Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

The Sentinel a Flat Iron Building that Makes its Mark

Posted by Cindy on March 30, 2013

Mar 302013

The Sentinel a Flat Iron Building that Makes its Mark

916 Geary North Beach The Sentinel Building, also known as Columbus Tower, sits at the corners of Columbus Avenue, Kearny Street and Jackson Street. The building is a classic Beaux-Arts flatiron. Flatiron buildings were structures built primarily between 1880 and 1926. Most flatirons were built in either the Beaux-Arts or Renaissance Revival architectural style that was popular at the time. These types of buildings are called flatirons because they are shaped like a flat clothes iron. This design is necessary for the trapezoid or triangular-shaped lots that are commonly found in 19th-and-20th century city grids. These odd-shaped lots appeared when Continue Reading

Solar Plumes on a Painted Steel Fence

Posted by Cindy on March 29, 2013

Mar 292013

Sunnyside Playground 200 Melrose Twin Peaks These painted steel panels were commissioned in 2008 for $23,600 by the San Francisco Art Commission to Deborah Kennedy. According to Kennedy’s website the curvilinear patterns cut into water-jet cut stainless steel were abstracted from patterns found in NASA’s TRACE close-up satellite photos of the solar surface. These photos show enormous plumes of plasma, electrified gases that surge up from the surface of the sun. These plumes move at tremendous speeds and form coronal loops that stand hundreds of thousands of miles off the surface of the sun. This public artwork seeks to heighten Continue Reading

SFGH Healing Garden

Posted by Cindy on March 28, 2013

Mar 282013

1001 Potrero San Francisco General Hospital The artist designed this small garden, in 1993, as an extension to an existing hospital memorial garden and as a place to provide seating sheltered from the wind. A red gravel walkway, edged in white granite city-surplus curbstones, forms a double helix, which is symbolic of life. The seating is made from salvaged granite. Look closely, you can see the double helix in the planter on the left. Benny Bufano’s Madonna graces the back of the garden. Peter Richards is a long-term Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium (an innovative science museum in San Francisco, Continue Reading

Open Book at the Library

Posted by Cindy on March 27, 2013

Mar 272013

960 4th Street Mission Bay This piece, by Vince Koloski, is in the Mission Bay Branch Library. The artwork is an illuminated book sculpture with quotes about reading and text from a variety of ancient and contemporary cultures. Vince Koloski was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1953. In 1977 he attended New College in Sarasota, Florida and graduated with a dual B.A. in Sculpture and Poetry. Koloski returned to Minneapolis to refine his craft as a neon sculptor and skilled neon glassblower. He spent two years as a neon instructor in the Extension Division of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Continue Reading

Precita Eyes covers McDonald’s in Paint

Posted by Cindy on March 25, 2013

Mar 252013

2801 Mission Street Mission District This mural, titled Culture of the Crossroads, was done in 1998 by Precita Eyes. It covers the 24th Street side of the McDonalds Restaurant. * * * * * Precita Eyes is a multipurpose community based arts organization that has played an integral role in the city’s cultural heritage and arts education. One of only three community mural centers in the United States, the organization sponsors and implements ongoing mural projects throughout the Bay Area and internationally. In addition, it has a direct impact on arts education in the San Francisco Mission District by offering four weekly Continue Reading

Globe by Topher Delaney

Posted by Cindy on March 22, 2013

Mar 222013

299 2nd Street Courtyard Marriott Hotel – 1st Floor SOMA – Financial District Globe by Topher Delaney – Bronze This piece is a result of the 1% for Art and POPOS programs in San Francisco. It is available for viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. – However, if you step into the Lobby you can view it through the window if the courtyard area is not open. Topher (Christopher) Delaney‘s forty year career as an environmental artist has encompassed a wide breadth of projects which focus on the exploration of our cultural interpretations of landscape architecture, public art and the Continue Reading

The Tanforan Cottages

Posted by Cindy on March 21, 2013

Mar 212013

214-220 Dolores Mission District Not far from Mission Dolores are a pair of homes considered to be the oldest in the Mission District and among some of the oldest in San Francisco: 214 and 220 Dolores Street. The Mission District, originally Mission San Francisco de Asis, was the sixteenth in a chain of twenty missions stretching from San Diego to San Francisco. Mission San Francisco de Asis is affectionately called Mission Dolores after the lagoon the mission was first built on in 1776. At that time California was a part of Spain. In 1821 Mexico achieved independence from Spain and annexed California. One Continue Reading

