Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

The Home Telephone Building

Posted by Cindy on February 9, 2013

Feb 092013

333 Grant Avenue Chinatown Union Square Ernest Albert Coxhead of Coxhead and Coxhead has given the city of San Francisco many of its finest buildings — one sits at 333 Grant Avenue, San Francisco landmark #141. The Home Telephone Company was San Francisco’s first telephone exchange site. The building, built in 1908 in the Mannerist style, towers regally over its neighbors. Detail of the entrance to the Home Telephone Building. The Home Telephone Company was designed for one purpose, thus the undivided treatment of the façade lends a unity to the building rarely seen in one so large. The Corinthian Continue Reading

Amazarasti-No Hotoke

Posted by Cindy on February 8, 2013

Feb 082013

Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park At the eastern end of Long Bridge, inside the Japanese Tea Garden sits this magnificent statue. It is “Amazarasti-no Hotoke” meaning “The Buddha that sits throughout the sunny and rainy weather without shelter”. The figure was cast in 1790 at Tajima, Nara Prefecture, on Honshu for the Taioriji Temple. It passed from one Japanese collector to the next until is was purchased by A. L. Gump in 1928. It sat in the downstairs Oriental Court of the Post Street Gump’s store until remodeling banished it to storage. When a wooden Buddha in the Garden Continue Reading

Islais: From Creek to Sewer to Creek

Posted by Cindy on February 7, 2013

Feb 072013

Islais Creek Bayview/Hunter’s Point It is known as Third and Army by skateboarders. Longshoreman call it Pier 84. Locals just think of it as Islais Creek. No matter its name, it is an area experiencing ongoing urban and environmental renewal. Islais Creek originally flowed for 3.5 miles from the hills of San Francisco into the Bay. The area now called Islais Creek Channel is an inlet of San Francisco Bay located in the Central Waterfront area between Potrero Hill and Bayview / Hunters Point. The area was once a vast salt marsh. Over the course of the 19th and 20th Continue Reading

Guardians of Ping Yuen

Posted by Cindy on February 6, 2013

Feb 062013

711 Pacific Chinatown Ping Yuen Housing Originally 8 terracotta Foo dogs graced this gateway. Chinese guardian lions, known as Shishi or Imperial guardian lion, and often called “Foo Dogs” in the West, are a common representation of the lion in pre-modern China. They have traditionally stood in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, Imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and the homes of government officials and the wealthy, from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and were believed to have powerful mythic protective benefits. The artist Mary Erckenbrack researched traditional Chinese animals before designing the dogs. Mary Erkenbrack was born in Seattle, Washington on Nov. 30, 1910, Erckenbrack was raised in Rio De Continue Reading

The Hunter Dunlin Building in the French Romanesque Style

Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2013

Feb 052013

The Hunter Dunlin Building in the French Romanesque Style

111 Sutter Street The Financial District 111 Sutter Street, or the Hunter Dulin Building, is a terra-cotta clad building modeled on a French château. This 22-story French Romanesque building is topped with a 38-foot high mansard roof sporting both dormers and gables. The building was designed by New York architecture firm Shultze and Weaver for Los Angeles brokerage house Hunter Dulin. When it was built in 1927, it was the fourth-highest building in San Francisco. Shultze and Weaver were known for such American icons as the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Biltmore in Los Angeles and the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. Continue Reading

Familia

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2013

Feb 042013

Potrero del Sol Park Potrero Hill Potrero at 25th Street Familia is by Victor Reyes, who has many pieces around San Francisco. On June 9, 2011 the San Francisco Examiner ran this article about the mural: A community that came together to solve the problem of persistent graffiti at a neighborhood park celebrated the unveiling of a mural painted in the hope of staving off vandalism. Potrero del Sol Park, which is a favorite among skaters and schoolchildren, is bordered by Buena Vista Elementary School and a building maintained by San Francisco General Hospital. Taggers constantly targeted a wall of Continue Reading

SOMA Grand’s Glass Mosaic

Posted by Cindy on February 1, 2013

Feb 012013

1160 Mission Street SOMA SOMA Grand Composed of 390 panels, most about 2-by-7 feet and 1/4-inch thick, this mural is titled “Realm”. It is the biggest piece of glass art in the city. Coming in at three stories tall, it cost $800,000. The piece is part of the 1% for art program of San Francisco and was created by Dorothy Lenehan. Dorothy Lenehan founded Lenehan Architectural Glass in 1995 after a years-long tenure with Narcissus Quagliata’s acclaimed glass studio in Oakland, including 10 years as studio manager. After the Quagliata Studio relocated to Mexico City in 1995, Dorothy moved her Continue Reading

