Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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Sarah B. Cooper Brings the West its First Kindergarten
Golden Gate Park Near the Sharon Art Center This memorial to Sarah B. Cooper was placed in the park by the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association in 1923. This area sits on the other side of the carousel from the Koret Childrens Playground. Sarah Cooper was instrumental in the Kindergarten Movement of San Francisco. Here, from…
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Animals in the Park
Koret Playground Golden Gate Park There are five of these cast stone creatures in the new Koret Childrens Area of Golden Gate Park. They are the second public art project that Vicki Saulls did in San Francisco. The first you can view here. The playground underwent a major renovation with generous funding from the Koret…
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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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A San Francisco Jewel
2266 California Pacific Heights Sherith Israel Synagogue “Loyal Remnant of Israel” On a whim, a photographer friend of mine, Lisa, suggested we stop in and take a look at the Sherith Israel Synagogue. She has been documenting its amazing details for posterity, and I had never been inside. What an incredible adventure and I am…
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The King of Beasts in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park Music Concourse This lion sits outside of the new DeYoung Museum near the Pool of Enchantment. It is by Roland Hinton Perry. Created in 1898 it was given to the City of San Francisco in 1906 by San Francisco jeweler Shreve and Company. The sculpture survived a fire in Shreve’s showroom caused…
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350 Bush Street
San Francisco Mining Exchange 350 Bush Street Financial District The San Francisco Mining Exchange, the second oldest exchange in the United States after the New York Stock Exchange, was formed in 1862 to trade mining stocks. It is San Francisco Landmark #113. When trading in mining stocks surged in the early 1920s, the Mining Exchange…
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Tut-mania
Originally the Title Insurance Company Building 130 Montgomery Financial District This lovely Art Deco building was built in 1930 by the O’Brien Brothers along with Wilbur D. Peugh. O’Brien Brothers consisted of Walter J., Albert L. and Arthur T. O’Brien, and practiced in San Francisco from 1907 through 1935. They were architects with the Pickwick…
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55 Stockton Street – Looking up
55 Stockton Street Union Square / Market Street This building, designed by Heller Manus Architects in 1989 stands at a very busy corner one block off of Union Square. If you look closely you can see 14 figures drumming or holding spheres. * According to the Smithsonian Institute, these figures were done by Tom Otterness.…
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When Infrastructure Buildings Kept Beauty in Mind
2920 23rd Avenue Merced Manor / Sunset District This classical building is the Central Pump Station. Designed by Willis Polk and built in 1936, it sits atop the asphalt capped Merced Manor Reservoir which holds 9.5 million gallons of water to supply the city of San Francisco. The building has been attributed to N. A.…
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The Insurance Exchange
Insurance Exchange Building 433 California Street Financial District Turning 100 years old this year, the Insurance Exchange was designed by Willis Polk. This highly ornamented building is complimented by its sister building the Merchant’s Exchange next door. The highly decorated exterior of the building, flanked with majestic Corinthian columns and topped with a very detailed…
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A Gothic Revival Gem
St. Francis of Assisi Church 624 Vallejo Street North Beach This was the first parish church in San Francisco after Mission Dolores. The cornerstone of the present building was laid in December, 1857, and the church was dedicated in 1860. This twin towered Victorian Gothic Revival church, in the heart of North Beach, was gutted by…
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Carl G. Larsen. Chickens to Jet Fighters
Larsen Park 19th Avenue at Ulloa Sunset District This plaque can be found on the corner of 19th Avenue and Ulloa. The plaque was done by M. Earl Cummings in 1913 of Carl G. Larsen. Cummings has appeared prominently in this website for the many sculptures he has done around town. “In the late 1800s, many…
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Tigers and Cougars at the Zoo
San Francisco Zoo Outer Sunset Tiger II by Gwynn Murrill Gwynn Murrill has always worked with animals as her subject matter. She captures the beauty of her subjects and their particular postures with astonishing authority. Stripped of surface detail and complexity, the subject is reduced to the essence of its being and the sculptures are…
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Sand One comes to San Francisco
Leavenworth and Turk The Tenderloin This mural is titled Any Man’s Land and is by Sand One. The name seems especially appropriate to me as there was a crack deal going on as I was taking this photo. The street corner really is Any man’s land. According to Sand One’s Facebook page, she is a…
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A Fossil on the Great Highway
The Great Highway at Pacheco Outer Sunset Fossil by Mary Chomenko Hinckley – 1989 A cast bronze medallion inset into the sidewalk depicts the history of the Ocean Beach and incorporates elements discovered or retrieved from the neighborhood into the design. According to Mary’s website: Her work seeks to illuminate the hidden relationships between found objects.…
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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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Edison and DaVinci by Olmsted
CCSF Ocean View Campus 50 Phelan Sunnyside * According to CCSF’s website “Archibald Cloud, the Chief Deputy Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, began in 1930 to vigorously articulate a long held educational dream: that the “premier” county in the State—San Francisco—must have the same educational “jewel” as did 38 of the State’s…
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Swimming through Jessie Square
Site of the future Mexican Museum 706 Mission District Museum Row SOMA This is titled Exploring New Territory and is by Henry Lipkis. This wall is the edge of the construction site for the forthcoming Mexican Museum, so the piece will be temporary. This is from Henry’s blog: “Back in October I painted my first…
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Notre Dame des Victoires Church
566 Bush Street Union Square/Chinatown There are a handful of buildings in San Francisco that turn 100 this year. This will be the beginning of my covering those buildings over the next few weeks. Notre Dame des Victoires is one of the names for the Virgin Mary. This statue of Jesus’ mother is in front…
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Fish Tale
San Francisco General Hospital Potrero Hill Fish Tale by Hilda Shum was done in 1995. A stainless steel sculpture of an abstract fish tail rises from a mosaic “pool” of green and blue tiles. The fish is a symbol of transformation in many cultures and, as such, has special significance for this facility, which is…
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Dance of the Cubes
San Francisco General Hospital Potrero Hill Dance of the Cubes is by Jacques Schnier. It is made of plastic and fiberglass and was done in 1975. Jacques Schnier taught at Berkeley for 30 years. First appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, he retired as Professor of Art, Emeritus, in 1966. Jacques was…
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L’Octagon by Pol Bury
353 Sansome Street The Financial District L’Octagon by Pol Bury – Marble and Steel L’Octagon is a result of the 1% for Art program in San Francisco. It is available for viewing between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. M-F This lovely sculpture actually moves. The balls slightly fill with water on the bottom and roll…
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Harvey Milk Rec Center
50 Scott Castro This saying is over the back entry way to the Harvey Milk Recreation Center. It is in Architectural foam and is by Michael Davis and Susan Schwartzenberg. This phrase comes from “A City of Neighborhoods,” speech Harvey Milk delivered during his inaugural dinner after his election to the Board of Supervisors in…
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Called to Rise
235 Pine Street Financial District Called to Rise features individuals who have contributed significantly to the history of San Francisco. The figures include, Juan Bautista De Anza, Eadweard Muybridge, Makato Hagiwara, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Chingwah Lee, Ishi, Alfred Louis Kroeber, Philip Burton, Amadeo Peter Giannini, Benjamin Franklin Norris, Timothy Pflueger, Douglas Tilden, Kurt Herbert Adler,…
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Folded Circle Split
201 Spear Street SOMA Financial Area Folded Circle Split by Fletcher Benton – 1984 In walking through the lobby of 201 Spear Street I tripped upon this sculpture. The office building is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm M-F. Fletcher Benton (born February 25, 1931 Jackson, Ohio) is from San Francisco, California He graduated from Miami University, Oxford,…