All of SAN FRANCISCO – Page 5 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Solar Totems

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2018

Jan 222018

Glen Park Canyon Rec Center This unique installation is by Charles Sowers. Three reclaimed redwoods receive the “writing” of the sun as its rays are focused by a spherical lens to lightly burn into the wood. As the sun moves across the sky, the burn becomes a line; preserving a record of sunshine periodically broken by fog or cloudy skies. The lens is advanced a small distance each day to create a distinct daily line. After one year the heliograph mechanism is transferred to the next log. In this way, a work is completed on site and becomes a sculptural Continue Reading

Treasure Island Artwork Spread Far and Wide

Posted by Cindy on September 12, 2017

Sep 122017

Treasure Island Artwork Spread Far and Wide

Sometimes you are given an opportunity to peek behind the scenes and today I had just one of those magical moments. Anne Schnoebelen, the passionate author of the website TreasureIsland1939.com asked me to come see the Pacific Fountain and bring along my friend Deborah Blake of Sullivan Masonry, to see about the restoration of the fountain. The fountain has quite a fabulous history. It was part of The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) a World’s Fair held on Treasure Island. The fair, celebrated, among other things, the city’s two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which opened in 1936 Continue Reading

Frank Stella at 222 2nd

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

222 Second Street Frank Stella was born in 1936 in Malden, Massachusetts. He studied painting at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and at Princeton University. After graduating, he moved to New York and began his career with his renowned series, Black Paintings. These two pieces by Stella are titled “Riallaro”; a 1997, pixel painting. “The Pequod Meets the Delight”; a 1992, pixel painting, purchased for $1million. This area is a Privately Owned Public Open Space in San Francisco. Open to the public for enjoyment during business hours.

Glass Goddesses

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

Trinity Plaza Market at 8th April 2017 Trinity Plaza falls under the 1% for Art program. Although the project began construction several years ago, the public space areas are not yet complete. The concept for the public space (titled “C’era Una Volta” – Once Upon a Time) was developed by artist Lawrence Argent. The overall composition of the open space is comprised of glass and marble sculptures, a stone wall and assemblage of blocks evocative of a quarry, and several scattered marble blocks with partially carved sculptures that appear to emerge from the stone. Two of these glass sculptures can Continue Reading

Nature of Medicine

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill Main Lobby of the New Wing When you enter the lobby of the new wing you are overwhelmed by color. The two glass mosaics and the terrazzo floor are all done by Oakland artist, Rupert Garcia, done in 2015 they are titled Nature of Medicine. The floor art piece measures 88 feet by 52 feet. The mosaic mural above the reception desk is 190 inches by 359-1/2 inches and the mural above the stairs measures 252-7/8 inches by 305 inches Rupert García, born in French Camp, California, is a Chicano artist who works in Continue Reading

Archipelago

Posted by Cindy on August 11, 2017

Aug 112017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill Titled Archipelago this piece is based on the concept of a river as a metaphor for life. It was created by Anna Valentina Murch and sits in the plaza connecting the old and new buildings of the hospital complex. An important feature of the installation is a 6’-tall oval-shaped stainless steel banded sculpture, which is internally illuminated at night to serve as a symbolic beacon. Additionally, a series of basket-like, stainless steel banded sculptural seating elements surround planters and companion carved granite benches. Murch was born in Scotland and grew up in Continue Reading

Breath Between Sky and Ocean

Posted by Cindy on August 9, 2017

Aug 092017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill Roof Garden of the Acute Care Building 7th Floor Breath Between Sky and Ocean by Masayuki Nagase was created in 2015 and consists of two hand-carved granite boulders (4 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft.), five polished and carved granite benches (5 ft. by 6 ft. by 18 in. each) and eight polished and carved pavers. The artist’s design depicts a series of ripples carved into the boulders to express themes of water and wind, and the design on the stone pavers has polished surfaces and carved cloud-like forms. Masayuki Continue Reading

River of Time

Posted by Cindy on August 8, 2017

Aug 082017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill Acute Care Building 7th Floor This piece, titled River of Time, is in three pieces. The above piece is at the end of a short hallway on the 7th floor. The other two, however, are behind locked doors. I was able to snap a photo of the others when the doors were opened by a staff member. River of Time consists of a curved glass wall 98-2/8 inches by 97-3/8 inches and the two glass light-well walls in a corridor that measure 93-5/8 inches by 246 inches. All are stained glass Continue Reading

