Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Helen Bruton’s Tile Murals at the Golden West Hotel

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2014

Jan 222014

Helen Bruton's Tile Murals at the Golden West Hotel

114 Powell Street Union Square In the very narrow entry way to the Hotel Union Square are these two exquisite tile murals. While the hotel was originally built in 1908 for the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, the murals were not added until 1935. The murals were done by Helen Bruton Bell (1898-1985) Ms. Bell was a fascinating woman. One of three artistic sisters, she was born in Alameda. She attended the University of California for one year. During World War I, she worked with her sisters Esther and Margaret in occupational therapy at the Letterman Hospital in San Francisco. Continue Reading

Cosmo Cocktails

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2014

Jan 212014

20 Cosmo Place Lower Nob Hill/Tenderloin This unassuming building has been providing fine drinks, food and happiness to San Francisco’s since 1951. Trader Vic’s opened in Cosmo Alley in 1951. The restaurant was built from an old corrugated parking garage. Passing along the narrow walk way through a tropical garden, customers entered the rustic shed. This photograph, from the archives of the San Francisco Chronicle (with no caption or story) must show the very beginnings of the place, if not the construction for its opening. While I spent fond nights there eating Pu pu Platters and downing Trader Vic’s Continue Reading

Painted Grain Silos in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2014

Jan 152014

696 Amador Street off 3rd Street / Pier 90/92 Bayview/Hunters Point A while back I wrote about these grain silos, I also mentioned at the time they eventually would become an art project. You can read all about the silos here. This project is part of the Blue Greenway Project, a $2.2 million project funded through the Port of San Francisco. The Project was awarded to the Seattle based firm of Haddad/Drugan. It is titled “Bayview Rise” and is expected to be in place for a minimum of 5 years. According to their website: Bayview Rise works 2-dimensionally as Continue Reading

Windmills of Portola

Posted by Cindy on January 14, 2014

Jan 142014

Palega Park 500 Felton Portola District In November of 2013 eighty year old Palega Park underwent a $21.2 million Restoration. The Park’s new clubhouse features a mosaic mural by Kelly Ording commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission through the city’s two-percent-for-art ordinance. Located behind the clubhouse’s portico windows and visible from the street, Windmills pays homage to the Portola’s past as the center of the city’s commercial flower industry. The mural cost $127,400. According to Ording, “This mural contains four main elements that I found fascinating when researching this neighborhood; the wind, the windmills, the greenhouses and the fertile land. I Continue Reading

Tile Benches at Alta Plaza

Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2014

Jan 132014

Alta Plaza Steiner/Clay/Scott/Jackson Pacific Heights There are two benches in the children’s area of Alta Plaza Playground covered in beautiful tile mosaics. Commissioned by Friends of Alta Plaza Park, the artist, Aileen Barr, combined handmade tile and mosaic to create the two seating walls for the newly renovated playground. A series of donor tiles are integrated into the design, which display the names of community members who contributed to the fund for the renovation. The seating walls measure 30 ft and 50 ft in length. Aileen Barr has been in this website many times, you can see her Continue Reading

Restoring Historic Murals

Posted by Cindy on January 10, 2014

Jan 102014

Franklin Square Park 2500 17th Street Potrero Hill Brotherhood of Man by Anthony Stellon This once abandoned mosaic was found by David Schweisguth in 2006. While walking his beagle Huxley in Franklin Square Park one afternoon, Huxley sniffed around a large concrete slab serving as a makeshift potting table, Schweisguth looked under the plastic sheet covering the table top and found this treasure. With the help of local mural expert Lillian Sizemore, who wrote A Guide to Mosaic Sites: San Francisco, they discovered that the artist was Anthony Stellon, who died in 2005. Schwiesguth’s discovery came at the right time. A neighborhood Continue Reading

Tiled Stairways to Heaven

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2014

Jan 092014

Golden Gate Heights 16th Avenue between Kirkham and Lawton This is the second project by Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher covering stairways in the Golden Gate Heights area. You can read about both of them and their first project here. This project was made possible by a group called Hidden Garden Steps. According to their website: The Hidden Garden Steps Project is a community-based, public art initiative to create mosaic steps, a public garden and a wall mural on 16th Avenue extending uphill from Kirkham to Lawton in the Golden Gate Heights/Inner Sunset neighborhood. Formal partners include the San Francisco Continue Reading

