Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO

  • Golden Gate Park – Rideout Memorial Fountain

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Rideout Memorial Fountain  The Rideout Memorial Fountain – 1924 * This area was developed for the Midwinter Fair’s Grand Court of Honor. The grounds were sculpted from sand dunes by men using horse-drawn sleds. The fountain, dedicated in 1924, was made possible with a $10,000 gift from Corrine Rideout. Corrine…

  • Golden Gate Park – Portals of the Past

    Golden Gate Park Lloyd’s Lake This is the reservoir for the water pumped up its adjacent hill to Rainbow Falls. The water is circulated via the JFK Drive stream, and pours back into the lake in a cascade at its southwest corner. A trail entrance from Transverse Drive leads up the hill overlooking the water.…

  • Golden Gate Park – Stow Lake

    Golden Gate Park Completed in 1893, Stow Lake is considered a landscaping masterpiece. Created out of sand dunes by park superintendant John McLaren, it is the largest of Golden Gate Park’s lakes. Massive holes were dug out of the sand, carloads of clay were wheeled in and windmills were built to draft water from natural…

  • Golden Gate Park – William D. McKinneon

    Golden Gate Park * Chaplain William D. McKinneon First California US VOL INF 1898-99 Here is an excerpt from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories” “William D. McKinnon taught at Santa Clara University and was chaplain with the First U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines.…

  • Golden Gate Park – Cervantes

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Museum Drive just off JFK Drive * * Miguel Cervantes Memorial by Jo Mora Bronze and Stone 1916 This work was presented to the City of San Francisco by J.C. Cebrian and E.J. Molera, September 3, 1916. It is so appealingly, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza looking up to their…

  • Golden Gate Park – Atop Rainbow Falls

    Golden Gate Park Atop of Rainbow Falls           Atop of Rainbow Falls is the Prayer Book Cross (also called Drake’s Cross). It is the tallest monument in the park at 64 feet with base. It is not easy to reach, and is well hidden by foliage. It was erected in Golden…

  • Golden Gate Park – Robert Burns

    Golden Gate Park * * The Plaque reads:Robert Burns 1759-1796To a Mountain Daisy 1786 Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r, Thou’s met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem: To spare thee now is past my pow’r, Thou bonie gem. This plaque donated by the Caledonian Club of San…

  • Golden Gate Park – Turtle Sun Dial

    Golden Gate Park In front of the de Young Museum * This sundial by Melvin Earl Cummings was named by the North American Sundial Society ‘Navigator’s Dial’ because on the dial face there are the images of three explorers of the California coastline. The memorial sun dial was given to San Francisco by the California…

  • Golden Gate Park – Pool of Enchantment

    Golden Gate Park * * * This is the Pool of Enchantment, it sat between the two circular stairway entries to the old de Young Museum. The pool is now on the east side of the entryway. The Pool of Enchantment actually preceded the Museum by a few years. Donor Marie Becker, widow of banker Bernard…

  • Golden Gate Park – Roman Gladiator

    Golden Gate Park *  Roman Gladiator – 1881 by Geef In Commemoration of the Inauguration of the California Midwinter International Exposition On this spot the first shovelful of earth was turned with ceremonies on August 24th 1893. (That first spade of shovel was turned by President William Howard Taft) After the popular 1893 Columbian Exposition…

  • Golden Gate Park – Sphinx

    Golden Gate Park * Copies of Sphinx by Arthur Putnam – 1912 These sit to the right of the entry to the new de Young Museum. The plaque on them reads: This pair of concrete sphinxes replaces the original black granite sculptures commissioned from Arthur Putnam for the entrance to the Egyptian revival Fine Arts…

  • Golden Gate Park – Poeme de la Vigne

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * * * * Poeme de la Vigne by Gustave Doré Cast in Bronze 1882 This piece sits outside the deYoung Museum and the plaque attached reads: Gustave Doré created this vase for French winemakers, who exhibited it at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair. It represents an allegory of the…

  • Golden Gate Park – General Henry Wager Halleck

    Golden Gate Park *This is Major General Henry Wager Halleck. His sculptor was Carl H. Conrads. Halleck was general-in chief of armies in the US from 1862- 1864. He then became Secretary of State and helped frame the California Constitution. The statue was a gift of Halleck’s chief-of-staff General George W. Cullum and is located…

  • Golden Gate Park – James Garfield

    Golden Gate Park * * * The James Abram Garfield Monument sits on a prominent berm southeast of the Conservatory of Flowers. (For more information of the conservatory itself) According to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park by Chris Pollock and Erica Katz, this monument, the park’s oldest, memorializes the 20th president of the United States.  Garfield was tragically…

  • Golden Gate Park – Francis Scott Key

    Golden Gate Park Music Concourse  Francis Scott Key by William Wetmore Story To Francis Scott Key Author of the National Song The Star-Spangled Banner This Monument is Erected by James Lick Of San Francisco California A.D. 1887 * * This monument to Francis Scott Key was commissioned by San Francisco businessman James Lick, who donated…