Ringold Alley’s Leather Memoir

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2017

Jul 172017

Ringold Alley Between 8th and 9th Streets Harrison and Folsom SOMA Prior to the AIDS crisis, Ringold alley served as one of the go-to places for gay men to rendezvous after the numerous gay bars along Folsom Street (the “Miracle Mile”) closed for the night. Until the 1990s, Ringold Street continued to play a major role in San Francisco’s leather and gay SOMA scenes. Leather Memoir is a project to honor the history of this area. “Leather Memoir” consists of several custom fabricated features. A black granite marker stone mounted at 9th and Ringold features an etched narrative, which includes a Continue Reading

Ethereal Bodies

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2017

Jul 152017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill Parking entry on 22nd Street Titled Ethereal Bodies, this piece, done in 2015, is by Cliff Garten. It consists of nine undulating stainless steel sculptures lit by multicolored LED lights. The installation’s stainless steel rods range in height from 14 to 22 feet tall. The surface of each is finely worked to achieve the most interesting interaction with sunlight and the LED lights at night. Garten received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from the Continue Reading

Healing Hearts

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2017

Jul 152017

San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Potrero Hill The pieces were all created by sculptor Tom Otterness who was born 1952 in Wichita, Kansas. He is a prolific public art sculptor who has been creating whimsical satirical pieces since the 1970s. * Otterness employs the “lost wax” process to cast his bronze figures, which range from monumental to palm-sized. About his sculptures, the artist says, “I try to make work that speaks a common language that people understand, a visual language that doesn’t intimidate them.” * The sculptures are part of the San Francisco Art Commission Collection and cost $700,000. Otterness Continue Reading

Moscone Park

Posted by Cindy on July 11, 2017

Jul 112017

Moscone Park 1800 Chestnut Street Marina District This Leatherback Sea Turtle and the Pink Short Spined Starfish in the playground of Moscone Park were gifts to the San Francisco Arts Commission from the Friends of Moscone Park These bronze sculptures were the work of Jonathan Roberson Beery. Jonathan Beery is a California native and studied at the California State University in Long Beach. The tiled seating was also a gift of Friends of Moscone Park and was a joint project between the artist and children of the neighborhood. The bench cost approximately $9500. *

Birds in the Mission

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2017

Jul 082017

In Chan Kaajal Park 17th and Folsom Mission District There are two California birds represented in this Mission district park. They are painted water-jet cut steel panels created by Carmen Lomas Garza. San Francisco-based artist was born in 1948 in Kingsville, Texas. She attended Texas Arts and Industry University (now Texas A&M) and received a BS in art education. She also holds a Master of Education and a Master of Arts degree. She is well known for her paintings, ofrendas and for her papel picado work inspired by her Mexican-American heritage. Her work is a part of the permanent collections of the Continue Reading

Esmeralda Slide Park

Posted by Cindy on April 29, 2017

Apr 292017

Winfeld and Esmeralda Bernal Heights April 2017 In the 1970s a group of volunteers, with some help from the city, conceived and created Esmeralda Slide Park. That volunteer organization later became the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center. A New York Times article published in 2010 noted that “At the park’s dedication party in 1979, a shrieking Mayor Dianne Feinstein slid down her chute, racing and defeating the district supervisor, Lee Dolson. Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. enjoyed the plunge at a rededication in 1998, wearing a three-piece suit and a fedora. Tom Ammiano, the District 13 assemblyman and a nearby resident, has also enjoyed Continue Reading

Woodward Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2017

Feb 042017

Woodward Gardens Duboce and Woodward Street Mission/South of Market On January 19, 1873, 12,000 people showed up at Woodward’s Garden in the Mission District to watch Frenchman Gus Buislay and a small boy soar aloft in a hot air balloon. The man who made it happen was Robert B. Woodward. Woodward had made his fortune in the grocery store business. In 1849, he opened a store right off the waterfront to serve the ever-increasing number of people flooding into the Port of San Francisco for the Gold Rush. With the acumen of a savvy businessman, he realized the ’49er economy Continue Reading