Eng-Skell

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2014

Jan 082014

1043 Howard Street SOMA It is hard to believe that in a world of corporate mergers and gentrification of neighborhoods, that the original company that built this wonderful deco building still occupies it. In 1900 W.A. England and H.D. Skellinger founded the Eng-Skell Company. The company made flavoring extracts for the bakery and bottling trades and specialties such as orange bitters for the bar trade. In 1930 the company built this three-story Art Deco building in SOMA. The building was designed by architect A.C. Griewank. It is 100,000 square feet and originally housed a laboratory, manufacturing plant, warehouse and office Continue Reading

Shining Paths

Posted by Cindy on January 7, 2014

Jan 072014

SFO International Terminal Gate G level 3 Post TSA Shining Paths: San Francisco’s Sister Cities 2006 by Lewis Desoto 16 Derkson projectors, lamps and gobo light gels 68 in. in diameter. This work in its entirety consists of 16 light projections (divided between boarding areas A and G) that celebrate San Francisco’s Sister Cities around the world. The work is an extension of the artist’s On the Air project, located on the floor of the international terminal arrivals lobby. Here, each Sister City is represented by the aeronautical map for its airport, overlaid with the image of the city flower. Continue Reading

Blue Deer

Posted by Cindy on January 6, 2014

Jan 062014

SFO International Terminal Gate G Level 3 Post TSA Blue Deer 2006-2007 Oil and Pigmented Ink with Gesso Ground on Wood Panels Clare Rojas The plaque on this piece reads: Inspired by American folk art, quilting and storytelling, Clare Rojas creates dreamlike images executed in tightly drawn crystalline shapes. Rojas intends to bring a sense of warmth and comfort to the viewer and she often changes the exhibition space to better fit the feeling of her work. Here she transforms the gate room wall into space more reminiscent of home. “Blue Deer” is based on a children’s book Rojas wrote Continue Reading

Baile

Posted by Cindy on January 3, 2014

Jan 032014

SFO International Terminal Gate G Level 3 Post TSA “Baile” – Copper and Powder Coated Steel – 1999 – Carmen Lomas Garza The plaque on this piece reads: This image of Mexican Flokloric dancers is inspired by the tradition of Mexican and Chinese tissue paper cutouts and French silhouettes. As an artist, Carmen Lomas Carza often recalls her memories of growing up in South Texas as inspiration for her imagery Shi is known for her portrayal of popular customs and events, from tamale-making to community fiestas. Carmen Lomas Garza was born in Kingsville, Texas. At 13, she made a commitment Continue Reading

Sanctuary

Posted by Cindy on January 2, 2014

Jan 022014

SFO International Terminal Gate G Level 3 Post TSA The plaque on this piece reads: Arrival at SFO is the beginning of a new life for many immigrants. Just as the surrounding wetlands prove sanctuary for shore birds during their annual migration. the mural is painted in fresco buono an ancient technique that mixes pigment directly into wet plaster. The artists on this piece were Juana Alicia and Emmanuel Catarino Montoyo. Both of these artists have been in this website before, you can read about both of them here. This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission for Continue Reading

Bird Technology

Posted by Cindy on January 1, 2014

Jan 012014

SFO Boarding Area G Level 3 International Terminal Post TSA Bird Technology – Hand Painted Ceramic Tile – 1999 by Rupert Garcia The plaque on this piece reads: This work combines two images: a bird that symbolizes natural flight, and a geometric grid that symbolizes the technological advances that made human flight possible. Implicit in the work is the potential for conflict between the natural world and technology. According to the Smithsonian: Rupert García came from a family active in the creation and instruction of folk arts and traditions. After completing his service in the U.S. Air Force in Indochina, Continue Reading

Thinking of Balmy Alley

Posted by Cindy on December 31, 2013

Dec 312013

SFO International Terminal Boarding Area G Level 3 Post TSA Ceramic Tile Mosaic – 1999 by Rigo 99 The plaque on this piece reads: This work, of a solitary boy totally absorbed in the act of paining, is inspired y a mural (since destroyed) painted in 1993 by the artist and local youth in Balmy Alley, located in San Francisco’s Mission District. Rigo 99 has been in this website many times before. This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission for the airport.

