Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO

  • Lands End – Labyrinth

    Land’s End * * This labyrinth is at Land’s End in San Francisco, on the Coastal Trail. Created by Eduardo Aguilera in 2004, it is a hike to get to but well worth the trek. The easiest hike is to park at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and walk towards the ocean. You…

  • Hayes Valley – Great Adventure

    Hayes Valley/Western Addition Octavia and Page * This is Growing Home’s Community Garden, their mission is to provide a community garden where both homeless and housed San Franciscans work side-by-side to grow nutritious food, access green space, and build community. The mural on the back wall is by Ben Eine, he has several murals around…

  • Nob Hill – Pacific Union Club

    Nob Hill Pacific Union Club Flood Mansion  * This house, built in 1886 forJames Clair Flood, was the first Brownstone west of the Mississippi. It was the only great Nob Hill house to survive the 1906 Fire, saved just barely, thanks to its Connecticut brownstone walls.  The Pacific Union Club purchased it’s shell and William Bourn,…

  • Nob Hill – Dancing Sprites

    Nob Hill Huntington Park * * * * Dancing Sprites by Henri Leon Greber – Bronze – Circa 1900 This statue sits on the California Street side of Huntington Park on the top of Nob Hill. It was donated to the city by Mrs. James Flood in 1942. It is owned by the San Francisco…

  • Nob Hill – Fountain of the Turtles

    Nob Hill Huntington Park * * * * * * Huntington Park has a rich history steeped in the building of the Trans-continental railroad. The railroad men of California constituted some of the richest men in San Francisco. They were known as the Big four and their names were, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford,…

  • The Tenderloin – Safe Passage

    The Tenderloin * * On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Chinatown Community Development Center teamed with community partners to paint a sidewalk mural, part of the “Safe Passage” project, in the Tenderloin neighborhood. “Safe Passage,” a two-part project that began in 2008, encourages community participation and effort to help improve street safety for children, and…

  • Broadway Tunnel Art

    Chinatown Broadway Tunnel This is the Chinatown side of the Broadway Tunnel.  It is dedicated to Robert C. Levy and has a plaque that reads: Robert C. Levy 1921-1985 City and Engineer and superintendent of Building Inspection City and County of San Francisco He devoted his life to high standards of professionalism in engineering and…

  • SOMA – Federal Building

    SOMA Federal Building 90 7th Street * This post is about the art that is part of the new Federal Building in San Francisco, however, it is difficult to discuss art without introducing you to the building itself.  I abhor the building, and it is not because I have anything agains modern architecture, I just…

  • Union Square – Dewey Monument

    Union Square * Most everyone that visits San Francisco sees this piece of public art.  Two years before the Gold Rush, in 1847, Jasper O’Farrell, the first surveyor of San Francisco,  created a design for the city, with Union Square as a public plaza. By the 1880s, it was a fashionable residential district, and in…

  • Union Square – Lamp Posts

    Union Square * * * Union Square Collonade by Ron M. Fischer Union Square was built and dedicated by San Francisco’s first mayor, John Geary in 1850 and is so named for the pro-Union rallies that happened there before and during the United States Civil War. Since then, the plaza has undergone many notable changes…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Mission District Composite Mural

    Mission District Side of 161 Erie * * This wall began with nothing but a Banksy, it was just the center tree with bird.  Apparently the neighborhood artists decided to run with the theme and added more all in one day.  While  Chor Boogie’s bird, that is identifiable, all other artists remain unknown. A blogger…

  • Golden Gate Park – William McKinely

    The Panhandle Baker Street Between Oak and Fell * * * * William McKinely by Robert Ingersoll Aitken The Panhandle is a park that forms a panhandle with Golden Gate Park. The Panhandle is near the geographic center of the city, and forms the southern boundary of the Western Addition neighborhood and the northern boundary…

  • Lands End – Chinese Cemetery

    Lincoln Park Golf Course Chinese Cemetery 1st and 13th Fairway * * * At the turn of the 20th century there were no municipal golf courses in San Francisco or, for that matter, in any of the surrounding communities. However by 1902 golf was fast gaining popularity, and many private golf and country clubs were…