Time to Dream

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2013

Mar 202013

Joseph P. Lee Rec Center 1395 Mendell Bayview Time to Dream by Amana Johnson The Joseph P. Lee Rec Center, like many in San Francisco is behind a locked gate and only open during very limited hours. I have relied on the artists website for a description of the piece and the photo of the book. “Time To Dream” is a life-sized figure carved from a 3,000-pound block of Basalt Spring Stone found only in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. The figure, which took Johnson over nine months to carve, is deliberately not identified as either male or female in order Continue Reading

Sutro Heights Park

Posted by Cindy on March 19, 2013

Mar 192013

Point Lobos Avenue Land’s End Copy of the original lion that stood at the Sutro Heights entry gate. (Photo credit: UC Bancroft Library) Adolph Sutro (1830-1898) was one of San Francisco’s most beloved mayors and esteemed citizens. Originally from Prussia, he amassed millions in the Comstock Lode (Nevada Silver Rush of 1859) by designing and constructing ventilated mining shafts. By cashing out just before the silver ran out, he was able to purchase fully one-twelfth of San Francisco, including all the western dunes and a section of the sea shore called the Outside Lands. Sutro’s name is commonly associated with Continue Reading

Journey through Books and Music

Posted by Cindy on March 18, 2013

Mar 182013

1946 Market Street Castro/Mission The Mural is on the side of 43 Buchannan Titled Joyous Discoveries: A Journey Through Books and Music, this mural, by Keith Hollander won the Public Mural Award of 2001 for the Finest Mural in the SF Bay Area. The mural is now being lost due to construction on this corner. The books in the picture are: Chaim Potok, “The Chosen”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “100 Years of Solitude”, Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, “The Art Book”, Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”, and Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Continue Reading

Dos Leones at SFGH

Posted by Cindy on March 16, 2013

Mar 162013

1001 Potrero San Francisco General Hospital So much of the collection paid for by the San Francisco Art Commission is not readily available to the general public. This piece is no exception. On the patio of the 3rd floor of SFGH, the doors were locked, however, you can see the sculpture through the window. Titled Dos Liones, this sculpture, done in 1974, is by Mary Fuller. Mary Fuller has many pieces of public art work around the San Francisco Bay Area. Mary Fuller was born in Wichita, Kansas on October 20, 1922. Creating totemic figures, playful animals and dancing goddesses Continue Reading

The Sunnyside Conservatory

Posted by Cindy on March 14, 2013

Mar 142013

236 Monterey Blvd Sunnyside This octagonal building is called Sunnyside Conservatory. It is named after the San Francisco district in which it is located-an area that began to develop in 1898 when Behrand Joost subdivided his property. Joost’s Sunnyside Land Company even installed a streetcar line so that owners would have access to downtown. During this time William Merralls, a British engineer and inventor, came to San Francisco to put his engineering to use in the mining industry. In 1858, Merralls purchased a home at 258 Sunnyside Boulevard (now Monterey Boulevard) that still stands today. He soon began work next Continue Reading

American Bison at SFGH

Posted by Cindy on March 13, 2013

Mar 132013

1001 Potrero San Francisco General Hospital 2nd Floor – Cafeteria Patio Buffalo by Raimondo Puccinelli Raimondo Puccinelli, (1904-1986) born and raised in San Francisco, is known above all for his sculpture which has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His standing as a sculptor was confirmed early on, firstly by the interest shown by the great museums on the West Coast of America and then by the commitment demonstrated by influential New York galleries in which his works were exhibited alongside the great artists of the time: as did both the Ferargil Gallery with its exhibition “Degas, Maillol, Continue Reading

The Pacific Coast Stock Exchange

Posted by Cindy on March 12, 2013

Mar 122013

301 Pine Street Financial District 301 Pine Street-one of the historic buildings that comprised our financial system on the West Coast-began its life in 1915 as a sub-treasury building for the United States Treasury. In 1930, when the San Francisco Financial District was fast becoming the Wall Street of the West, the “gentlemen of the tape and ticker” sought a building to express the important financial work they were doing. They chose the San Francisco firm of Miller and Pflueger to remodel the old government building into a new Exchange. Front of the building features a colonnade and granite staircase, Continue Reading

Empire Park

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2013

Mar 112013

600 Block of Commercial Street at Kearny Empire Park Chinatown Empire Park (once called Grabhorn Park) is a POPOS (privately-owned public open space). It is provided and maintained by, The Empire Group, owners of 505 Montgomery Street. The spire perched atop 505 Montgomery is said to be a replica of the Empire State Building, but that is most likely because a giant inflatable gorilla was hung from the spire to announce the opening of the building. This tiny little park is an oasis on a beautiful, carless portion of Commercial Street. The delightful water feature is by Pepo Pichler and Continue Reading