Fly, Flight Fugit

Posted by Cindy on December 30, 2013

Dec 302013

SFO International Terminal Boarding Area G – Level 3 Post TSA Fly, Flight Fugit by Squeak Carnwath Porcelain Enamel on Steel – 1999 210 in. x 210 in.; each panel is 30 in. square The plaque that accompanies the piece states: “When I’m I’m a Plane, I often think about things that fly naturally. This work is about those things – Bees, Flags, Snow Bugs, Mercury, Rain and Flights of Fancy” Much of Cornwath’s work is about her own thoughts, reactions, and memories. She frequently combines hand-scrawled words, visual images and color into luminous paintings that prompt the personal thoughts Continue Reading

Glass that challenges your understanding

Posted by Cindy on December 27, 2013

Dec 272013

Glass that challenges your understanding

San Francisco International Terminal Terminal Two Air Over Under by Norie Sato – 2011 These two Huge panels are easier to see than to photograph. (The above photo is courtesy of FlySFO) They are hand painted and silkscreened glass enamels on float glass and measure 16 ft. x 150 ft. each. Norie Sato’s imagery was inspired by our relationship to clouds and flight. Specifically, her work delves into some of flight’s inherent qualities: ephemeral, abstract, pictorial, natural, man-made, symmetrical and changeable. The artwork depicts the dual experience of being under or over clouds when flying in a plane. According to the Continue Reading

Ford Elementary School Lunette

Posted by Cindy on December 23, 2013

Dec 232013

Ford Elementary School 2711 Maricopa Avenue Richmond, California Sally Swanson Architects of San Francisco designed a new $19 million energy-efficient school to replace the outdated original Ford Elementary School in Richmond, California. The new school’s design is a modern interpretation of the Mission Style. The school’s framework, a repeating 30-foot grid, creates the flexibility for the educational programming in the interior, and easily accommodates a variety of alternative teaching methodologies. The light-filled corridors, with articulated beams, double as a collaborative in-between area where learning can also take place. On the second floor, the corridor is transformed into a street for the innovative learning Continue Reading

Flight Patterns

Posted by Cindy on December 23, 2013

Dec 232013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal One Boarding Area C Flight Patterns by Larry Kirkland – 1987 Stainless steel cables, painted aluminum tubing, sheeting and screening 264 in. x 276 in. x 756 in. Born in 1950 in Port Hueneme, California, Larry Kirkland moved with his military family throughout the U.S. and abroad during his childhood. He received his undergraduate degree in environmental design in 1972 from Oregon State University and his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1974 from the University of Kansas. Kirkland created these large, aerial sculptures that are characterized by its nearly transparent, ethereal quality. This work was Continue Reading

A Mosaic of Bay Area History

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2013

Dec 202013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 1 Connector Level 2 Bay Area Victorian, Bay Area, Deco, Bay Area Funk by Joyce Kozloff – 1982 This artwork is inspired by historical decorative styles found in the Bay Area. The left panel, Bay Area Victorian, draws its sources from the ornament on old homes in the Mission District, Pacific Heights, the Western Addition and Potrero Hill. The right panel, Bay Area Deco, references downtown Oakland in its heyday, when the Fox and Paramount theaters were built. Both the celadon grey-green of the I. Magnin store and the cobalt blue and silver facade of Continue Reading

Thousands and Thousands of Tiles

Posted by Cindy on December 19, 2013

Dec 192013

San Francisco International Airport International Terminal Main Hall Gateway 2000- by Ik-Joong Kang This artwork contains 5,400 unique 3 in. x 3 in. paintings, wood carvings, tiles and cast acrylic cubes. The artist began working in this 3 in. x 3 in. format when he was a student and commuted long distances to various part-time jobs. The 3 in. canvases were small enough for him to carry in his backpack and paint on the subway. The piece is mixed media including canvas, wood, ceramic tile and found objects, it measures 120 X 720 inches. Born in 1960, in Cheong Ju, Continue Reading

Stacking Stones

Posted by Cindy on December 18, 2013

Dec 182013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal Two Level Two Stacking Stones by Seiji Kunishma – 1983 These stones were commissioned by SFAC for the airport in 1983. They remained in the airport during the new construction. Born in Nagoya, Japan, Seiji Kunishima is an internationally renowned artist whose sculptures are characterized by a serene balance between the traditional and the modern. Stacking Stones weighs 14 tons and is created from stone quarried near Nagoya. Each section of rock was shaped to fit into the next and the outer surface was chiseled or polished to create contrasts of color, texture and depth. Continue Reading

Tapestries to take your breath away

Posted by Cindy on December 1, 2013

Dec 012013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Waiting Area This is a series by Mark Adams. They include Garden Outside Gate, Garden in Golden Gate Park, and Garden in San Andreas Valley. They have been in storage for over 20 years at the SFAC. They were brought out and installed as part of the complete remodel of Terminal 2 at SFO. They are absolutely stunning, and thank goodness they have been brought out for all to enjoy. Woven in the traditional Aubusson style, these flax woven wool tapestries represent various gardens that the artist remembers from his years living in San Continue Reading

