Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Aristides Demetrios At SFSU

Posted by Cindy on September 27, 2012

Sep 272012

San Francisco State University Lakeside Caring by Aristides Demetrios Aristides Demetrios has several pieces around San Francisco. Aristides Burton Demetrios (1932- ) was born and raised in Massachusetts. His father, George Demetrios, was a classical sculptor, trained by Bourdelle, a student of Rodin. His mother, Virginia Lee Burton was the renowned author and illustrator of children’s books, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and The Little House, for which she won the prestigious Caldecott prize. After graduating from Harvard College, Mr. Demetrios spent three years as an officer in the Navy and then studied at the George Demetrios School for three years. Continue Reading

William Wareham at SFSU

Posted by Cindy on September 26, 2012

Sep 262012

San Francisco State University Lakeside Buckeye and the Benches by William Wareham In front of the Gymnasium Buckeye is an abstract modern sculpture.To enhance its functionality,Wareham was commissioned to build three benches consistent to the central piece. Throughout his distinguished career as a sculptor, William Wareham has remained true to his inner spirit, capturing viewer’s consciousness through his powerful abstract works. A compatriot of Mark di Suvero, Wareham creates works with a strong common thread, using recycled steel as his primary material. Featured in many strong National collections, William Wareham achieves some of the most consistently accomplished compositions in contemporary Continue Reading

The Mathematical Concept of Tau in Sculpture

Posted by Cindy on September 25, 2012

Sep 252012

The Mathematical Concept of Tau in Sculpture

160 Spear Street SOMA’s Financial District Tau by Roger Berry – Stainless Steel – 1984 96″ Diameter 14″ Deep Each of the four intersecting cones of Tau describes the form of the solar year. The forward side is in full light in the winter the back surfaces are filled with the summer sun. The building to the south of Tau casts a shadow on the sculpture much of the day. A prominent and highly respected northern California sculptor, Roger Berry, who has been called a “monumental master” has been commissioned to make over 30 site-specific sculptural works for municipalities and corporations from the West Continue Reading

Asian Pacific Celebration

Posted by Cindy on September 24, 2012

Sep 242012

San Francisco State University Lakeside ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER MURAL David Cho & Albert Yip Created in 2004, The Asian & Pacific Islander Mural tells the story of hard-working and determined people who fought for the rights of their community, as well as honoring those who continue the fight today. Among the people included on the mural are: Yuri Kochiyama, Angel Santos, Mohandas Gandhi, Tupua Tamasese, Queen Liliuokalani, Queen Salote, Lakshmi Bai, Larry Dulay Itliong, Ahn Chang Ho and Haunani-Kay Trask. The Japanese American Redress and Reparations, Third World Strike at SFSU, Chinatown Red Guard Party and the Revolutionary Association of Continue Reading

200 California Street

Posted by Cindy on September 23, 2012

Sep 232012

200 California Street Financial District Hawaiian by Gwynn Murrill – Bronze- 2002 This is part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art Program. San Francisco’s “Downtown Plan” adopted in 1985, was developed under the fundamental assumption that significant employment and office development growth would occur. New commercial development would provide new revenue sources to cover a portion of the costs of necessary urban service improvements. Specific programs were created to satisfy needs for additional housing, transit, childcare, open space, and art. The public art requirement created by this plan is commonly known as the “1% for Art” program. This requirement, governed by Section Continue Reading

Hidden Sea near Moscone Center

Posted by Cindy on September 22, 2012

Sep 222012

321 Clementina SOMA Hidden Sea by Ned Kahn 2000 Recipient Organization: Tenants and Owners Development Corporation In late 1999, artist Ned Kahn collaborated with the staff of the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO) and the residents of their housing projects to create a public artwork for the exterior wall of Ceatrice Polite apartment building at Fourth and Clementina Streets. The apartment is in the Yerba Buena redevelopment area. Ned Kahn’s public artworks encourage people to observe and interact with natural processes. Upon talking with the advisory group, his concept for this project became to create a piece that captures Continue Reading

Ode to Hank

Posted by Cindy on September 21, 2012

Sep 212012

San Francisco State University Lakeside ODE TO HANK by Terry Marashlian Created in 2008 This installation piece replaced “Midnight Hour,” an installation piece by Hank De RIcco. “Midnight Hour” was five wooden totems that stood on the campus for twenty years, but outdoor exposure had deteriorated them beyond repair. Campus Officials and artist Terry Marashlian, an instructor and former student at SFSU, decided to honor the totems by recreating them using aluminum coated with a specially engineered finish normally used for automobiles and marine vessels.These are located on the North side wall of Cesar Chavez Student Center. Hank DiRicco’s Continue Reading

Bufano, hidden amongst the SFSU campus trees

Posted by Cindy on September 20, 2012

Sep 202012

Bufano, hidden amongst the SFSU campus trees

San Francisco State University Lakeside St. Francis by Beniamino Bufano – Red Granite This gift to the campus from the City of San Francisco sits on the main quad of the campus.