Bufano at Westside Courts

Posted by Cindy on January 31, 2013

Jan 312013

Westside Courts Housing Project 2501 Sutter Street Lower Pacific Heights This sculpture, by well known San Francisco sculptor Beniamino Bufano, is titled Saint Francis on Horseback. Standing 8′ x 6′ and of black granite it is located in the central courtyard of the project. It was made in 1935 but not placed here until 1945. Westside Courts were built in 1943, Westside includes 136 units in six buildings that cover a full city block. Westside s unusual because it is located in a thriving, mixed-income neighborhood. Another distinction is in its construction, which relied on heavy cement blocks, creating buildings that Continue Reading

Candlestick Park Community Garden Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 30, 2013

Jan 302013

1150 Carroll Avenue Candlestick Park State Recreation Area This mural is on the side of the Candlestick Park Rangers Office. The area in front is the Candlestick Point Community Garden. The theme of the mural, expressed through symbolism, shape and color shows the various stages of the gardening experience. The mural 30′ x 100′, took four months to complete. It was designed in 1982, by five artists and graduate students from San Francisco State University. Barbara Plant, Gary Mathews, Eric Graham, James Adams and Maria Gonzalez. Rather than using the wall surface as a canvas to be covered, the artists Continue Reading

CCSF Mission Campus

Posted by Cindy on January 29, 2013

Jan 292013

1125 Valencia Mission District Said to be the biggest Tonalmachiotl in the world, this version of the Aztec Calendar sits at the entry way to the City College of San Francisco Mission Campus. Tonalmachiotl is called the Aztec Calendar, the Sunstone or Piedra del Sol. Scholars believe that pre-conquest Mesoamerican cultures conceived of time as circular…. [Mesoamericans] therefore thought they could predict the future by recording events from the past. Using their calendric system and mathematics, they could look both back in time to when they believed the world began, and infinitely forward. This colorful 27-foot Aztec Calendar hovering over the Continue Reading

Mission Pool and Playground Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 28, 2013

Jan 282013

Mission District Linda Street off of 19th * * This mural was done by Emmanuel C. Montoya, Sue Cervantes and Juana Alicia. It sits on the side of the Mission Pool and Playground which houses the New World Tree Mural. These three artists were joined by Raul Martinez and others to create the mural in the playground in 1985. It is titled Balance of Power. On the day of the inauguration of the World Tree Mural, a neighborhood organizer got Diane Feinstein, then San Francisco mayor, on tape, promising to fund murals for the neighborhood if it respected the walls and Continue Reading

Strong Roots, Healthy Tree

Posted by Cindy on January 25, 2013

Jan 252013

Olive and Polk The Tenderloin This mural was done in 1989. It is titled Strong Roots, Healthy Tree and is by Johanna Poethig who intertwined images from Laotian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cultures. Johanna is responsible for numerous pieces of public art around San Francisco * * Since the 1970s, a growing number of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian immigrants have settled in the Tenderloin. The first large migration of Vietnamese into the United States came in the 1970s with elites who fled their home country after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The second wave of immigrants to enter the city in Continue Reading

Old Time Fun

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2013

Jan 242013

Frank Norris Street (aka as Austin) and Polk The Tenderloin Mike Shine is an artist who lives and paints in Bolinas, California. With no formal art school training, his background instead includes fine woodworking, furniture and cabinet making: skills that often appear in his artwork. He typically creates using driftwood and found objects, and many of his works invite (and even require) the observer to handle and operate them, something he considers contrary to the sterile “please donʼt touch” world of museums and galleries. For the last few years Mike has used painting to explore the metaphor of a childhood Continue Reading

Taking Life Lying Down

Posted by Cindy on January 23, 2013

Jan 232013

100 Block of Hemlock The Tenderloin This Native American is by Spencer Keeton Cuningham. Cunningham is responsible for another Native American mural in the tenderloin. Cunningham is a member of the Indigenous Arts Coalition, a Bay Area organization started in 2008 that advocates for Native American artists. Spencer Keeton Cunningham (Nez Perce) is originally from Portland, Oregon and along with drawing and painting, he shoots experimental and documentary films. He graduated from SFAI with a BFA in Printmaking in May 2010. Spencer currently works at White Walls Gallery in Central San Francisco. Since 2010, Spencer has shown his prints and drawings Continue Reading

