Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Bret Harte at the Bohemian Club

Posted by Cindy on August 6, 2013

Aug 062013

624 Taylor Street Nob Hill The artist, Jo Mora, created and donated the sculpture to the Bohemian Club of which he and Bret Harte were members. In 1933, when the old Bohemian Club was torn down, the memorial was removed and reinstalled on the new club in 1934, Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. The plaque which is on the Post Street side of the club depicts 15 characters from Harte’s works. The characters represented come from a handful of stories and a poem that established Harte’s Continue Reading

The Bridge between North Beach and Chinatown

Posted by Cindy on August 5, 2013

Aug 052013

The Bridge between North Beach and Chinatown

Grant Avenue and Jack Kerouac Alley Chinatown/North Beach This community mural is on the corner of Jack Kerouac Alley and Grant Street. Titled The Bridge, the lead painter was Robert Minervini along with over a dozen local youth from Chinatown. It was sponsored by the Chinatown Community Development Center and the Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project with funds from the City of San Francisco Community Challenge Grant. Robert Minervini is a painter who creates invented spaces based on, but slightly askew from reality. He draws from notions of utopia and the sublime. His works utilize traditional motifs of still life and Continue Reading

California Masonic Memorial Temple

Posted by Cindy on August 3, 2013

Aug 032013

1111 California Street Nob Hill Designed by Albert Roller (April 20, 1891 – July 12, 1981) the California Masonic Memorial Temple was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1958. An icon of mid-century modernist architecture, the structure is located at the top of Nob Hill across the street from Grace Cathedral. It is a testament to simple lines, open spaces, and heavy materials. Inside is an auditorium that seats 3,165, and 16,500 square feet of exhibit space. As its name suggests, the Temple also serves as a war memorial. The building’s façade features a sculpture, by Emile Norman, of four 12-foot-high figures, representing Continue Reading

Association for the Blind Condo Conversion

Posted by Cindy on August 2, 2013

Aug 022013

Association for the Blind Condo Conversion

1097 Howard Street South of Market In 1902, Mrs. Josephine Rowan, whose brother was blind, organized a group of women to establish The Reading Room for the Blind in the basement of the San Francisco Public Library, with the intent of helping blind and visually impaired individuals access printed material. And thus, the LightHouse was born. In 1914, the Reading Room changed its name to the San Francisco Association for the Blind, and Ruth Quinan was hired as Superintendent of the Association. Her first action was to create the trademark “Blindcraft” for the growing production of brooms and baskets. Quinan Continue Reading

U.S. Custom House Sculpture

Posted by Cindy on August 1, 2013

Aug 012013

555 Battery Street Financial District U.S. Customs House Most of the granite sculptures on the U.S. Custom house were done in-situ by unknown artists. The roof top sculpture, however, was done by Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper (April 8, 1875 – 1937) was an American sculptor. Born in Glenwood, Iowa, and based in Denver, Colorado, Cooper studied under Preston Powers (son of the well known sculptor Hiram Powers,) then at the Art Institute of Chicago with Lorado Taft and the Art Students League of New York through about 1901. Cooper is best known for her bronze figure of Sacajawea originally produced as the centerpiece for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, 1905, unveiled in Continue Reading

U.S. Custom House

Posted by Cindy on July 31, 2013

Jul 312013

555 Battery Street Financial District The first United States Congress established the U.S. Customs Service in 1789 to collect duties and taxes on imported goods, control carriers of imports and exports, and combat smuggling and revenue fraud. Until the federal income tax was created in 1913, customs funded virtually the entire government. Possessing an extraordinary natural harbor and one of the country’s finest ports, San Francisco rapidly expanded during the nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth century, construction of the Panama Canal, which would dramatically shorten trade routes between the Atlantic and Pacific, had begun. City officials likely Continue Reading

The Hayward/Kohl Building

Posted by Cindy on July 30, 2013

Jul 302013

400 Montgomery Street Financial District The Hayward/Kohl Building was designed by Percy & Polk (George Percy and Willis Polk both of whom have been written about on this site many times before) for Alvinza Hayward. Hayward made his fortune from the Eureka Gold Mine in California and the Comstock Silver Mine in Nevada as well as investments in timber, coal, railroads, real estate, and banking. He was a director of the Bank of California and one of the original investors in the San Francisco City Gas Company which become the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Hayward was in his late seventies when he commissioned the partners Percy and Continue Reading