Topo in Cloth and aluminum

Posted by Cindy on November 27, 2013

Nov 272013

San Francisco International Airport Departure Lobby Terminal 2 Kendall Buster -Powder coated steel tubing; greenhouse shade cloth- 288 in. x 288 in. x 192 in Topograph I & II Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well as participating in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Studio Program in New York City. His website explains the piece: Topograph was designed and constructed for the San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 departures area. A raised entryway forms a kind of narrow bridge above a massive Continue Reading

Welcome

Posted by Cindy on November 26, 2013

Nov 262013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim Level 1 Dan Snyder – Polyurethane Paint on Aluminum -1983 Titled Welcome North, Welcome South, Welcome East, Welcome West, is designed to greet visitors from around the world. According to Mr Snyder’s website: Dan was born in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1941. His father was a naval officer stationed there at the time. Growing up he lived largely in seaport towns in the United States. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a major in theater, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Continue Reading

Caduceus

Posted by Cindy on November 25, 2013

Nov 252013

110 Sutter Street Financial District This was originally designed in a skeletal Chicago School manner by the important but little-known firm of Hemenway and Miller and remodeled with an overlay of Beaux-Arts details by architect E. A. Bozio. **** This slightly stuffy, but excellent article, written in 1979, explains the building and its environs perfectly. In 1902, the architectural supplement to the San Francisco periodical Town Talk called the original design “A modern, superbly appointed, fire-proof building, now in the course of construction.” It was designed for the Bullock and Jones Co., who occupied the lower two floors, with offices above. At Continue Reading

One of only Two Octagonal Houses in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on November 22, 2013

Nov 222013

One of only Two Octagonal Houses in San Francisco

1067 Green Street Russian Hill The Feusier Octagon House, built between 1857 and 1858, is one of only two surviving octagon plan houses in San Francisco. The other is the Colonial Dames Octagon on Gough Street. Both Houses retain their original exterior construction and reflect their eight-sided shape in the interior. This house was originally two stories and copied from a plan in a book on octagon houses by Orson Squire Fowler. Phrenologist, Orson Squire Fowler published The Octagon House: A Home For All, or A New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building in 1848. He started a 19th century fad in Continue Reading

Bernstein’s Fish Grotto

Posted by Cindy on November 21, 2013

Nov 212013

123 Powell Street San Francisco * Bernstein’s Fish Grotto was opened by Maurice Bernstein (1886-1932) in 1907. It was known for its unique entrance, a ship’s bow jutting into the sidewalk. The ship was a faithful reproduction of Christopher Columbus’s Nina. Inside the restaurant, the marine theme continued. Bernstein’s had seven colorful dining rooms: the Fisherman’s Cave, the Pilot Room, the Sun Deck, the Main Salon, the Cabin Nooks, the Upper Deck, and the Porthole Counter. Located near the end of the Powell cable car line, the Grotto was a popular tourist attraction for many years. Advertising called it “The Ship Continue Reading

Cilindro Construito

Posted by Cindy on November 21, 2013

Nov 212013

San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim Level 1 Cilindro Construito by Arnaldo Pomodoro 1983. Cast bronze, 192 in. x 18 in Aside from the great exhibits put on by the SFO Museum, there is a considerable collection of art that is owned by the San Francisco Arts Commission at the airport. I have often had a problem with this, as by definition of public art, this is not. Most pieces are behind the walls of TSA, which by itself is the antitheses of Public. However, I am aware that much of the art was placed there before we Continue Reading

Tudor Revival and Craftsman Style Firehouse

Posted by Cindy on November 20, 2013

Nov 202013

Tudor Revival and Craftsman Style Firehouse

1088 Green Street Russian Hill The SFFD History site says: After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Newton J. Tharp was named city architect and was charged with rebuilding city government buildings. He designed this firehouse along with a number of Beaux Arts-style firehouses. Located on top of Russian Hill, this firehouse was designed to conform to the neighboring architecture and is the only firehouse of the Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles. 1915 During the horse-drawn era, the Department chose to build their firehouses at the top of the City’s many hills as it was quicker to respond to fires that Continue Reading

Takaroa

Posted by Cindy on November 19, 2013

Nov 192013

1086 Green Street Russian Hill Takaroa Fountain by David Ruth 2004 Pyrex Glass This fountain sits outside a condominium complex on Green Street, and was a private commission. According to David Ruth’s website: The Look of ice comes from the fusing of borosilicate glasses like Pyrex. After I was introduced to the material I tried to erase the white veils but ultimately saw that they offered a new style of fused glass that resembles ice. Rather than the liquid flow I had been used to, the ice gave me a different way of conceptualizing my sculpture and fired my interest Continue Reading

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