All of SAN FRANCISCO – Page 7 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Grasses and Wildflowers in the Tenderloin

Posted by Cindy on May 18, 2015

May 182015

Grasses and Wildflowers in the Tenderloin

Father Boeddeker Park 259 Eddy Street The Tenderloin Father Boedekker Park has gone through a much needed and highly anticipated refurbishment. The $9.3 million face-lift to the Tenderloins only multi-use park was long over due. The $9.3 million renovation was made possible with a $4.93 million grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, more than $3.3 million of private contribution from corporate business donors, and funds from The Trust of Public Land, as well as more than $1.7 million of City’s general fund, open space fund, and Parks Bond. There was already some public art in the park that Continue Reading

Castro District History

Posted by Cindy on May 12, 2015

May 122015

Castro Street The Castro Street Design Project was a street improvement project by the City of San Francisco that improved the cable car turn around at Market Street and Castro Street between Market and 19th. This included the fabulous rainbow cross walk you see above and historic markers placed in the sidewalk up and down Castro Street on both sides of the street for those two blocks. The native Yelamu people lived nearby in the village of Chutchul relocating each winter to the bayside village of Sitlintac. A creek flows past grassland and chaparral toward the bay along the path Continue Reading

First Responder Plaza – SF

Posted by Cindy on May 4, 2015

May 042015

1245 Third Street Mission Bay The new City and County Public Safety Building houses the police administrative headquarters, a relocated district police station, a new district fire station, San Francisco’s SWAT team and fleet vehicle parking. Part of the design included the First Responder Plaza at the corner on Third Street, designed by artist Paul Kos who was responsible for the Poetry Garden in SOMA. In First Responder Plaza, Paul Kos created a design around three central motifs standing for Police, Fire and Paramedic Services. A bronze bell, a seven point star and a conifer as a natural flag pole. According to Continue Reading

Spiral of Gratitude

Posted by Cindy on April 29, 2015

Apr 292015

Spiral of Gratitude is part of the $3.2 million Percent for Art Program that went into San Francisco’s new Public Safety Building. Spiral of Gratitude, by New York artist Shimon Attie, is a suspended, 17 foot tall 10 foot round glass cylinder that is lit from a skylight above. The cylinder is inscribed with a poem that contains sentiments of survivors based on information gathered in interviews by Margo Perin with the relatives, partners, and co-workers of police officers who were lost in the line of duty. There is also a text in bas relief behind the cylinder on the concrete Continue Reading

Passage of Remembrance

Posted by Cindy on April 6, 2015

Apr 062015

Memorial Court Civic Center In 1932 when the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building were built the project was supposed to include a memorial to veterans. The project ran out of money, and one was never made. However, during this time the octagonal lawn in the Memorial Court has held earth from lands where Americans fought and died. This stone octagon, now encloses the earth. The Memorial has been designed so that it can be opened to accept newly consecrated earth from battlefields of the future. In 1935 that War Memorial Complex architect Arthur Brown, Jr., recommended Continue Reading

Six Degrees

Posted by Cindy on March 31, 2015

Mar 312015

2825 Diamond Street Glen Park Six Degrees is an artwork installed in the entrance of Glen Park Branch Library done in 2007 for $36,000. The artists are Reddy Lieb and Linda Raynsford. The circular art elements were inspired by the history and ecology of Glen Park. The circle, which the artists used as their main geometric design form, is intended to symbolize wholeness and community. Specific references in the artwork are: In 1889, an amusement park was built in Glen Canyon to attract potential home buyers. One of the attractions was tightrope walker Jimmy “Scarface” Williams. Early streetcar tracks in Glen Park are Continue Reading

NYCHOS

Posted by Cindy on March 30, 2015

Mar 302015

500 Geary Lower Nob Hill Austrian street artist NYCHOS is in town for the opening his show “Street Anatomy” at Fifty24SF Gallery on April 18th. In conjunction with the show, he has been putting up a few pieces around town. According to his facebook page the Austrian urban art and graffiti illustrator Nychos was born in 1982 in Styria, Austria where he grew up in a hunting family. Getting confronted by the anatomy of dead animals at an early age and being an 80’s kid with an interest for cartoons and heavy metal ended up being some of the Continue Reading

Rainbow Honor Walk

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2015

Mar 202015

Castro Street Between Market and 20th There are twenty individuals honored on the Rainbow Honor Walk. According to the Walks website: The Rainbow Honor Walk seeks to honor heroines & heroes of the LGBT communities through a sidewalk tribute in San Francisco’s historic Castro district to honor their contributions. The Rainbow Honor Walk is an all-volunteer organization. The criteria for the first 20 names to be placed on the Rainbow Honor Walk are as follows: Self expressed LGBT individuals, now deceased, who made significant contributions in their fields. Criteria for additional names to be added to the Walk over the Continue Reading

