Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Golden Gate Park – Ulysses S. Grant

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2012

Mar 042012

Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * Ulysses S. Grant by Rupert Schmid The pedestal of the bronze bust lists the principle battles of the generals’ command. It was sculpted by Rupert Schmid and funded by a citizens committee in 1904. (However, there are articles the say it was installed in 1894 and 1896). Schmid had modeled the General at Mount McGregor a few weeks before he died and that concluded in a monument at Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park, New York. This was why Schmid was chosen. This is excerpted from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Rideout Memorial Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 3, 2012

Mar 032012

Golden Gate Park - Rideout Memorial Fountain

Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Rideout Memorial Fountain The Rideout Memorial Fountain – 1924 * This area was developed for the Midwinter Fair’s Grand Court of Honor. The grounds were sculpted from sand dunes by men using horse-drawn sleds. The fountain, dedicated in 1924, was made possible with a $10,000 gift from Corrine Rideout. Corrine Rideout was the widow of Norman Rideout, who died in a mining accident in 1896. Mr. Rideout’s father, also Norman, came from Maine to Oroville, California and opened a bank. He successfully opened five more in the central valley of California. After his death in Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Portals of the Past

Posted by Cindy on March 2, 2012

Mar 022012

Golden Gate Park Lloyd’s Lake This is the reservoir for the water pumped up its adjacent hill to Rainbow Falls. The water is circulated via the JFK Drive stream, and pours back into the lake in a cascade at its southwest corner. A trail entrance from Transverse Drive leads up the hill overlooking the water. The lake itself has a placid, dreamlike quality due in part to the stately presence of the Portals of the Past. It was also previously referred to as Mirror Lake. The Portals of the Past has always been one of those folly’s that seem so Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Stow Lake

Posted by Cindy on March 1, 2012

Mar 012012

Golden Gate Park Completed in 1893, Stow Lake is considered a landscaping masterpiece. Created out of sand dunes by park superintendant John McLaren, it is the largest of Golden Gate Park’s lakes. Massive holes were dug out of the sand, carloads of clay were wheeled in and windmills were built to draft water from natural wells. Strawberry Hill, the highest point in the park, became a central focus as an island in the middle of the lake. The Rustic Bridge and the Roman Bridge, both completed in 1893 and still standing, connect the lakeshore with the island, allowing visitors panoramic Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – William D. McKinneon

Posted by Cindy on February 29, 2012

Feb 292012

Golden Gate Park * Chaplain William D. McKinneon First California US VOL INF 1898-99 Here is an excerpt from “San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: A Thousand and Seventeen Acres of Stories” “William D. McKinnon taught at Santa Clara University and was chaplain with the First U.S. Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines. This sculpture, created by D. John MacQuarrie was placed in the park on August 21, 1927, 15 years after it was cast at the Louis de Rome Memorial Bronze, Brass and Bell Foundry of Oakland. The donors, the Bay Area Spanish American War veterans and Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Cervantes

Posted by Cindy on February 28, 2012

Feb 282012

Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Museum Drive just off JFK Drive * * Miguel Cervantes Memorial by Jo Mora Bronze and Stone 1916 This work was presented to the City of San Francisco by J.C. Cebrian and E.J. Molera, September 3, 1916. It is so appealingly, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza looking up to their creator, the famous Spanish writer, Miguel Cervantes. Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora, was born October 22, 1876 in Uruguay and died October 10, 1947 in Monterey California. Jo Mora came to the United States as a child, studied art in the New York, and worked for Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Atop Rainbow Falls

Posted by Cindy on February 27, 2012

Feb 272012

Golden Gate Park Atop of Rainbow Falls Atop of Rainbow Falls is the Prayer Book Cross (also called Drake’s Cross). It is the tallest monument in the park at 64 feet with base. It is not easy to reach, and is well hidden by foliage. It was erected in Golden Gate Park in 1894 as a gift from the Church of England and was created by Ernest Coxhead. Made of sandstone, the cross commemorates the first use of the Book of Common Prayer in California by Sir Francis Drake’s chaplain on June 24, 1579. On Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Robert Burns

Posted by Cindy on February 26, 2012

Feb 262012

Golden Gate Park * * The Plaque reads:Robert Burns 1759-1796To a Mountain Daisy 1786 Wee, modest crimson-tipped flow’r, Thou’s met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem: To spare thee now is past my pow’r, Thou bonie gem. This plaque donated by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco May 1979 A campaign to have a statue of Robert Burns in San Francisco was started by John McGilvray in 1905. The required cash was raised and Melvin Earl Cummings (whose grandparents were born in Scotland) was commissioned to produce the figure. Cummings modelled Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Turtle Sun Dial