Richard L. Perri and the Giant Pill

Posted by Cindy on July 29, 2013

Jul 292013

7th and Market Street SOMA/Mid Market The Odd Fellows Temple (you can read my post about the IOOF building here) is getting a CVS on the ground floor. Artist Richard L. Perri has brightened up the construction zone with a really fun mural. Richard L. Perri has a studio in the Odd Fellows Building. Born in Rockville Center, New York, Perri studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. MidMa stands for Mid Market District. According to their website: The Mid Market district has historically been an art center. During its heyday (mid 1900’s) it was a vibrant and star-studded hub for theater Continue Reading

Historic Old Clock

Posted by Cindy on July 27, 2013

Jul 272013

400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset * Carried by ship around Cape Horn, this Seth Thomas Clock was installed on the medical school of the affiliated colleges in 1897. Surviving the 1906 earthquake, it served the university and community for 70 years. Members of the UCSF family have made possible its restoration as a campus landmark. February 20, 1982 Seth Thomas was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1785. He was apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner, and worked building houses and barns. He started in the clock business in 1807, working for clockmaker Eli Terry. Thomas formed a clock-making partnership in Plymouth, Connecticut with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley as Terry, Thomas & Hoadley. Continue Reading

Hippocrates

Posted by Cindy on July 26, 2013

Jul 262013

400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset Hippocrates by Costos Georgakas A sign on the base of the statue reads: Provided through the great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholas Pappas. Mr Pappas, A Greek emigrant from Kiparisi, Lakonia, Greece, and his wife, Jennie Pappas, donate this statue in appreciation of San Francisco the home of Mr. Pappas since 1905. This statue was donated in 1987. Hippocrates, is a sculptural example of five other versions of a marble sculpture attributed to Costos Georgacas. According to the Smithsonian, they date between 1967 and 1979 and are located on the campuses of University Continue Reading

Knights Templar Building

Posted by Cindy on July 25, 2013

Jul 252013

2135 Sutter Street Western Addition This steel reinforced building with brick exterior walls trimmed in lots of terra cotta was designed by Matthew O’Brien and Carl Werner in the architectural style known as the Jacobean Phase of Medieval Revival. It was built in 1905 and 1906-1907. The building has been home to two institutions, the Knights Templar and the Baptist Church. The building was originally built for the Golden Gate Commandery #16 of the Knights Templar, a masonic order at the turn of the century. In the 1950’s there was a decline of masonic and other fraternal groups in the city, Continue Reading

William Tecumseh Sherman and the Bank of Lucas, Turner

Posted by Cindy on July 24, 2013

Jul 242013

William Tecumseh Sherman and the Bank of Lucas, Turner

800-804 Montgomery Street Jackson Square The Bank of Lucas, Turner and Company was designed in the Italianate style typical of early San Francisco. The classical façade faces Montgomery Street, the main business street at the time. The ground floor is built from well cut and fitted granite blocks. The granite is not from California, and is variously said to be from the eastern United States or from China. It was built in 1853-1854 by Keyser and Brown, after designs by Reuben Clark, architect for the Bank of Lucas, Turner and Company, under the supervision of William Tecumseh Sherman, later Continue Reading

Elegant Stag Poses at Lands End Lookout

Posted by Cindy on July 23, 2013

Jul 232013

Lands End Lookout GGNRA 680 Point Lobos This stag sits in a small seating area at the front entrance to the new Lands End Lookout building. This is a copy of a statue that originally sat in the park across the street, Sutro Heights Park. The two lions that grace the entry to the park, as well as the entry to the lookout, and the history of that park can be found here. Sutro collected statues after traveling to Europe, to recreate a European garden around his home. He did not buy and ship home works of art from other Continue Reading

Farm Girl by Aryz

Posted by Cindy on July 22, 2013

Jul 222013

Polk and Eddy The Tenderloin This five-story farm girl — and her bushel of apples looks over the corner of Eddy and Polk. Aryz deliberately used muted colors, especially flesh tones, to paint the lady onto this beige building. *** “I feel it’s really aggressive when you paint in a public space, so I don’t really want to play with bright colors. It would be too much,” Aryz says. “I’d prefer that people who are observing [the scene] find the work by themselves. The last few walls I’ve done like this.” Of the world’s top street artists, Aryz sits alongside Continue Reading

Regardless of History

Posted by Cindy on July 20, 2013

Jul 202013

400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow Bill Woodrow (1948) was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s onto the international contemporary art scene. Woodrow’s early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to Continue Reading