Sprinter at the Koret

Posted by Cindy on February 2, 2015

Feb 022015

Koret Health and Recreation Center 2130 Fulton Street Inner Richmond This bronze sculpture sits directly to the right of the entry door to the University of San Francisco’s, Koret Health and Recreation Center. It is an 8′ tall bronze by Edith Peres-Lethmate. According to the Smithsonian the sculpture is a large-scale version of a sculpture executed in 1976. The sculpture was commissioned by the University and was funded by the university’s Class of 1986. According to the Koret blog ““Sprinter,” was originally created on a smaller scale in celebration of the 1984 Olympic games.” Edith Peres-Lethmate was born 1927 in Koblentz Continue Reading

Dr. Burt Brent and his Hippopatomus

Posted by Cindy on January 28, 2015

Jan 282015

San Francisco Zoo Sloat and The Great Highway Lakeside This hippopotamus is not only a wonderful sculpture but a favorite climbing creature in the San Francisco Zoo. Heavyweight was sculpted by Dr. Burt Brent of Portola Valley. According to a 2007 article in the Almanac: Dr. Burt Brent, a plastic surgeon with an office in Woodside, has built his career and an international reputation on creating living ears for children born without ears or with deformed ears. He has pioneered a technique for building new ears out of the kid’s own rib cartilage; the ears actually grow as the child Continue Reading

@Large Ai Weiwei Part 4

Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2015

Jan 162015

Alcatraz Island September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015 There are two audio exhibits in this exhibition. The first can be found in the first floor, cell block A of the Cellhouse. Inside each cell, you can stand, although, as you can see, stools are provided, while you listen to spoken words, poetry, and music by people who have been detained for the creative expression of their beliefs, as well as works made under conditions of incarceration. There are 12 cells and each cell features a different recording. You can hear things as diverse as Tibetan singer Lolo, who has called Continue Reading

Refraction @Large Ai Weiwei Part 3

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2015

Jan 152015

$Refraction @Large Ai Weiwei Part 3$

Alcatraz Island September 27, 2014 to April 26 2015 You are not able to view this piece from any place other than the guards catwalk above the room, while peering through panes of glass, this is why I have had to take the photo from the website. It was a very foggy day when I was there and pictures of this installation piece were almost impossible. The 8,000-pound sculpture is made of solar panels used to heat food in Tibet. The sculpture resembles a giant bird’s wing. The peering through the glass is another metaphor for imprisonment, and the Continue Reading

Trace @Large Ai Weiwei Part 2

Posted by Cindy on January 14, 2015

Jan 142015

Alcatraz Island September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015 This is Trace. The most ambitious, the most highly touted, the most written about, and yet, in my opinon, the one that least lived up to expectations. This entire project is made of 1.2 MILLION LEGO blocks. It took a long time for the committee that put this together to decide who should be in it. Ai Weiwei selected these individuals based on information provided by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, he has called them “the heroes of our time”. The group also consisted of independent research members of Continue Reading

With Wind @Large Ai Weiwei Part 1

Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2015

Jan 132015

Alcatraz Island September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015 If you have read this blog often you will know that I am a huge Ai Weiwei fan. I finally had the opportunity to visit the installation of his work on Alcatraz Island, and walked away as impressed as ever. There is so much that has been written on this exhibit that I am going to simply show you a few photos with explanations and encourage you to catch it before it leaves. The exhibit is found in many different areas, and I do not recommend attempting to do both the Continue Reading

Lover’s Lane

Posted by Cindy on December 22, 2014

Dec 222014

Lover’s Lane The Presidio There is a small trail in the Presidio titled Lover’s Lane. It has a well known history that you can read on the plaque found at one end of what is still existing of this trail. The sign reads: “This trail has witnessed the passing of Spanish soldiers, Franciscan missionaries and American soldiers of two centuries It is perhaps the oldest travel corridor in San Francisco. In 1776 this path connected the Spanish Presidio with the mission, three miles to the southeast. During the 1860s it became the main route used by off-duty solders to walk Continue Reading

Home Savings and Public Art

Posted by Cindy on December 17, 2014

Dec 172014

98 West Portal Avenue Corner of Vicente and West Portal West Portal This mosaic is on the outside of the bank that stands at the corner. At the time of the commission of the art (1976-77), the bank was a Home Savings Bank. This particular mural was a collaboration between Millard Owen Sheets, Denis O’Connor and designer Susan L. Hertel. Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was a native California. He was a painter and a representative of the California School of Painting, later a teacher and educational director, and architect of more than 50 branch banks. He attended the Chouinard Continue Reading

