Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO

  • Anish Kapoor in San Francisco

    235 2nd Street SOMA Financial District Making the World Many by Anish Kapoor – Stainless Steel Making the World Many is part of the 1% for Arts and POPOS programs of San Francisco.  While viewable through the building window, the piece is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Anish Kapoor, (born…

  • Core by Charles Arnoldi

    101 2nd Street SOMA – Financial District Core by Charles Arnoldi – Acrylic on Canvas Core is a result of the POPOS and 1% for Art programs of San Francisco.  While viewable through the buildings glass it is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Charles Arnoldi was born April 10, 1946…

  • San Francisco County Jail

    Sheriffs Star Plaza San Francisco Jail Facility 7th and Bryant SOMA   This paving is the work of Vicki Scuri of VSSW. Vicki received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison She describes herself: Collaborative, integrated design is my passion. The focus of my practice is community-based design for infrastructure, with emphasis on community…

  • Chinese in San Francisco

    950 Washington Street Chinatown This mural sits on the wall of the Commodore Stockton School. The School has a very rich history. Formed in 1859 it was originally called the Chinese School. It was created for chinese only students as they were not allowed in the public schools. In 1885 the school was renamed the…

  • A Joan Brown Obelisk at 343 Sansome Street

    343 Sansome Street The Financial District Four Seasons by Joan Brown This tiled obelisk is by Joan Brown. Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. She studied at…

  • Jackson Brewery an Old San Francisco Tradition

    Folsom and 11th SOMA There have been over 79 breweries in San Francisco’s history, most of them either lost to the 1906 earthquake or in the two years following the 1919 passage of the 21st amendment. These lost brew houses included the North Star Brewery at Filbert and Sansome, the Globe Brewing Company at Sansome and Greenwich and the…

  • Old Blueprints take on a New Look

    Muni Metro East Yard Pier 80 Bayview This view, taken through a fence, is as close as one will get to the art work at the new Muni Metro East maintenance facility. * These photos I took from the Pulp Studios website. I am going to simply copy directly what they have to say about…

  • The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden

    Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park San Francisco’s first Japanese Tea Garden was originally developed by art-dealer George Turner Marsh as part of the 1894 Midwinter Fair, an event that brought the City by the Bay into the international limelight. Shinshichi Nakatani was selected to design and build the Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi). He built…

  • Japanese Tea Garden

    Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park The Japanese Tea Garden was created by George Turner Marsh as a “Japanese Village” feature of the 1894 MidWinter Exposition. Marsh, an Australian, had lived for several years in Japan and had an interest in traditional Japanese Gardens. To create the village, he brought materials and hired craftsmen directly…

  • The Home Telephone Building

    333 Grant Avenue Chinatown Union Square Ernest Albert Coxhead of Coxhead and Coxhead has given the city of San Francisco many of its finest buildings — one sits at 333 Grant Avenue, San Francisco landmark #141. The Home Telephone Company was San Francisco’s first telephone exchange site. The building, built in 1908 in the Mannerist…

  • Amazarasti-No Hotoke

    Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park At the eastern end of Long Bridge, inside the Japanese Tea Garden sits this magnificent statue. It is  “Amazarasti-no Hotoke” meaning “The Buddha that sits throughout the sunny and rainy weather without shelter”. The figure was cast in 1790 at Tajima, Nara Prefecture, on Honshu for the Taioriji Temple.…

  • Islais: From Creek to Sewer to Creek

    Islais Creek Bayview/Hunter’s Point It is known as Third and Army by skateboarders. Longshoreman call it Pier 84. Locals just think of it as Islais Creek. No matter its name, it is an area experiencing ongoing urban and environmental renewal.  Islais Creek originally flowed for 3.5 miles from the hills of  San Francisco into the…

  • Guardians of Ping Yuen

    711 Pacific Chinatown Ping Yuen Housing Originally 8 terracotta Foo dogs graced this gateway. Chinese guardian lions, known as Shishi or Imperial guardian lion, and often called “Foo Dogs” in the West, are a common representation of the lion in pre-modern China. They have traditionally stood in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, Imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and the homes of government…

  • The Hunter Dunlin Building in the French Romanesque Style

    111 Sutter Street The Financial District 111 Sutter Street, or the Hunter Dulin Building, is a terra-cotta clad building modeled on a French château. This 22-story French Romanesque building is topped with a 38-foot high mansard roof sporting both dormers and gables. The building was designed by New York architecture firm Shultze and Weaver for Los Angeles…

  • Familia

    Potrero del Sol Park Potrero Hill Potrero at 25th Street Familia is by Victor Reyes, who has many pieces around San Francisco. On June 9, 2011 the San Francisco Examiner ran this article about the mural: A community that came together to solve the problem of persistent graffiti at a neighborhood park celebrated the unveiling…