Huru by di Suvero

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2013

Jul 192013

Crissy Field Huru 1984-1985 Steel “Huru”, at 55 feet, is the tallest sculpture in the exhibit. A simple tripod base supports a six-ton upper section made of two long pointing pieces, like open scissors that move in the wind. Some read them as welcoming arms; to me they looked like futuristic machine guns, or at other times a gladiators helmet. This is my favorite, which is why I have left it for last. I could not quite put my finger on why it was my favorite, and oddly, as I have been writing about all the others, I’m not Continue Reading

Are Years What? #7 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2013

Jul 182013

Crissy Field Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) – 1967 “Are Years What (for Marianne Moore)”, is the first sculpture Mr. di Suvero made entirely with steel I-beams. Its main feature is a steel V-shaped angle that hangs and swings freely in space, counteracting the solidity of its two vertical and four sprawling diagonal beams. (The tall beam from which it hangs—itself held in place by thin cables—is 40 feet long.) Are Years What is part of the Hirshhorn Museum Collection. What Are Years? By Marianne Moore What is our innocence, what is our guilt? All are naked, none is safe. Continue Reading

Old Buddy #6 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2013

Jul 172013

Crissy Field Old Buddy (For Rosko) 1993-1995 “Old Buddy (For Rosko)” (1993-95), a tribute to the artist’s dog, could be read as an abstract animal. A rear upright section on two legs (which might have a tail) is joined to a front upright section on three legs (which might have a circular face and upward-pointing ears) by a straight 50-foot-long silver-painted spine. But it’s far more than a sentimental gesture. The precisionist rear section and the long connecting beam are painted silver; the tripod, circles and “ears” of the front section are left rust-brown. And one can admire it—especially if Continue Reading

Mother Peace #5 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 16, 2013

Jul 162013

Crissy Field Mother Peace – 42 feet tall, painted Steel 1969-1970 Mother Peace was originally installed near an entrance to the Alameda County courthouse in Oakland, but a judge, so offended by the peace sign that di Suvero had painted on one of the I-beams, transformed himself into an art judge and insisted on its removal. The work is now installed at Storm King Art Center. Di Suvero himself moved to Europe in 1970 to protest against the war in Vietnam, returning to the United States in 1974. Mother Peace is built around one 42-foot vertical beam (a V-shaped horizontal piece Continue Reading

Figulo #4 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2013

Jul 152013

Crissy Field Figulo (2005-11) 47′ × 55′ painted steel, steel buoys – collection of the artist From the Brooklyn Rail when this piece was exhibited at Governor’s Island: From afar, it looks to be a drafting compass fit for the gods. Its red extension beams ignite in the afternoon sunlight. At close range, the dimensions shift perceptually. The sculpture’s backbone extends outward as joints become gracefully visible, angles more acute. The sky seems closer than ever, as meandering clouds seem to collapse into the slats between the beams.

Will by di Suvero #3 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 13, 2013

Jul 132013

Crissy Field Will, 1994- steel- Doris and Donald Fisher Collection This exhibit on Crissy Field coincides with di Suvero’s 80th birthday, the exhibition holds particular significance for the artist, who immigrated to San Francisco from Shanghai at the age of seven. His passage beneath the Golden Gate Bridge—which opened a few years before his arrival—proved to be a lasting inspiration, as the scale and color of the structure have influenced di Suvero throughout his life. Di Suvero notes, “It was like a rainbow, a bridge coming to the New World starting a new life. The woman who chose the color Continue Reading

Magma by Mark di Suvero #2 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 12, 2013

Jul 122013

Crissy Field “Magma” (2008-12), steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, measures 25 feet tall by 48 feet wide. Leant by the artist, this piece is on public view for the first time. Magma appears as a giant sawhorse in which a 48-foot I-beam is supported between two of the artist’s traditional, uneven tripods. It is distinguished by a big pair of cut circles (or C’s, or G’s) that can slide along the horizontal beam, matched by a pair of similar rings that wrap around the joint at one of the ends. Mark di Suvero, has other pieces permanently around Continue Reading

Dreamcatcher first in a series of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 10, 2013

Jul 102013

Crissy Field In light of the closing of SFMOMA for its expansion, the museum is placing art “all around town”. This exhibit of EIGHT of Mark Di Suvero’s massive metal sculptures is the first of the series. As much as I love and respect the curators of the SFMOMA, I have always felt that they never quite understood the subtleties of culling an exhibit down to its finer points. This retrospective is no different. It is the opinion of this writer, that large sculpture should either overwhelm its environment so that it becomes the focal point, or is overwhelmed by its Continue Reading