Shadow Kingdom

Posted by Cindy on January 27, 2017

Jan 272017

16th at Missouri Potrero Hill The plaque at the site reads: This artwork is inspired by the history of Mission Bay, a 5,000 year-old tidal marsh that was once the habitat of a rich array of flora and fauna. Growth of the city in the 19th century brought shipyards, warehouses and railroads and this part of the bay was eventually filled with sand and dirt from nearby development, as well as debris from the 1906 earthquake. The five panels that form Shadow Kingdom evoke this layered history. Ship masts intersect with topographical and architectural references. Some of the plants and Continue Reading

Mosaics of Balboa Park

Posted by Cindy on December 13, 2016

Dec 132016

Ocean and San Jose Avenue Mission Terrace/Outer Mission There are several mosaics throughout the new Balboa Park Playground. This bench sits on the exterior of the playground and explains about the restoration of the park, it also lists all the donors that helped to make the project possible. The mosaic work is by Rachel Rodi. Students from Denman Middle School and Lick Wilmerding helped to design and build the mosaics on the two stairways, under the supervision of Rachel Rodi. Rachel received a BA in Ceramics from Regis University, Denver Colorado and studied at the Institute of Mosaic Art in Continue Reading

Balboa Park’s Art Fence

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2016

Dec 102016

Ocean and San Jose Avenue Mission Terrace/Outer Mission Balboa Park became part of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department in 1908. In the 1950s a swimming pool and baseball fields were added. Then in 1953 a 3,000 person soccer stadium was included in the park. The 1970s brought a tot park, and then age and neglect brought about the need for a complete overhaul. The playground was completely rebuilt by the neighbors, along with tennis courts in 2008, as of 2016, the city is still trying to find the budget to upgrade the swimming facilities, but the park itself is Continue Reading

Monarch

Posted by Cindy on December 7, 2016

Dec 072016

1600 Owens Mission Bay, San Francisco Cliff Garten Studio is internationally recognized for creating integrated public art projects which collaborate with urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and engineering to challenge the assumptions of how public places are built and used. Through a diversity of materials, methods and scale, the studio is committed to exploiting the artistic and expressive potential of public spaces and infrastructure in varied urban and natural contexts. Cliff Garten has a Masters of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University GSD. He has served as a visiting Continue Reading

The Park Emergency Hospital

Posted by Cindy on August 29, 2016

Aug 292016

811 Stanyan Golden Gate Park The Park Emergency Hospital is part of a system of Emergency Hospitals that existed in San Francisco during the early 1900s. There were four of them. Park, Central (in Civic Center and still functioning), Alemany and Harbor (since torn down). This particular hospital has been designated City Landmark #201. Built in 1902, at a cost of $8488, it functioned as a hospital until 1978. It remained an ambulance station until 1991, and it now serves as offices for the Rec and Park District. The architect was Newton J. Tharp. The San Francisco ran his obituary on Continue Reading

Anima by Jim Sanborn

Posted by Cindy on August 24, 2016

Aug 242016

1700 Owens Street Mission Bay, San Francisco This piece, in Mission Bay, is titled Anima, and is by American Sculptor Jim Sanborn (1945 – ). Sanborn is best known for creating the encrypted Kryptos sculpture at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a piece of work that has captured the imagination of cryptologists around the world for years. He attended Randolph-Macon College, receiving a degree in paleontology, fine arts, and social anthropology in 1968, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Pratt Institute in 1971. He taught at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and then for nine years was Continue Reading

Central Emergency and Detention Hospital

Posted by Cindy on August 23, 2016

Aug 232016

Central Emergency and Detention Hospital

50 Dr. Tom Waddell Place previously 50 Lech Walesa previously 50 Ivy In the alley, somewhat behind the Public Health Building that dominates the corner of Polk and Grove in San Francisco’s Civic Center is a small building that was once the Central Emergency and Detention Hospital. According to the 1918 Municipal Record Volume 11 the building included a court room, and also housed the Social Services Department of the Public Health Department. The architect is not known, although it was most likely a city architect. The contractor was Anderson and Ringrose, they were paid $78,140 for their work. Other Continue Reading

Overflow X

Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2016

Aug 192016

1500 Owens Street Mission Bay, San Francisco Overflow X is a stainless steel sculpture by Jaume Plensa. Jaume Plensa was born in 1955 in Barcelona, where he studied at the Llotja School of Art and Design and at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Art. He has been a teacher at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and regularly cooperates with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a guest professor. This particular design is not new. Plensa has been utilizing the seated figure created from letters in various installations around the world. They range in Continue Reading