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2012

Feb 252012

Golden Gate Park In front of the de Young Museum * This sundial by Melvin Earl Cummings was named by the North American Sundial Society ‘Navigator’s Dial’ because on the dial face there are the images of three explorers of the California coastline. The memorial sun dial was given to San Francisco by the California members of the National Society of Colonial Dames, in honor of the first navigators who approached the Pacific coast. These pioneers were Fortun Jiminiez, who came to the coast in 1533; Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, 1542, and Sir Francis Drake, 1575. The base of the dial Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Pool of Enchantment

Posted by Cindy on February 24, 2012

Feb 242012

Golden Gate Park * * * This is the Pool of Enchantment, it sat between the two circular stairway entries to the old de Young Museum. The pool is now on the east side of the entryway. The Pool of Enchantment actually preceded the Museum by a few years. Donor Marie Becker, widow of banker Bernard Adolph Becker, originally proposed using her $42,000 bequest to rebuild the Sweeny Observatory on Strawberry Hill. The park commission rejected this proposal but struck a compromise and applied the funds to create the Pool of Enchantment in 1917. M. Earl Cummings sculpted the Native American boy Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Roman Gladiator

Posted by Cindy on February 23, 2012

Feb 232012

Golden Gate Park * Roman Gladiator – 1881 by Geef In Commemoration of the Inauguration of the California Midwinter International Exposition On this spot the first shovelful of earth was turned with ceremonies on August 24th 1893. (That first spade of shovel was turned by President William Howard Taft) After the popular 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, many American cities planned similar expositions to highlight progressive business ideas. Golden Gate Park became the setting for a hastily assembled fair, the first such west of the Mississippi. With a theme of “California: Cornucopia of the World”, the Midwinter Fair, as it Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Sphinx

Posted by Cindy on February 22, 2012

Feb 222012

Golden Gate Park * Copies of Sphinx by Arthur Putnam – 1912 These sit to the right of the entry to the new de Young Museum. The plaque on them reads: This pair of concrete sphinxes replaces the original black granite sculptures commissioned from Arthur Putnam for the entrance to the Egyptian revival Fine Arts Building of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. At the fair’s end, this building served as the first incarnation of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. Sometime between 1905 and 1912, the granite sphinxes were removed. New concrete sphinxes based on Putnam’s initial plaster Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Poeme de la Vigne

Posted by Cindy on February 21, 2012

Feb 212012

Golden Gate Park Music Concourse * * * * * Poeme de la Vigne by Gustave Doré Cast in Bronze 1882 This piece sits outside the deYoung Museum and the plaque attached reads: Gustave Doré created this vase for French winemakers, who exhibited it at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair. It represents an allegory of the annual wine vintage, taking the shape of a colossal wine vessel decorated with figures associated with the rites of Bacchus (the Roman god of wine). The revelers include cupids, satyrs and bacchantes, who protect the grape vines from pests. The foundry shipped this bronze version Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – General Henry Wager Halleck

Posted by Cindy on February 20, 2012

Feb 202012

Golden Gate Park - General Henry Wager Halleck

Golden Gate Park *This is Major General Henry Wager Halleck. His sculptor was Carl H. Conrads. Halleck was general-in chief of armies in the US from 1862- 1864. He then became Secretary of State and helped frame the California Constitution. The statue was a gift of Halleck’s chief-of-staff General George W. Cullum and is located on JFK Drive near the tennis courts. Halleck was responsible for erecting the Montgomery Block a financial district office building. The Montgomery block was touted as one of the first fireproof buildings, which proved true when it survived the ’06 quake and fire. However, it Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – James Garfield

Posted by Cindy on February 19, 2012

Feb 192012

Golden Gate Park * * * The James Abram Garfield Monument sits on a prominent berm southeast of the Conservatory of Flowers. (For more information of the conservatory itself) According to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park by Chris Pollock and Erica Katz, this monument, the park’s oldest, memorializes the 20th president of the United States. Garfield was tragically shot with two bullets on July 2, 1881, in a Washington D.C. railroad station by disturbed federal office seeker Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield died on September 18, 1881, at a cottage on the New Jersey shore. The statue’s cornerstone laid on August 24, 1884, contains Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Francis Scott Key