Tromp l’oeil by John Wullbrandt is gone

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2013

Jul 082013

Turk and Hyde The Tenderloin This tromp l’oeil was done by John Wullbrandt in 1983. John is a Carpenteria, California – Hawaii based painter responsible for creating much of the artwork on the Island of Lana’i, Hawaii. He founded the Lana’i Art Program in 1989, where he engaged local talent to embellish the award-winning Lodge at Koele and Manele Bay Hotel. Before John’s work the wall looked like this. In February of this year (2013) Wullbrandt’s mural was painted over by How and Nosm in conjunction with Rogue Projects and White Walls, This was a shock to the artist, as to those of us Continue Reading

Fletcher Benton at Symphony Hall

Posted by Cindy on July 2, 2013

Jul 022013

201 Van Ness Civic Center Titled, Balanced Unbalanced T, this Steel and Flat Black Enamel piece sits on the exterior second floor of Davies Symphony Hall, it is accessible at all times via a staircase that can be accessed off of Grove Street. The piece, done in 1981, is by Fletcher Benton, who has been in this website before . Fletcher Benton (born February 25, 1931 Jackson, Ohio) is from San Francisco, California He graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. From 1964 to 1967 he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and taught as an Continue Reading

Leo Lentelli and his San Francisco Work

Posted by Cindy on July 1, 2013

Jul 012013

Hunter Dunlin Building 111 Sutter Street Financial District The Hunter Dunlin Building is one of San Francisco’s gems. Restored in the late 1990’s to its former glory, it has ornamentation throughout its lobby and everywhere you look on the exterior. There are six plaques on the Northern and Eastern facades called The Seasons. They are by Leo Lentelli. They are allegorical representations of the seasons, and while there are six plaques there are only two different sculptures. Leo Lentelli is best known in San Francisco for designing the tops of the street lights on Market known as the Path of Continue Reading

The City in Bronze

Posted by Cindy on June 29, 2013

Jun 292013

275 Sacramento Street Financial District These three whimsical buildings, titled The City, are by Alexander MacLeitch. They are bronze and were installed in 2009 by the owners of the Patson Building at 275 Sacramento Street. This is part of the percent for Art Program in San Francisco. According to MacLeitch’s website: I create art using various metal manipulation art fabrication techniques. My interest in metal sculpture developed while attending college in Northern California. I was quickly drawn to the industrial processes involved and decided to have two fields of study: biology and art. It is a particularly exciting time to Continue Reading

Fort Gunnybags

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2013

Jun 282013

Sacramento and Front Streets Financial District The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance was a popular ad hoc organization formed in 1851 and revived in 1856 in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government of San Francisco. It was one of the most successful organizations in the vigilante tradition of the American Old West. *** From Found SF May 14, 1856: The nation was gearing up for the Civil War, and San Francisco was divided between the secessionist and unionist factions. James King of William, editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin and a Union loyalist, wrote an editorial condemning James Casey, rival editor of Continue Reading

Pennsylvania Comes to San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2013

Jun 272013

600 California Street Chinatown These two bronze plaques were originally the doors to a hand operated elevator. The doors, designed by Lee O. Lawrie in 1930-1931 were in the Education Building of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Capitol Park in Harrisburg. The sculpture was one of six sets of elevator doors that the artist originally fabricated. This set of door panels remained there until 1972, when the building’s hand-operated elevators were replaced with automatic ones. From about 1980 to 1989, the doors were in a private collection in Virginia. They were installed at the new Federal Home Bank in 1990. Lee Oskar Lawrie Continue Reading

Spring Valley Water Company

Posted by Cindy on June 26, 2013

Jun 262013

425 Mason Street Lower Nob Hill/Tenderloin This unassuming and yet intriguing little building has been sitting in my computer waiting to be written about since March of 2012. My late husband, the architectural sculptor Michael H. Casey had driven me by to show me the wonderful detailed sculpture that covered the first floor. I was unable to find out anything about it and so the post was left unwritten. In the past few months I had the privilege of hearing Gray Brechin, UC Berkeley lecturer and author, speak on the architecture of the UC campus. I purchased his highly detailed Continue Reading

Older Entries Newer Entries