Ed Carpenter Arches the 6th Floor Terrace at 150 California

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2013

Mar 072013

Ed Carpenter Arches the 6th Floor Terrace at 150 California

150 California Street POPOS on the 6th Floor Terrace Open 9 am to 6 pm Ed Carpenter is an artist specializing in large-scale public installations ranging from architectural sculpture to infrastructure design. Since 1973 he has completed scores of projects for public, corporate, and ecclesiastical clients. Working internationally from his studio in Portland, Oregon, Carpenter collaborates with a variety of expert consultants, sub-contractors, and studio assistants. He personally oversees every step of each commission, and installs them himself with a crew of long-time helpers. While an interest in light has been fundamental to virtually all of Carpenter’s work, he also Continue Reading

Star Maiden a relic of the Pan Pacific Exposition

Posted by Cindy on March 6, 2013

Mar 062013

Star Maiden a relic of the Pan Pacific Exposition

1 Sansome Street POPOS Open During Business Hours Star Maiden by Stirling Calder (Alexander) Stirling Calder attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in 1885, at the age of 16. Here he studied under Thomas Eakins. He apprenticed as a sculptor the following year, working on his father’s extensive sculpture program for Philadelphia City Hall, and is reported to have modeled the arm of one of the figures. In 1890, he moved to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian under Henri Michel Chapu, and then was accepted in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he entered the Continue Reading

The Beach Chalet

Posted by Cindy on March 5, 2013

Mar 052013

Designed by architect Willis Polk, the Beach Chalet has served as a gathering spot on Ocean Beach for most of its life. With its hipped roof and hand-made roof tiles, this Spanish Revival building survived a takeover by the US Army, the raucous residence of a biker bar and 15 years of abandonment. Today it houses two restaurants, offering visitors a variety of dining fare to accompany the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean (more on that later). The City of San Francisco built the Beach Chalet in 1925, at a cost of $60,000, to provide facilities for beach goers. The ground Continue Reading

Carnaval on 24th

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2013

Mar 042013

3195 24th Street The Mission This badly faded mural is titled Carnaval and was done in 1983. The artist was Daniel Galves with help from Dan Fontes, James Morgan, Jay Shield and Keith Sklar. Daniel Galvez is an Oakland-based muralist. He studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland (BFA in painting in 1975) and San Francisco State University (MFA in 1979). Galvez has done murals through out the United States. On December 14, 2011 Christy Khoshaba, writer for a wonderful local ezine called Mission Local ran an article about this mural – here it is in its Continue Reading

A Start to the Blue Greenway Art Trail

Posted by Cindy on February 27, 2013

Feb 272013

Arelious Walker and Innis Street originally at Cargo at Third Street Bayview/Hunters Point This piece is titled Red Fish by William Wareham. Wareham has several pieces around San Francisco. The piece was installed as part of San Francisco’s Blue Greenway project. The Blue Greenway is the City of San Francisco’s Port project to improve the City’s southerly portion of the 500 mile, 9-county, region-wide Bay Trail, as well as the newly established Bay Area Water Trail and associated waterfront open space system. The alignment of the Blue Greenway generally follows the alignment of Continue Reading

Zio Ziegler Paints the Mission

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2013

Feb 252013

Bartlett and 24th Mission and Sycamore * * Zio Ziegler has several murals around San Francisco. According to his website: For me painting is balance. Within this balance there is consciousness, instinct and distraction. My work is a constant fusion of all three. Torn between the classical and the contemporary in my inspirations, but constantly reminded of the paradigm shift towards the digital age around us, my paintings walk a fine line of voyeurism and awareness both is process and perception. The paintings have organic growth cycles of their own, but the inexplicable instinct of a paintings necessity for completion Continue Reading

The Movie Palaces of Mission Street

Posted by Cindy on February 23, 2013

Feb 232013

The Mission District Before Netflix, streaming videos and television, most people got their entertainment at a vaudeville/movie theater. These “palaces” were places to see and be seen. The Mission district was the home to at least five theaters whose marquees still can be seen amongst the graffiti and signage that marks the street. Of these theaters, the El Capitan Theater was the crown jewel. Opened on June 29, 1928, it seated 2578 patrons. The El Capitan was designed by famed theater designer Gustave Albert Lansburgh. Lansburgh was the principal architect of theaters all along the west coast from 1900 to 1930. Continue Reading