Nico Berry on York Street

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2013

Jan 222013

1354 York Street Mission/Potrero This mural is part of the San Francisco StreetSmARTS program and was done by Nico Berry. Nico Berry’s cultural perspective is shaped by his encounters with hip-hop, skateboarding, and urban youth culture while growing up on the South Side of Chicago. Over the years he has also become interested in exploring the role of culture, community, class, and religion, especially in the context of urban life. Aesthetically, Nico’s prolific experience in graphic design is extremely evident. Lettering, patterns, and the appropriation of pop and religious symbolism dominate his work. The media he works with include spray-paint, Continue Reading

Martin Luther King Memorial

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

Yerba Buena Center Gardens The United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Memorial, titled Revelation, was built in San Francisco in 1993. It sits behind a 50’ x 20’ foot wall of cascading water. Located in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the memorial is a lovely walkway constructed under a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool. The reflective pool spills over large pieces of Sierra granite, giving the visitor a roaring background noise that blocks out the city sounds and allows a moment for peace and contemplation. A photo of Dr. King anchors the west entrance to the fountain. This is mirrored to the east with Continue Reading

Shapes and Letters

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2013

Jan 212013

751 and 780 Valencia at 19th The Mission This mural, consisting of shapes, numbers and letters, is by 24 year old SF resident, Jonathan Matas. In 2012 Jonathan did an interview with a group in Atlanta while participating in a show called Living Walls. Here is a few interesting excerpts from the article: I have been painting all my life. Like all kids, I made art, but I kept on going, nonstop. It has always been my passion. The only time in my life that I stopped was last year for about six months, that was an excellent break and I came back Continue Reading

The Adam Grant Building

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2013

Jan 192013

114 Sansome Street Financial District The garland façade, as well as the coffered entryway, were removed in the 1960s. Over the course of its 145-year history, the Adam Grant Building at 114 Sansome Street has gone through several iterations. Constructed in 1867, the first building housed the dry goods business of Daniel Murphy and Adam Grant. Architect John Gaynor incorporated 250 tons of iron into this four-story brick structure located at the corner of Sansome and Bush Streets. As a result, the 1868 Joint Committee on Earthquakes honored Gaynor, citing his structure as an exemplar of earthquake-resistant building. Ironically, exemplar Continue Reading

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

Posted by Cindy on January 18, 2013

Jan 182013

Duboce and Church Castro Mona Caron, who created the adjacent Bicycle Coalition mural on the back of the Safeway has added new touches to the Muni utility boxes on the sidewalk. On one side of the boxes, bicyclists entering the Wiggle are greeted by an illustrated flowing banner that lists the names of the streets that make up the route. On the other side, pedestrians are treated with a window to a re-imagined intersection featuring an uncovered Sans Souci Creek (which once roughly followed the path of the Wiggle). The title of this box is Manifestation Station. This photo, from Mona Caron’s website, Continue Reading

1360 Montgomery Street – A Streamline Moderne Dream

Posted by Cindy on January 17, 2013

Jan 172013

1360 Montgomery Street - A Streamline Moderne Dream

1360 Montgomery Street The Malloch Apartments Telegraph Hill The Spirit of California. Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design the images that grace the exterior 1360 Montgomery Street. Du Pont produced two 40-foot high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third on the north side. Du Pont applied colored concrete to the exterior and carved it into shape. Sgraffito on walls has been used in Europe since classical times, and it was common in Italy in the 16th century, and can be found in African art. In combination with Continue Reading

Cloud Portal

Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2013

Jan 162013

Corner of Washington and Davis Golden Gateway Center This sculpture is titled Cloud Portal and is by Ned Kahn. Kahn has several sculptures around San Francisco Mist periodically emerges from the central void of a sculpture constructed out of stacked horizontal sheets of stainless steel. The mist alternately reveals and obscurs the view of the urban landscape that is framed by the sculpture. A collaboration with RHAA landscape architects the sculpture was completed in 2011.

Domestic Seating in Bronze

Posted by Cindy on January 15, 2013

Jan 152013

Duboce and Church Castro Titled Domestic Seating these bronze chairs are by Primitivo Suarez. They are on the corners of the intersection of Duboce and Church where there are several muni stops as well as Mona Caron’s Bicycle Coalition Mural. Fortunately the SFAC has placed plaques explaining the murals on the corners as well, something I feel should be done with all of our public art. The plaques read: Inspired by the discarded furniture commonly seen on city sidewalks, Domestic Seating evokes intimate interior spaces and unexpectedly transforms this intersection into a shared experience. The collection of seating replicated in Continue Reading