Posted by Cindy on February 18, 2012

Feb 182012

Golden Gate Park Music Concourse Francis Scott Key by William Wetmore Story To Francis Scott Key Author of the National Song The Star-Spangled Banner This Monument is Erected by James Lick Of San Francisco California A.D. 1887 * * This monument to Francis Scott Key was commissioned by San Francisco businessman James Lick, who donated $60,000 for the sculpture. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner after witnessing the shelling of Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. James Lick was also in Baltimore during the shelling, which is most likely the reason for the bequest. The travertine monument was executed Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Apple Cider Press

Posted by Cindy on February 17, 2012

Feb 172012

Golden Gate Park The Apple Cider Press by Thomas Shields Clark * *This 1892 Bronze sculpture was originally exhibited at the Midwinter International Exposition in 1894. The Apple Cider Bronze bears some resemblance to Douglas Tilden’s Mechanics Monument located on Market street in that it bears tribute to the value of hard work. However, this purchase and contribution by DeYoung was apparently inspired by art rather than memorial, since the only cider industry of note in the San Francisco Bay Area is Martinelli’s (1868) located in Watsonville, down the peninsula. This statue was originally a drinking fountain with a cup Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park – Our National Pastime

Posted by Cindy on February 16, 2012

Feb 162012

Golden Gate Park Our National Pastime by Douglas Tilden – 1889 Presented to the Golden Gate Park by a friend of the sculptor as a tribute to his energy, industry and ability Cruet Fondeur, Paris (John Cruet was a moldmaker in Paris, he also worked with Rodin. Fondeur means owner of the foundry) Tilden originally displayed the piece as part of the American Exhibit at the Paris International Exposition, where it was extremely well received. It is widely recognized as the single most famous and classic baseball figural art piece ever created. As a result of its popularity at the Continue Reading

Golden Gate Park, The Music Concourse and Goethe and Schiller

Posted by Cindy on February 15, 2012

Feb 152012

Golden Gate Park, The Music Concourse and Goethe and Schiller

Golden Gate Park This is the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. It is flanked by the new Academy of Sciences and the New DeYoung Museum. A view of the DeYoung Two important things you should know about Golden Gate Park. It is bigger than Central Park and it was NOT designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. Golden Gate Park is 1017 acres, Central Park is 843 acres. Golden Gate Park was designed primarily by Botanist John McClaren and Engineer William Hammond Hall, Central Park WAS designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. This is the first in a series of the statues Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – We are Humans

Posted by Cindy on February 14, 2012

Feb 142012

The Tenderloin Ellis and Jones * * This triptych is by The Luggage Store. According to their website: “…three new murals depicting humans and its relationship with the increasingly robotized culture. It is about living in a time when science is searching for ways to create human traits in robots but in the meantime with all the excess of technology we are losing some of our human senses. It is also touching the subject of human diversity and its rights to belong to a society or being alienated by it. It all intertwines and also questioning; who are aliens, who Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – Our Future!

Posted by Cindy on February 13, 2012

Feb 132012

The Tenderloin This was done by Laserpunch and RattleCan Blasters. They were joined by team co-captain – and avid artist -Vernon Davis who added his creative touch The mural is part of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s StreetSmARTs program. The StreetSmARTS program is a joint initiative of the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Department of Public Work that connects established urban artists with private property owners to create vibrant art in an effort to curb graffiti vandalism. “Laserpunch and the Rattlecan Blasters consists of 2 graffiti artists, Camer1 from San Francisco, CA and Fasm from Modesto, CA. The Duo teams up Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – Pieces of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2012

Feb 122012

The Tenderloin - Pieces of San Francisco

The Tenderloin 569 Ellis Street Pieces of San Francisco Mural Project – 2008 -Created by youth from Glide Memorial, Youth With a Mission, Golden Gate YMCA and Hamilton Family Center in collaboration with Amnesty International. This mural is in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, on the street side of the organization of “Youth with a Mission” on Ellis Street. This area in San Francisco is notorious for its problems with drugs sales and a as center for homelessness in the city. However the Tenderloin is also known for the intense community efforts to improve the area by providing opportunities Continue Reading