Carlos II, King of Spain Gazes out over Harding Park

Posted by Cindy on September 19, 2012

Sep 192012

Carlos II, King of Spain Gazes out over Harding Park

7-99 Harding Road Lake Merced – Sunset District The sculpture of Carlos III was a gift to the city from King Juan Carlos I of Spain in honor of the Bicentennial of the City of San Francisco. CARLOS III, KING OF SPAIN Settler of California, champion of the cause of the American Independence, who directed Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza to establish a presidio, a mission and a city in San Francisco, in the year 1776. Donated by King Juan Carlos I of Spain on the Bicentennial of the City of San Francisco, 1976. Federico Coullaut – sculptor Federico Continue Reading

Juan Bautista de Anza at Lake Merced

Posted by Cindy on September 18, 2012

Sep 182012

Lake Merced * This equestrian statue of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, founder of the City San Francisco, is located in a parking lot off Lake Merced Boulevard on the north shore of the Lake. A plaque, in both Spanish and English, on the statue base reads: As a high tribute to an illustrious historical figure born in Sonora, founder of the City of San Francisco and with the purpose of strengthening the friendly ties between the peoples of Mexico and of the United States, the state of Sonora of the Republic of Mexico presents this statue to the City Continue Reading

Firefly on the new SFPUC Building

Posted by Cindy on September 17, 2012

Sep 172012

525 Golden Gate Avenue Civic Center This is the new Public Utilities building in San Francisco. It is touted as one of the more “green buildings” built in the US. Four egg-beater-like wind turbines are on view behind a 200-foot-high, 22-foot-wide curtain of polycarbonate squares called Firefly. Ned Kahn’s Firefly is a lattice of tens of thousands of five-inch-square, clear-polycarbonate panels that are hinged so that they can freely move in the wind. During the day, the ever-changing wind pressure profile on the building appears as undulating waves. At night, this movement is converted into light. As the wind presses the Continue Reading

Aileen Barr’s work at West Portal Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 16, 2012

Sep 162012

Aileen Barr's work at West Portal Playground

West Portal Playground 131 Lenox Way A $1.5 million renovation project in 2005 saw the West Portal Park’s original clubhouse expanded and upgraded. The park includes a picnic area, playground and large play field. The building also features artwork commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission Public Art Program. “The Secret Garden,” a series of hand-carved tiles by artist Aileen Barr, depicts various flora and fauna native to the area, including leaves, flowers, plants, insects and birds. Aileen has tile work in many places throughout San Francisco. Aileen Barr studied Ceramic Design at the National College of Art and Design In Continue Reading

Avenida del Rio Bike Path and Greenbelt

Posted by Cindy on September 15, 2012

Sep 152012

16th and Harrison Mission District / SOMA Mission Creek Mosaic Mural Ceramic tile and mirror mosaic, 15 ft. x 8.5 ft. Funding provided by Potrero Nuevo Fund administered by New Langton Arts. Avenida del Rio tile mural marks one end of what is hoped to be the Mission Creek Bikeway and Greenbelt. The bikeway will follow the path of the now-buried creek. When the Forty-Niners arrived, they filled the creek in and built a railroad on top. Now what remains is a curved urban anomaly of a street cutting through the San Francisco street grid. The trail would follow this Continue Reading

Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan Grace the Jose Coronado Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 14, 2012

Sep 142012

Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan Grace the Jose Coronado Playground

Jose Coronado Playground and Clubhouse 21st and Folsom Mission District Raizes/Roots, Ray Patlan and Eduardo Pineda, Jose Coronado Playground Clubhouse The entire exterior of the Jose Coronado Clubhouse is sheathed in eleven hundred terra cotta-colored tiles, designed and hand-painted by artists Eduardo Pineda and Ray Patlan. The tiles depict Aztec-inspired images of birds and frogs in a repeated, checkerboard pattern. The pattern is interrupted periodically by large tile figures of animals and plant forms. Over the Center doorway are two highly stylized king buzzards (Cozcacuautli), in shades of terra cotta, near a blue coyote (Itzcuintli). A polka-dotted deer cavorts on the Continue Reading

Ornamental Gates at Rolph Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2012