Where the Wild Things Gnar

Posted by Cindy on January 14, 2013

Jan 142013

20th and Mission The Mission This mural by Nosego is titled “Where the Wild Things Gnar”. Yis “Nosego” Goodwin is a Philadelphia-based artist with a passion for illustration and media arts. He mixes fine art with a contemporary style to deliver highly energetic work. His designs feature an assemblage of patterns, vibrant colors and characters derived from his imagination and his surrounding environment. The South Philly native started honing his talent as child, taking classes at Fleisher Art Memorial and attending the High School of Creative and Performing Arts. His fine-art training is detectable in almost all of his paintings—whether Continue Reading

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

Posted by Cindy on January 12, 2013

Jan 122013

100 JFK Boulevard Golden Gate Park The oldest extant structure in Golden Gate Park is also its most beloved: the Conservatory of Flowers. This beautiful, white-washed structure is the oldest wood-and-glass conservatory in America. It is believed that James Lick, a prominent and wealthy San Franciscan, purchased the conservatory as a kit from Ireland for $2050 and had it shipped to his estate on the Peninsula. However, it is also thought that portions of the original building contained California redwood. Upon Lick’s death in 1876, The Society of California Pioneers found themselves the owners. They chose to sell it to a Continue Reading

The Beaded Quilt

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2013

Jan 112013

214 Van Ness Avenue Civic Center This “Beaded Quilt” sits on the outside of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired building on Van Ness Avenue. According to the Please Touch Garden Site this mural is part of a LightHouse community arts initiative created by dozens of blind San Franciscans. The mural is created out of 150,000 colored beads. As part of the Please Touch Community Garden, artist Gk Callahan envisioned the “Beaded Quilt” mural as a social arts project and enlisted clients from his art classes plus blind staff and volunteers at the LightHouse to assemble the 576 beaded squares that make up Continue Reading

Kinetic Sculpture in Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on January 10, 2013

Jan 102013

Mission Dolores Park The Mission District Mission Dolores underwent a $17+ million, much-needed and beautiful transformation in 2011 and 2012. Part of the renovation was this kinetic sculpture. The sculpture, by Lymon Whitaker is 23 feet tall. Lyman has been a practicing sculptor for over 40 years, with a unique knowledge of materials and their application. The past 19 years have primarily been focused on creating Wind Sculptures, which are all produced by hand. The Wind Sculptures are innovative and artistic with a high degree of mechanical integrity. Lyman feels that by placing the sculptures in settings dependent on natural Continue Reading

The Art of the Jessie Street Substation

Posted by Cindy on January 9, 2013

Jan 092013

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Substation 222-226 Jessie Street Market Street/Yerba Buena Gardens Tucked away in a dead-end alley between Market and Mission, is one of San Francisco’s few great examples of the architectural possibilities of the brick facade. Originally built in 1881, and subsequently enlarged twice, the substation was damaged in a fire in February, 1906, and almost destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April, 1906. Rebuilt in 1907, the building owes its present character to Willis Polk, at that time head of the San Francisco office of D. H. Burnham and Company, the Chicago firm that Continue Reading

The Winged Lion that Holds Court in a Traffic Circle

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2013

Jan 082013

The Winged Lion that Holds Court in a Traffic Circle

8th and Townsend SOMA This winged lion sits in the traffic circle at 8th and Townsend. The lion was a gift from a former Galleria showroom owner, Jack Shears. (Shears and Windows) The Design Center placed the lion in the traffic circle in 1988, then installed a sprinkler system and planted the lawn. The Design Center has maintained the traffic circle since then. The lion, purchased from Haddonstone, was designed as the center piece for a fountain, with plumbing lines running internally within the piece. Wouldn’t it be nice if someday the fountain is completed. Update: As you can see Continue Reading

2 Bears in the Haight

Posted by Cindy on January 7, 2013

Jan 072013

226 Filmore between Haight and Waller The Haight These two bears are by Bologna based, Italian artist Ericailcane, whose website is so delightful it is worth a visit. Ericailcane makes etchings, graphic art, street art (most notably in collaboration with street artist Blu), animations, sculptures, installations, tattoos and loads of drawings. Inspired by Victorian children’s illustrations, the works are often macabre but never sad. They depict animals dressed like humans in surreal situations

Fort Point the Best Vantage Point to View the Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by Cindy on January 5, 2013

Jan 052013

Fort Point the Best Vantage Point to View the Golden Gate Bridge

It took 116 years for Fort Point to become a National Historic Site, and its life along that road was a bumpy one. Construction on Fort Point began in 1854. Thanks to the California Gold Rush, commerce was booming in San Francisco, and it was important that the portal through which valuable cargo flowed, the San Francisco Bay, was protected. The Fort, as it is configured today, is how it was originally envisioned. In 1857 a reporter for the Daily Alta California described the workmanship at Fort Point as “solid masonry of more than ordinary artistic skill which meets the eye at Continue Reading

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