Financial District – Guardian by Bruce Beasley

Posted by Cindy on February 11, 2012

Feb 112012

Financial District - Guardian by Bruce Beasley

Financial District 600 California Street Guardian by Bruce Beasley – Bronze – 1992 Made possible by the 1% for Public Art Program This sits at the top of the stairs of a public space that you enter through Kent Roberts’ Bridges. Bruce Beasley (1939) is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born in Los Angeles and living and working in Oakland, He attended Dartmouth and UC Berkeley. He has a wonderful sense of humor that can be experienced by visiting his website. With an artist that had a 45 year retrospective in 2005 he has a large body of highly versatile Continue Reading

Financial District – Three Bridges by Kent Roberts

Posted by Cindy on February 10, 2012

Feb 102012

Financial District - Three Bridges by Kent Roberts

Financial District 600 California Street Three Bridges by Kent Roberts – 1992 Public Art made possible by the 1% for Public Art Program Kent Roberts has appeared in this site before. Roberts has a BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He also has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico. He presently works at SFMOMA.

SOMA – Urban Grit

Posted by Cindy on February 8, 2012

Feb 082012

SOMA Financial District 215 Fremont Street * * * Urban Grit by Gordon Huether Glass Panels – Art made possible by the 1% for Public Arts Program From Gary Brady-Herndon’s August 28, 2002 article in SF Gate: Perched high above the banks of the Napa River, a stone’s throw from the Oxbow area of the city of Napa and the newly christened Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, stands the home of one of the Napa Valley’s more colorful — and successful — artists, Gordon Huether. While Huether’s home may overlook what some might call Continue Reading

SOMA – Poetry Sculpture Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 7, 2012

Feb 072012

SOMA Financial District 199 Fremont Street Poetry Sculpture Garden The plaque on the side of the wall explains the area like this: 199 Fremont poetry/sculpture garden is a unique collaborative piece that combines the talents of Robert Hass, a world famous poet, and Paul Kos, a world-class sculptor. The garden is composed of three major elements: A large installation of the plaza’s Sierra granite as a sculptural form. Sculptor Kos’s setting of Poet Hass’ words in the wall of the plaza. In the place of a fountain, a small, witty set of faucets, sited quietly in the back of the Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – 191 Golden Gate – Mural

Posted by Cindy on February 6, 2012

Feb 062012

The Tenderloin - 191 Golden Gate - Mural

The Tenderloin 191 Golden Gate Avenue The corner of the mural reads: “The Gifts you take are equal to the gifts you make.” 2009 Precita Eyes Muralists Funded by Community Challenge Grants Program and San Francisco Clean City Coaliton Special Thanks to Tenderloin Community Benefit District, Tenderloin Health, San Franciso Arts Commission. Precita Eyes Website had this to say about the mural – “The Gift You Take is Equal to the Gift You Make” celebrates the gifts that the community brings and receives in the Tenderloin neighborhood including diversity, varied backgrounds, and rich cultural heritages and experiences. The “SS New Continue Reading

SOMA – Linking Hand Veil

Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2012

Feb 052012

SOMA Teen Center 10th Street between Market and Mission This mural is called Linking Hand Veil – it is acrylic and by Ball-Nogues Studio. It is public art work created by the 1% for Public Art Program According to their website Benjamin Ball grew up in Colorado and Iowa where his mother’s involvement in theatre proved influential. While studying for his degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Ball logged stints at Gehry Partners and Shirdel Zago Kipnis. Upon graduation, he sought work as a set and production designer for films (including the Matrix series) as well as music videos Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – Police Department

Posted by Cindy on February 3, 2012

Feb 032012

The Tenderloin San Francisco Police Department 301 Eddy Street First Person Plural by Anders Barth Fired Clay Glaze * * (Lenda) Anders Barth has another piece of ceramic work on the Richmond District fire department. First Person Plural is an 8 x 24 foot, hand-carved and glazed tile mural on the Jones Street wall of the Tenderloin Police Station. The entire mural is comprised of 188 large tiles and numerous, smaller brick forms. Silhouettes of thirty-five people of different ages and races are depicted at work and play. Interspersed between them are animals typically found in the Tenderloin neighborhood—cats, dogs, Continue Reading

The Tenderloin – Hemlock and Larkin Mural

Posted by Cindy on February 2, 2012

Feb 022012

The Tenderloin - Hemlock and Larkin Mural

The Tenderloin Hemlock and Larkin This was done in 2009 as part of Precita Eyes Urban Youth Arts Program. It was in conjunction with Larkin Street Youth Services.

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