  • Golden Gate Park – Windmills

    Golden Gate Park Windmills  The North Windmill  Queen Wilhelmina Park  The Murphy Windmill The Murphy Windmill Today There are two windmills in Golden Gate Park that served a valuable purpose when they were built.  When the park was first being developed the focus was on planting trees  to stabilize the ocean dunes that covered three-quarters…

  • Kezar Stadium

    Golden Gate Park Kezar Stadium * * * What it looked like originally Every San Francisco 49er faithful knows that this was the first home of the team. What they may not know is who played their first. An appropriation of $200,000 from the City of San Francisco and a $100,000 endowment by Mary Kezar…

  • Golden Gate Park – Sharon Building

    Golden Gate Park Sharon Building * * * * This delightful example of what some say is Victorian Romanesque architecture and others say is Richardsonian Romanesque, was designed by architects George Washington Percy and Frederick F. Hamilton. The building is the result of a $50,000 donation from silver baron, Nevada senator, and unscrupulous bank owner,…

  • Golden Gate Park – Verdi

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * * * Giuseppe Verdi by Orzio Grossoni March 23, 1914. The statue was dedicated to the sounds of the sweet voice of soprano Luisa Tetrazzini.  She sang the aria from Aida to a reported audience of 20,000.  The memorial was a gift of the Italian Community spearheaded by…

  • Golden Gate Park – Robert Emmet

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * Robert Emmet was an Irish nationalist and Republican, orator and rebel leader born in Dublin, Ireland. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1798.  In 1803 he was captured, tried and executed for high treason. The Emmet statue shows the 25 year old making his famous “Speech…

  • Golden Gate Park – Beethoven

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * As a gift from the Beethoven Men’s Choir, the dedication of this statue coincided with the attendance of the  Choir at the Pan Pacific International Exposition and a grand concert of Beethoven’s works held at the Civic Auditorium that evening (August 6, 1915).  The monument, which was draped…

  • Golden Gate Park – Pioneer Woman

    Golden Gate Park * * * * Pioneer Woman and Children Charles Grafly 1915 This is the only statue of a woman in Golden Gate Park. It is the 1914 work of Charles Grafly. It was featured at the PPIE (Panama-Pacific International Exposition) in 1915 and then again at the GGIE (Golden Gate International Exposition)…

  • Golden Gate Park – Thomas Starr King

    Golden Gate Park JFK Drive * Thomas Starr King – Bronze – 1892 – by Daniel Chester French This statue was unveiled by Thomas Starr King’s grandchildren on October 26, 1892. Thomas Starr King was born December 17, 1824 Mr. King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American…

  • Golden Gate Park – John McClaren

    Golden Gate Park Rhododendron Grove John McLaren, Supervisor of Golden Gate Park from 1890 until his death in 1943, detested statues. He hated them with such a passion that he defied the City authorities and persisted in his lifelong crusade to keep Golden Gate Park statue-free. It is fitting, then, that for his efforts McLaren…

  • Golden Gate Park – Father Junipero Serra

    Golden Gate Park  Father Junipero Serra by Douglas Tilden   This is Father Junipero Serra, one of the most studied men in California history. Born November 24, 1713, Serra was a Majorcan Franciscan friar who founded the chain of missions that go from Mexico to San Francisco, California, he died August 28, 1784. Father Serra…

  • Golden Gate Park – Doughboy

    Golden Gate Park JFK Drive   Heroes Redwood Grove This grove is dedicated to the memory of the members of the San Francisco Parlors, Native sons of the Golden West who gave their lives in the World’s War I and II. The meadow adjacent to this grove and the Doughboy Statue with laurel wreath are…

  • Golden Gate Park – General Pershing

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse A tribute to General Pershing and the victorious armies of the United States and her co-belligerents during the World War 1914-1918 Presented by Dr. Morris Herzstein 1922 Bronze by Haig Patagian * Haig Patigian is noted for his classical works, which are especially numerous in public venues in San Francisco,…

  • Golden Gate Park – Ulysses S. Grant

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * Ulysses S. Grant by Rupert Schmid The pedestal of the bronze bust lists the principle battles of the generals’ command. It was sculpted by Rupert Schmid and funded by a citizens committee in 1904. (However, there are articles the say it was installed in 1894 and 1896). Schmid had…