  • SOMA Grand’s Glass Mosaic

    1160 Mission Street SOMA SOMA Grand Composed of 390 panels, most about 2-by-7 feet and 1/4-inch thick, this mural is titled “Realm”. It is the biggest piece of glass art in the city. Coming in at three stories tall, it cost $800,000. The piece is part of the 1% for art program of San Francisco…

  • Bufano at Westside Courts

    Westside Courts Housing Project 2501 Sutter Street Lower Pacific Heights This sculpture, by well known San Francisco sculptor  Beniamino Bufano, is titled Saint Francis on Horseback.  Standing  8′ x 6′ and of black granite  it is located in the central courtyard of the project. It was made in 1935 but not placed here until 1945. Westside…

  • Candlestick Park Community Garden Mural

    1150 Carroll Avenue Candlestick Park State Recreation Area This mural is on the side of the Candlestick Park Rangers Office.  The area in front is the Candlestick Point Community Garden. The theme of the mural, expressed through symbolism, shape and color shows the various stages of the gardening experience.  The mural 30′ x 100′, took…

  • CCSF Mission Campus

    1125 Valencia Mission District Said to be the biggest Tonalmachiotl in the world, this version of the Aztec Calendar sits at the entry way to the City College of San Francisco Mission Campus. Tonalmachiotl is called the Aztec Calendar, the Sunstone or Piedra del Sol. Scholars believe that pre-conquest Mesoamerican cultures conceived of time as circular….…

  • Mission Pool and Playground Mural

    Mission District Linda Street off of 19th * * This mural was done by Emmanuel C. Montoya, Sue Cervantes and Juana Alicia.  It sits on the side of the Mission Pool and Playground which houses the New World Tree Mural. These three artists were joined by Raul Martinez and others to create the mural in the…

  • Strong Roots, Healthy Tree

    Olive and Polk The Tenderloin This mural was done in 1989.  It is titled Strong Roots, Healthy Tree and is by Johanna Poethig who intertwined images from Laotian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cultures.  Johanna is responsible for numerous pieces of public art around San Francisco * * Since the 1970s, a growing number of Vietnamese, Laotian…

  • Old Time Fun

    Frank Norris Street (aka as Austin) and Polk The Tenderloin Mike Shine is an artist who lives and paints in Bolinas, California. With no formal art school training, his background instead includes fine woodworking, furniture and cabinet making: skills that often appear in his artwork. He typically creates using driftwood and found objects, and many…

  • Taking Life Lying Down

    100 Block of Hemlock The Tenderloin This Native American is by Spencer Keeton Cuningham. Cunningham is responsible for another  Native American mural in the tenderloin. Cunningham is a member of the Indigenous Arts Coalition, a Bay Area organization started in 2008 that advocates for Native American artists. Spencer Keeton Cunningham (Nez Perce) is originally from Portland,…

  • Nico Berry on York Street

    1354 York Street Mission/Potrero This mural is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program and was done by Nico Berry. Nico Berry’s cultural perspective is shaped by his encounters with hip-hop, skateboarding, and urban youth culture while growing up on the South Side of Chicago. Over the years he has also become interested in exploring…

  • Martin Luther King Memorial

    Yerba Buena Center Gardens The United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Memorial, titled Revelation, was built in San Francisco in 1993. It sits behind a 50’ x 20’ foot wall of cascading water. Located in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the memorial is a lovely walkway constructed under a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool. The reflective pool spills over…

  • Shapes and Letters

    751 and 780 Valencia at 19th The Mission This mural, consisting of shapes, numbers and letters, is by 24 year old SF resident, Jonathan Matas. In 2012 Jonathan did an interview with a group in Atlanta while participating in a show called Living Walls. Here is a few interesting excerpts from the article: I have…

  • The Adam Grant Building

    114 Sansome Street Financial District The garland façade, as well as the coffered entryway, were removed in the 1960s. Over the course of its 145-year history, the Adam Grant Building at 114 Sansome Street has gone through several iterations. Constructed in 1867, the first building housed the dry goods business of Daniel Murphy and Adam…

  • Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

    Duboce and Church Castro Mona Caron, who created the adjacent Bicycle Coalition mural on the back of the Safeway has added new touches to the Muni utility boxes on the sidewalk. On one side of the boxes, bicyclists entering the Wiggle are greeted by an illustrated flowing banner that lists the names of the streets that make…

  • 1360 Montgomery Street – A Streamline Moderne Dream

    1360 Montgomery Street The Malloch Apartments Telegraph Hill The Spirit of California. Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design the images that grace the exterior 1360 Montgomery Street. Du Pont produced two 40-foot high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third…

  • Cloud Portal

    Cloud Portal

    Corner of Washington and Davis Golden Gateway Center This sculpture is titled Cloud Portal and is by Ned Kahn. Kahn has several sculptures around San Francisco Mist periodically emerges from the central void of a sculpture constructed out of stacked horizontal sheets of stainless steel. The mist alternately reveals and obscurs the view of the urban…