Sep 132012

Rolph Playground Potrero at 25th & Utah and 25th Mission/Potrero Hill Isis Rodriguez has created two rolled iron ornamental artworks, one for each side of Rolph Playground. Isis Rodriguez is a second generation Mid-Western Latina who grew up in Topeka, Kansas and received her first lessons in art from copying Hannah-Barbera cartoons by hand. She attended the University of Kansas where she received her BFA in Painting in 1988. Two years later, she moved to San Francisco to pursue her cartoon inspired artwork using various art forms: murals, paintings, silk screens, graffiti, flyers, and posters. Isis worked on murals for Continue Reading

Peace by Bufano

Posted by Cindy on September 12, 2012

Sep 122012

800 Brotherhood Way Peace by Benny Bufano Located at the entrance to the San Francisco Airport for almost forty years”Peace” was relocated to make way for a parking garage. After restoration it was moved to Brotherhood Way, where it stands now. Benny Bufano was born in Italy in 1898, Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano came to the United States at young age with his family. After studying art in New York City, he eventually moved to San Francisco where he taught both at UC-Berkeley and at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He died in 1970. On the back Continue Reading

Heart Song for Japan

Posted by Cindy on September 11, 2012

Sep 112012

485 Scott Street Western Addition/NOPA * This mural, titled Heart Song for Japan was done by Marina Perez-Wong in 2011. Marina, who also goes by Micha P-Wong has several murals around San Francisco, and is a participant in the Street SmARTS program in San Francisco.

The Presidio Pet Cemetery

Posted by Cindy on September 10, 2012

Sep 102012

Presidio McDowell and Crissy Field Avenues This military pet cemetery is a hidden treasure of San Francisco. If you are in the area when construction of Doyle Drive is completed, have a stroll, it is a really sweet place to wander. Surrounded by a white picket fence and shaded by Monterey pines, the pet cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of loyal animals owned by families stationed at the Presidio. Most of the grave markers mimic those found in military cemeteries and sometimes reflect the pets’ military lifestyle—listing birthplaces including China, England, Australia, and Germany. Many markers also Continue Reading

Hidden Gems in Bernal Heights

Posted by Cindy on September 8, 2012

Sep 082012

82 Coleridge Street Bernal Heights This tile mosaic is titled Colloidal Pool and is by Peter Almeida. Done in 1988 it is suggestive of a puddle with ripples moving concentrically over leaf sheaves. The view from Coleridge Mini Park Coleridge Mini Park

Electric Substation and the Art World

Posted by Cindy on September 7, 2012

Sep 072012

8th and Mission SOMA * These two bas-reliefs in cast stone, titled Power and Light, sit on the 8th Street side of the Pacific Gas and Electric Mission Substation. The building was designed in 1948 by William Merchant. The sculptor was Robert B. Howard. William Gladstone Merchant was a San Francisco architect who trained in the offices of John Galen Howard and Bernard Maybeck. Merchant obtained his architectural license in 1918 and from 1917 to 1928, worked in the office of George W. Kelham. Merchant opened his own firm in San Francisco in 1930, designing a number of commercial buildings Continue Reading

Watching the Wind at the Randall Museum

Posted by Cindy on September 6, 2012

Sep 062012

Randall Museum 199 Museum Way Castro * The plaque that accompanies the piece reads: Charles Sowers is an artist whose practice links art and science. Here wind currents activate over 500 aluminum arrows to reveal the ever-changing ways the wind interacts with the building and its environment. “My work presents actual physical phenomena, often of striking visual beauty, that draw people into careful noticing and interaction” This piece is from the Collection of the City and County of San Francisco commissioned by the SFAC for the Randall Museum Funded by the Public Utilities Company. According to a February 21, 2012 Continue Reading

Fire creates Firehouse Art

Posted by Cindy on September 5, 2012

Sep 052012

1091 Portola Drive St Francis Wood/Mt. Davidson Station #39 * This 30″ Blown Glass Rondella, done in 1997, is by Mark McDonnell. Mark McDonnell (1945- ) is a visual artist whose work can be found in the permanent collections of the Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Corning Museum of Glass. He has extensively researched and photographed glasshouses and glass architecture. He is the former chairman of the Glass Department at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, and presently lives in San Francisco. Having taken up writing Mark McDonnell, explores the intriguing locations that Chihuly is Continue Reading

A Gluers Mosaic at Douglass Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 4, 2012

Sep 042012

Douglass Playground 26th and Douglass Noe Valley This mosaic, done in 1987 by Lois Anderson, is on the side of the Douglass Playground Clubhouse. Tile, glass, metal, buttons, jewelry on fiberglass, and wood corresponds to the architectural details or emblems found on many neighborhood buildings. Her obituary, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 10, 2004 reads: “…a Marin artist known for her bejeweled assemblages, died of cancer at her Mill Valley home Sunday surrounded by friends. She was 77. Ms. Anderson was born in Milwaukee, Wis., and received her bachelor’s degree in 1949 from Wisconsin State University. In Continue Reading