Los Lobos de Loyola

Posted by Cindy on December 10, 2014

Dec 102014

University of San Francisco Fulton Street In Front of Gleeson Library/Geshke Center Inner Richmond Commissioned by USF this piece was installed November of 2011. The 2-ton work, Los Lobos de Loyola, depicts the wolves and stewpot from the family coat of arms of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. Some say the 15th-century image is a pun on the Loyola family name (“lobos y olla,” wolves and a stewpot); others suggest the pot is a symbol of hospitality and the wolves point to the family’s reputation as warriors. Crafted by Pancho Cardenas, the eight-foot high by sixteen foot long Continue Reading

Abstract Sculpture in BART

Posted by Cindy on December 2, 2014

Dec 022014

16th and Mission 24th and Mission Bart Stations Mission District These abstract, cast stone, pieces can be found in both the 16th and Mission and 24th and Mission BART stations. The works are by William George Mitchell. Mitchell (born 1925) is an English sculptor, artist and designer. He is best known for his large scale concrete murals and public works of art from the 1960s and 1970s. His work is often of an abstract or stylised nature with its roots in the traditions of craft and “buildability”. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London. After long years Continue Reading

Mission Branch Library and Leo Lentelli

Posted by Cindy on November 25, 2014

Nov 252014

Mission Branch Library 24th Between Bartlett and Orange Alley Mission District Leo Lentelli was one of San Francisco’s more prolific and well known sculptors during his time. Sadly very little of his work survives inside of the city. There is a beautiful piece at the Hunter Dunlin building downtown, and this sculpture over the original entry door on 24th Street of the Mission Branch Library. Lentelli, an immigrant from Italy spent 1914-1918 in San Francisco. During that time he did a series of equestrian statues that were part of the Court of the Universe and his sculptures of Water Sprites for the Continue Reading

What are those ruins in the parking lot of the San Francisco Zoo?

Posted by Cindy on November 17, 2014

Nov 172014

What are those ruins in the parking lot of the San Francisco Zoo?

San Francisco Zoo The Parking Lot Sloat and The Great Highway This small monument is a remnant of a once great institution of San Francisco, the Fleishacker Pool. Fleishhacker Pool, like the San Francisco Zoo, was a gift to San Francisco by Herbert Fleishhacker. The idea, conceived by John McLaren, designer of Golden Gate Park, was to help bring athletic competitions to San Francisco. The first event held at the pool was on April 22, 1925, and featured a freestyle swimmer named Johnny Weissmuller representing the Illinois Athletic Club. Weissmuller appeared several times at Fleishhacker and was a real crowd pleaser. Continue Reading

155 Sansome Street

Posted by Cindy on November 10, 2014

Nov 102014

155 Sansome Street Financial District The sculptures over the Sansome Street entrance to the Pacific Stock Exchange, now the City Club, were done in 1929-1930 by Ralph Stackpole. Stackpole has been in this website many times before and you can read about him and his work here. On January 18, 1930 Junius Cravens of the Argonaut wrote of this piece: “As one studies Stackpole’s fine decorative sculpture group, ‘Progress,’ which overhangs the east entrance to the office building, one finds in it a symbol,whether employed consciously or not, of the aforesaid future. A huge nude male figure, in high relief, dominates Continue Reading

Barnyard Watchdogs

Posted by Cindy on November 3, 2014

Nov 032014

San Francisco Zoo Entry to the Children’s Zoo Barnyard Watchdogs by Burt Brent This cute sculpture and climbing item is by Dr. Burt Brent. Dr. Brent is a reconstructive plastic surgeon best known for his work in reconstructing the absent outer ear. He has repaired ear defects in 1,800 patients, most of them children born with ear deformities such as Microtia. He also reconstructs ears lost or due to some form of trauma. Dr. Brent is now retired. Brent grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and was highly influenced by his maternal grandfather who taught him cabinetry and woodworking. Although he considered Continue Reading

Hearst Grizzly Gulch

Posted by Cindy on October 21, 2014

Oct 212014

San Francisco Zoo This grizzly by Tom Schrey graces the Hearst Grizzly Gulch building at the SF Zoo. Tom has a degree from California College of the Arts and presently works at Artworks Foundry. The following was excerpted from a June 15, 2007 SF Gate article by Patricia Yollin: Three summers ago, two grizzly bear orphans in Montana were trying to fend off starvation. Now they are coddled ursine superstars living in San Francisco. On Thursday, the public got its first glimpse of the twins’ opulent new home as Hearst Grizzly Gulch, a $3.7 million habitat at the Continue Reading

