Club: “The Bohemian Club is a private gentlemen’s club located at 624 Taylor Street, San Francisco, California. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journalists, artists and…
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Trader Vic the Sculptor
California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park These two seals once resided outside the California Academy of Sciences. They are now inside near the restaurant. This view is through the fence. Entry to the Academy is $30 for adults. These two seals were sculpted by Victor Jules Bergeron. Known locally as Trader Vic, Bergeron is…
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What is Missing?
California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park **** This piece, titled What’s Missing is by Maya Lin. The photo above was taken from outside the fence that rings the Academy of Sciences. Entry to the Academy is $30 for adults. The permanent site-specific sculpture is the first component of an international multi-sited, multimedia art work…
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Where the Land Meets the Sea
California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park This Marine Grade Stainless Steel wire sculpture (difficult to photograph) is titled Where the Land Meets the Sea, and is by Maya Lin. This is the first permanent artwork by Maya Lin in San Francisco. The artist was selected through the Arts Commission’s competitive application process in 2005.…
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GGP’s Sea Serpent
Koret Childrens Quarters Golden Gate Park This divine sea creature is by Phoebe Palmer. On an architectural scale, Phoebe is building densely textured, sculptural ferro-cement walls and working in mosaics and metal sculpture as well as her “normal” mediums of paint and pastels. Phoebe has taken the characters formerly inhabiting her paintings and pastels and cast…
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Puttin on the Ritz
Ritz Carlton 600 Stockton Street Chinatown Heralded as a “Temple of Commerce” when it opened in September 1909, the massive, 17-columned building spanning Stockton Street between California and Pine Streets, has been expanded five times and is now one of San Francisco’s best examples of neo-classical architecture. The original structure, an 80′ x 80′ white…
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Mona Caron in Noe Valley
3871 24th Street Noe Valley These two murals sit on the two sides of a parking lot on 24th Street They are by Mona Caron who has been in this website many, many times. According to Caron’s website: The mural comprises two paintings that face each other over a small park and parking lot in…
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Spreckles Temple of Music
Music Concourse Golden Gate Park Spreckels Temple of Music This is the third bandstand to grace Golden Gate Park. Claus Spreckels (The Sugar King) gave $75,000 towards the $78,810 cost of the building. The shell is an Italian Renaissance style with an acoustically reflective coffered shell standing 70 feet high and covered in Colusa Sandstone.…
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Lions and Bears in the Park
The Brown Gate 8th and Fulton Street This bear and lion that grace the pillars when you enter the park at 8th and Fulton are by M. Earl Cummings. Cummings has been in this website many, many times, he also has quite a few sculptures within Golden Gate Park. These sculptures were a gift of…
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The Bard and The Park
Shakespeare Garden Golden Gate Park This is the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park, a favorite spot for weddings. Behind that iron door is a bronze bust of Shakespeare. On either sides are plaques engraved with excerpts from some of the Bard’s works that mention plants. The purpose of the garden was to showcase plants…
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Horseshoe Courts of Golden Gate Park
Horseshoe Pits Golden Gate Park There are sixteen courts in a very out of the way spot of the park, not far from McClaren Lodge. The site was developed out of a rock quarry during 1934 as a WPA project. There are two concrete bas-reliefs created on the face of the rocks. The artist was…
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A Peacock Awes the Tenderloin
Geary and Leavenworth The Tenderloin This phenomenal peacock is by Satyr-1, who has been in this website many times. Satyr-1 is a professional artist who has long since left the ideas of “tagging” behind for commissioned projects in defined spaces with the support of building owners. His work made a difficult transition, but it mirrors the…