The Tragedy of the Gartland Apartments

Posted by Cindy on September 3, 2012

Sep 032012

Harrison and Alameda Mission/SOMA Mission Wall Dances is subtitled with a Robert Frost quote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” During the 1970’s San Francisco’s Mission and SOMA areas were wracked by arson fires, many thought to be intentional. A fire that has left a large scar on the mission was the Gartland Apartments Fire. From a San Francisco Chronicle article of September 14, 2002: On the night of Dec. 12, (1975) somebody poured gasoline down the Gartland’s main stairwell and ignited it. The fire spread so quickly, so intensely that even veteran firefighters were stunned. “I’ve never heard Continue Reading

Noe Valley Natives – Plants that is.

Posted by Cindy on September 2, 2012

Sep 022012

295 Day Street Noe Valley SAN FRANCISCO WALL FLOWER “ERYSIMUM FRANCISCANUM” This installation is titled Noe Valley Natives, and these pieces sit on fence posts at the Upper Noe Valley Rec Center. The artist is Troy Corliss. In 1993 Troy graduated from the studio art program at the University of California at Davis. While at UC Davis, he studied figure drawing and sculpture. Today, he lives with his wife Anne Liston in Truckee, CA. Corliss has been artist in residence at the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, California, the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, and the John Muir Institute of the Environment at Continue Reading

Evan Bissell captures Artists on the Streets of SF

Posted by Cindy on September 1, 2012

Sep 012012

Evan Bissell captures Artists on the Streets of SF

Folsom and 17th Mission District “I write to organize my thoughts. I spit poems because it feels empowering to know there is a room full of people there to listen.” This is Luara Venturi, a local spoken word poet, as depicted by Evan Bissell. The Intersection for the Arts’ show “Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere* youth, imagination and transformation” took place in 2008. Bissell’s paintings of young artists from Youth Speaks were put around the city as a teaser for the show. The site for each was chosen by the subject, the location being one with some personal meaning to the Continue Reading

Muertos in the Mission

Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2012

Aug 312012

Valencia Street Between 15th and 19th Streets Mission District * These tree grates are part of Phase One of the Valencia Streetscape Improvement Project. They were designed by DPW architects John Dennis and Martha Ketterer and manufactured by Iron Age Grates company. Phase one of the Valencia Streetscape Improvement Project included removal of the striped center median, sidewalk widening, bulb-outs, more accommodating curbside loading zones for trucks, improved traffic, parking and bicycle lane alignments, the removal of the striped center median, pedestrian scale lighting, art elements, bike racks, and new street trees. The project included the replacement and addition of 76,000 square Continue Reading

Hermes and Dionysus Shake it Up

Posted by Cindy on August 30, 2012

Aug 302012

411 Sansome Street Financial District * * This bronze, done in 1986, titled Hermes and Dionysus-Monument to Analysis is by Arman. (1928-2005) The French-born American artist Arman told an interviewer in 1968. “I have never been — how do you say it? A dilettante.” Arman’s vast artistic output ranges from drawings and prints to monumental public sculpture. His work—strongly influenced by Dada, and in turn a strong influence on Pop Art—is in the collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Born in Nice Continue Reading

Parisian Street Artist Tags the Asian Art Museum

Posted by Cindy on August 29, 2012

Aug 292012

Parisian Street Artist Tags the Asian Art Museum

McAllister and Hyde Wall of the Asian Art Museum Civic Center UPDATE: The artist on this is actually an artist from Iowa that goes by TheUpside. Apparently the UpTown Almanac and I spotted this one at the same time. Here is what they wrote: Tim Hallman, the Asian Art Museum’s Communications Director, dropped us a line about the beautiful piece: I think the Asian Art Museum got “tagged” by this famous Parisian street artist. No confirmation from the artist yet, though. It appeared overnight on the McAllister Street side of the building, near Hyde. We didn’t hire her, Continue Reading

Arnold Genthe’s Photography at CCSF Chinatown Campus

Posted by Cindy on August 28, 2012

Aug 282012

Arnold Genthe's Photography at CCSF Chinatown Campus

Washington and Kearny Chinatown Diligence is the path Up the mountain of knowledge Hard work is the boat Across the endless sea of learning This is the Washington street side of the new Chinatown campus of San Francisco City College. This particular window is the library. The archival photograph is by San Franciscan Arnold Genthe. This young immigrant girl in traditional Chinese dress gazing out at the city is the cover photograph for the book Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown. She is framed by a couplet, in English and in Chinese calligraphy, metaphorically extolling the cultural virtues diligence Continue Reading

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