Anish Kapoor in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 22, 2013

Feb 222013

235 2nd Street SOMA Financial District Making the World Many by Anish Kapoor – Stainless Steel Making the World Many is part of the 1% for Arts and POPOS programs of San Francisco. While viewable through the building window, the piece is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Anish Kapoor, (born 12 March 1954) is an Indian-born British sculptor born in Mumbai. Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in Continue Reading

Core by Charles Arnoldi

Posted by Cindy on February 20, 2013

Feb 202013

101 2nd Street SOMA – Financial District Core by Charles Arnoldi – Acrylic on Canvas Core is a result of the POPOS and 1% for Art programs of San Francisco. While viewable through the buildings glass it is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Charles Arnoldi was born April 10, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio. While visiting a girlfriend’s grandmother in New York, he took the opportunity to view works by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Observing their smudges, smears, and imperfections, he sensed that he too was capable of such work, and decided to attend art school. Arnoldi Continue Reading

San Francisco County Jail

Posted by Cindy on February 19, 2013

Feb 192013

Sheriffs Star Plaza San Francisco Jail Facility 7th and Bryant SOMA This paving is the work of Vicki Scuri of VSSW. Vicki received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison She describes herself: Collaborative, integrated design is my passion. The focus of my practice is community-based design for infrastructure, with emphasis on community identity through awareness of place, history and culture. For more than 25 years, I have participated on design teams across the US, creating holistic environments, often becoming local landmarks, reflecting collective values, shared histories and symbolic meanings that enrich and extend our lives through day-to-day Continue Reading

Chinese in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 18, 2013

Feb 182013

950 Washington Street Chinatown This mural sits on the wall of the Commodore Stockton School. The School has a very rich history. Formed in 1859 it was originally called the Chinese School. It was created for chinese only students as they were not allowed in the public schools. In 1885 the school was renamed the Oriental School to allow Koreans and Japanese to attend. In 1924 the school was renamed Commodore Stockton. Alice Fong Yu was its first Chinese teacher and children were banned from speaking Chinese. The mural depicts the Chinese of San Francisco. It was painted in 1987 Continue Reading

A Joan Brown Obelisk at 343 Sansome Street

Posted by Cindy on February 15, 2013

Feb 152013

A Joan Brown Obelisk at 343 Sansome Street

343 Sansome Street The Financial District Four Seasons by Joan Brown This tiled obelisk is by Joan Brown. Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. She studied at the California School of Fine Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), where her teachers included Elmer Bischoff. Her sculpture is not as well known, and yet she did several of these obelisks, there are at least 3 in San Francisco. These include the Pine Continue Reading

Jackson Brewery an Old San Francisco Tradition

Posted by Cindy on February 14, 2013

Feb 142013

Jackson Brewery an Old San Francisco Tradition

Folsom and 11th SOMA There have been over 79 breweries in San Francisco’s history, most of them either lost to the 1906 earthquake or in the two years following the 1919 passage of the 21st amendment. These lost brew houses included the North Star Brewery at Filbert and Sansome, the Globe Brewing Company at Sansome and Greenwich and the Jackson Brewing Company. Yet despite the fact that the Jackson Brewing Company did not survive Prohibition, its building still stands. 1906 Damaged Jackson Brewing Company (Photo credit: San Francisco Public Library) The Jackson Brewing Company was owned by the William A. Fredericks family from 1867 Continue Reading

Old Blueprints take on a New Look

Posted by Cindy on February 13, 2013

Feb 132013

Muni Metro East Yard Pier 80 Bayview This view, taken through a fence, is as close as one will get to the art work at the new Muni Metro East maintenance facility. * These photos I took from the Pulp Studios website. I am going to simply copy directly what they have to say about these pieces as the information is excellent. “The beauty of rail car engineering details is revealed in these historic blueprints from the 19th and 20th centuries.” Artist Anita Margrill’s statement rings true upon the very first site of the two towering glass curtain walls on Continue Reading

The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2013

Feb 122013

The Drum Bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden

Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park San Francisco’s first Japanese Tea Garden was originally developed by art-dealer George Turner Marsh as part of the 1894 Midwinter Fair, an event that brought the City by the Bay into the international limelight. Shinshichi Nakatani was selected to design and build the Drum Bridge (Taiko Bashi). He built the bridge in Japan, dismantled it and brought back with him. Halfway through completion, the Expo ran out of funds. Shinshichi left San Francisco and returned to Japan. He sold off personal land holdings and brought the money back with him to complete the project. Continue Reading

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