Elevators and Marine Engines

Posted by Cindy on August 18, 2016

Aug 182016

235 First Street Foundry Square This wonderful building, sitting amongst all of the surrounding high-rises brings joy to the eye and a question to the mind. The City of San Francisco has labeled this the H.N. Cook Belting Company designed by Ward and Blohme. However the American Architect and Architecture Magazine, Volume 113 disputes that fact with this photograph. The photo was accompanied by a full length article in the January to June 1918 issue. The Western Architecture and Engineering Magazine – Volume 40-41 states that the building is the home to the B.C. Van Emon Elevator Company. This 1915 Continue Reading

The Metropolitan Laundry Company

Posted by Cindy on August 15, 2016

Aug 152016

7 Heron South of Market, San Francisco The lovely trumpet vine on this building is hiding a lot of the detail of the brick work, but the buildings history is the real charm. Built around 1907, this was once part of the Metropolitan Laundry Company and Power Plant. According to the January 8, 1910 Journal of Electricity, this was a modern, cutting edge plant. It was touted as the largest and most up-to-date in the U.S. The whole laundry facility was housed in two buildings and covered an acre of land. The second building, at the corner of Berwick and Harrison, is Continue Reading

The Bethlehem Steel Building

Posted by Cindy on August 12, 2016

Aug 122016

Pier 70 Dog Patch The Bethlehem Steel Office Building, also known as Building 101, was designed by San Francisco architect Fredrick H. Meyer. The building anchors Pier 70, sitting at its entry on the corner of Illinois and 20th Street. Built in 1917, the building is Classical Revival in style. The three story building consists of 56,268 square feet. There is an iron perimeter fence framing the entrance to the building that originally extended down both 20th and Illinois Streets. Building 101 was designed as a new main office building in 1917, at this point Bethlehem Steel was growing by leaps and bounds Continue Reading

1176 Harrison

Posted by Cindy on August 10, 2016

Aug 102016

This 9,796 square-foot building is actually two: the east section was constructed in 1912 and the west section was constructed in 1929. The buildings were unified by the present façade in 1929, This 1-story, steel and reinforced concrete industrial building was designed in the Art Moderne style. The interesting architectural details include an incised sign that reads “San Francisco Galvanizing Works,” concrete beltcourses, a stepped recessed bay, galvanized metal rivets, and a parapet. Like its neighbor at 1140 Harrison it to sits in the Western SOMA Light Industrial and Residential Historic District. Also likes it neighbor it is historically significant due to Continue Reading

1140 Harrison Street

Posted by Cindy on August 4, 2016

Aug 042016

This nondescript industrial building is about to be torn down for a giant condominium project. I thought it time to get it documented before it disappeared. Part of the SOMA Light Industrial and Residential Historic District, the building has been marked historical due to its age, but that does not prevent it from being torn down, it is simply a designation. Built in 1907, the building is a 75,625 square-feet, 1-story, brick masonry industrial building in a modified Renaissance Revival style. The rectangular-plan building, clad in smooth stucco on the primary façade and brick on the secondary facade, is capped by Continue Reading

The Lost Art of Leo Lentelli

Posted by Cindy on May 9, 2016

May 092016

San Francisco Main Library Now the Asian Art Museum Sometime between 1915 and 1917, Leo Lentelli was commissioned to design five large sculptures for the facade of the Main Public Library, now the Asian Art Museum. In a March 1918 article titled “An Expression of Decorative Sculpture – Leo Lentelli,” published in The Architect and Engineer, Sadakichi Hartmann boldly stated that the five figures were “by far the most important work Lentelli has as yet attempted.” The sculptures, which represent Art, Literature, Philosophy, Science and Law, are 7-feet 8-inch high cement figures once set atop granite pedestals and originally sat Continue Reading

St. Josephs of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on May 9, 2016

May 092016

1401 Howard at 10th SOMA St Joseph’s Church was founded, at 10th and Howard, in 1861, by Archbishop Joseph Alemany. The church, home to over 300 mostly Irish families, was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The church we see today was constructed in 1913. By that time, the Irish of the neighborhood had moved away and the church welcomed families from Latin America, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. By 1980 St. Joseph’s was the largest Filipino parish in the US. The church building was designed by San Francisco architect John J. Foley in the Romanesque Revival style. Continue Reading

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