California Grizzly

Posted by Cindy on October 15, 2014

Oct 152014

San Francisco Zoo In Front of the California Grizzly Exhibit This Grizzly sculpture is by Scientific Art Studio. From their website: We are designers, sculptors, painters, welders, builders, crafters, fabricators, and – above all – dreamers. We live to see the world through new eyes, to laugh and play like children, and to explore boldly and fearlessly. We push boundaries and relish challenges. For the past 33 years Scientific Art Studio has been the design and fabrication studio pushing the envelope of the latest fabrication techniques and bringing beautiful to everything we do. Under Ron Holythuysen’s creative direction, our multi-talented Continue Reading

Bruton Sisters WPA Mural at the San Francisco Zoo

Posted by Cindy on October 4, 2014

Oct 042014

Bruton Sisters WPA Mural at the San Francisco Zoo

San Francisco Zoo Mother’s Building These murals, on the Mother’s Building at the San Francisco Zoo were WPA projects. They were done by three sisters: Esther Bruton, Helen Bruton and Margaret Bruton. Helen Bruton has murals in downtown San Francisco that you can read about here. Here is an excerpt explaining the sisters work on the Zoo murals in their own voices: This Oral history interview with Helen and Margaret Bruton, 1964 Dec. 4, is from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Interview with Helen and Margaret Bruton Conducted by Lewis Ferbrache In Monterey, California December 4, 1964 LF: All Continue Reading

The Carved Tree of San Francisco Zoo

Posted by Cindy on September 24, 2014

Sep 242014

San Francisco Zoo In Front of the Mother’s House Lakeside This carved seat, surrounded by animals was done by Sean Eagleton, well known for his huge wood carvings on long dead trees. He prefers to call them “healing poles”. Shane feels that the huge healing poles, once planted at various points all over this earth will bring solace to Mother Earth and those that inhabit it. Shane “Tonu” Eagleton is a Polynesian master wood carver, whose work can be found in Golden Gate National Park, the San Francisco Zoo, Presidio National Park, the California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, Continue Reading

Gwynn Murrill at the San Francisco Zoo

Posted by Cindy on September 15, 2014

Sep 152014

San Francisco Zoo Sloat and The Great Highway Lakeside Cougar III by Gwynn Murrill Gwynn Murrill is a Los Angeles based artist who received her MFA from UCLA in 1972. Murrill has three sculptures at the San Francisco Zoo. Cougar III and Tiger 2 are at the front entryway and Hawk V is located at the Koret Animal Resource Center. Tiger 2 Gwynn Murrill has always worked with animals as her subject matter. Stripped of surface detail the sculptures are almost abstract in form. Hawk V The Arts Commission purchased Hawk V for $29,000. Tiger 2 was purchased for $85,000, Continue Reading

Maternite

Posted by Cindy on September 8, 2014

Sep 082014

Jewish Senior Living Group Orignally known as Jewish Home of the Aged 120 Silver Avenue Excelsior District Ursula Malbin was born on April 12, 1917, in Berlin to Jewish parents, both doctors of medicine. While in Germany she worked as a cabinet-maker. In 1939, a few weeks before World War II, but after her family had already left the country, she fled Nazi Germany, alone, penniless and without a passport. She found herself in Geneva when the war broke out, and there she met the sculptor Henri Paquet, whom she married in 1941. Since 1967, Ursula Malbin has divided her creative Continue Reading

Native Sons of the Golden West

Posted by Cindy on September 2, 2014

Sep 022014

414 Mason Street Union Square The Native Sons of the Golden West Building on Mason street is an eight story, steel frame structure, with a highly ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick. Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of men associated with the discovery and settlement of California. They are (starting at the bottom and moving up and to the right): Cabrillo, General John A. Sutter, Admiral John Drake Sloat, Peter Burnett, General A. M. Winn, James W. Marshall, John C. Fremont and Father Junipero Serra. These were sculpted by Jo Mora, who has Continue Reading

Hans Shiller Plaza

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2014

Aug 272014

Corner of Peabody and Leland Visitation Valley Opening in March 2001, Hans Schiller Plaza was the first Visitacion Valley Greenway site to be completed. Construction was supervised by the Trust for Public Land with funding from the Columbia Foundation founded by the late Madeleine Haas Russell. The gift was made in memory of her friend Hans J. Schiller. Hans J. Schiller was a Bay Area architect and environmental activist. Mr. Schiller’ s career spanned more than 50 years. Schiller settled in the Bay Area in the 1940s and established the firm, Hans J. Schiller Associates, in Mill Valley. Schiller’s passion Continue Reading

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