  • Golden Gate Park – Apple Cider Press

    Golden Gate Park The Apple Cider Press by Thomas Shields Clark * *This 1892 Bronze sculpture was originally exhibited at the Midwinter International Exposition in 1894. The Apple Cider Bronze bears some resemblance to Douglas Tilden’s Mechanics Monument located on Market street in that it bears tribute to the value of hard work. However, this…

  • Golden Gate Park – Our National Pastime

    Golden Gate Park Our National Pastime by Douglas Tilden – 1889 Presented to the Golden Gate Park by a friend of the sculptor as a tribute to his energy, industry and ability Cruet Fondeur, Paris (John Cruet was a moldmaker in Paris, he also worked with Rodin. Fondeur means owner of the foundry) Tilden originally…

  • Golden Gate Park, The Music Concourse and Goethe and Schiller

    Golden Gate Park This is the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park.  It is flanked by the new Academy of Sciences and the New DeYoung Museum. A view of the DeYoung Two important things you should know about Golden Gate Park. It is bigger than Central Park and it was NOT designed by Frederick Law…

  • The Tenderloin – We are Humans

    The Tenderloin Ellis and Jones * * This triptych is by The Luggage Store. According to their website: “…three new murals depicting humans and its relationship with the increasingly robotized culture. It is about living in a time when science is searching for ways to create human traits in robots but in the meantime with…

  • The Tenderloin – Our Future!

    The Tenderloin This was done by Laserpunch and RattleCan Blasters.  They were joined by  team co-captain – and avid artist -Vernon Davis who added his creative touch  The mural is part of  the San Francisco Arts Commission’s StreetSmARTs program. The StreetSmARTS program is a joint initiative of the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Department of Public…

  • The Tenderloin – Pieces of San Francisco

    The Tenderloin 569 Ellis Street Pieces of San Francisco Mural Project – 2008 -Created by youth from Glide Memorial, Youth With a Mission, Golden Gate YMCA and Hamilton Family Center in collaboration with Amnesty International. This mural is in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, on the street side of the organization of “Youth with…

  • Financial District – Guardian by Bruce Beasley

    Financial District 600 California Street  Guardian by Bruce Beasley –  Bronze – 1992 Made possible by the 1% for Public Art Program This sits at the top of the stairs of a public space that you enter through Kent Roberts’ Bridges. Bruce Beasley (1939) is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born in Los Angeles and…

  • Financial District – Three Bridges by Kent Roberts

    Financial District 600 California Street  Three Bridges by Kent Roberts – 1992 Public Art made possible by the 1% for Public Art Program  Kent Roberts has appeared in this site before.  Roberts has a BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.  He also has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University…

  • SOMA – Urban Grit

    SOMA Financial District  215 Fremont Street * * *   Urban Grit by Gordon Huether Glass Panels – Art made possible by the 1% for Public Arts Program From Gary Brady-Herndon’s August 28, 2002 article in SF Gate: Perched high above the banks of the Napa River, a stone’s throw from the Oxbow area of…

  • SOMA – Poetry Sculpture Garden

    SOMA – Poetry Sculpture Garden

    SOMA Financial District 199 Fremont Street Poetry Sculpture Garden The plaque on the side of the wall explains the area like this: 199 Fremont poetry/sculpture garden is a unique collaborative piece that combines the talents of Robert Hass, a world famous poet, and Paul Kos, a world-class sculptor. The garden is composed of three major…

  • The Tenderloin – 191 Golden Gate – Mural

    The Tenderloin 191 Golden Gate Avenue The corner of the mural reads: “The Gifts you take are equal to the gifts you make.” 2009 Precita Eyes Muralists Funded by Community Challenge Grants Program and San Francisco Clean City Coaliton Special Thanks to Tenderloin Community Benefit District, Tenderloin Health, San Franciso Arts Commission. Precita Eyes Website…

  • SOMA – Linking Hand Veil

    SOMA Teen Center 10th Street between Market and Mission This mural is called Linking Hand Veil – it is acrylic and by Ball-Nogues Studio.  It is public art work created by the 1% for Public Art Program According to their website Benjamin Ball grew up in Colorado and Iowa where his mother’s involvement in theatre proved…

  • The Tenderloin – Police Department

    The Tenderloin San Francisco Police Department 301 Eddy Street  First Person Plural by Anders Barth  Fired Clay Glaze *   * (Lenda) Anders Barth has another piece of ceramic work on the Richmond District fire department. First Person Plural is an 8 x 24 foot, hand-carved and glazed tile mural on the Jones Street wall of…

  • The Tenderloin – Hemlock and Larkin Mural

    The Tenderloin Hemlock and Larkin This was done in 2009 as part of Precita Eyes Urban Youth Arts Program.  It was in conjunction with Larkin Street Youth Services.  

  • The Tenderloin – Trolleys

    The Tenderloin Bush and Polk 1399 Bush Street  Trolleys by Bruce Hasson This artwork includes 56 cast aluminum balustrades and a balcony. Four designs based on the human form and images from transportation, interspersed on the top three floors of the garage.  These pieces are part of the San Francisco Arts Commission Collection. Bruce Hasson…