Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Ocean Avenue History Staircase

Posted by Cindy on September 10, 2018

Sep 102018

Unity Plaza Opened in 2016 Unity Plaza features a new pedestrian path that stretches from the north side of Ocean Avenue to the City College campus. The path, created in partnership with City College, features an integrated landscape and this stairway that features a collage of historic photographs of the neighborhood laid out on the steps. In 2009, the Balboa Park Station Area Plan was adopted by the City and County of San Francisco. This was the culmination of a 10 year Better Neighborhoods Planning Process. The plan also included a reconfiguration of the Phelan Bus Loop, now known as Continue Reading

Robert Reid and the GGIE

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2018

Sep 092018

Palace of Fine Arts Location now: Unknown In keeping with the mission of this website to catalog all art owned by the San Francisco Art Commission, we would be remiss if we did not include one of the greater pieces of art from the Golden Gate International Exposition, that has been lost. Robert Lewis Reid’s murals for the Palace of Fine Arts building at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, in 1915 was an extraordinary tribute to the Arts. Eight huge panels graced the ceiling of the rotunda: The Four Golds of California (Golden Metal, Wheat, Citrus Fruits, and Continue Reading

Mining Exchange

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2018

Sep 092018

350 Bush Financial District The history of the Mining Exchange can be read here, as this is a follow up post regarding the “historic restoration” of the building that took place in 2018. The City of San Francisco has a policy that allows developers to put up a history vignette in place of actual historical restoration. Walking into the building, in the left hand wing is a television screen with lovely photos of San Francisco and an attempt at an artful history review. It fails. * The most important aspect of the restoration was the the terra-cotta facade, the missing Continue Reading

Fabric Collage

Posted by Cindy on September 6, 2018

Sep 062018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foreshill These collages by Merle Axelrad Serlin are comprised of thousands of small pieces of fabric, fiber, paint and cloth. The fragments are carefully arranged, layered, pinned and sewn together onto a cotton canvas. The artist uses a variety of fabrics including, but not limited to, cotton, linen, rayon, wool, silk, hemp, and tulle. When she is not able to find a piece of fabric that achieves the desired effect, Serlin uses acrylic-based fabric paints to create her own. Merle Axelrad Serlin was a successful and pregnant architect when she made her first Continue Reading

Landscape

Posted by Cindy on August 30, 2018

Aug 302018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Blvd. Foresthill These two pieces, which sit in rooms that are across the hall from each other, are titled Landscape and are made of terracotta. Igarashi sculpted hundreds of clay pieces for these terracotta reliefs creating a textured landscape between the in-dining and living areas. Japanese artist Igarashi has taught at Chiba University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He collaborated in the foundation of the Faculty of Design at Tama Art University (Kaminoge Campus) to set up the first computerized design education in Japan and was the first Head of Design Continue Reading

Bloom by Jonathan Bonner

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2018

Aug 272018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Bloom consists of a circular group of five granite lathe-turned elliptical forms with smooth honed finishes. The artist knew that the sculptures would be viewed from above, evoking the concept of a star, a flower or possibly an asterisk. For those that enter the patio area, the pieces encourage sitting as well as providing a tactile experience. Jonathan Bonner received his BFA in 1971 from Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA in 1973 from Rhode Island School of Design. Jonathan Bonner started his career as an artist in the late 1960s, when he wandered Continue Reading

WPA Murals at Laguna Honda Hospital

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2018

Aug 212018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Professions by Glen Wessels is one of five murals in the entry to the older wing of Laguna Honda Hospital. These five 8′ x 6′ murals were painted in 1934 with funding from the PWAP (Public Works Art Projects). Glenn Anthony Wessels was born in Cape Town, South Africa on December 15, 1895, the son of a wealthy Dutch diamond merchant. The Wessels family moved to California about 1902, having lost everything in the Boer War. Wessels earned his B.F.A. at the California School of Arts and Crafts and his M.A. degree at Continue Reading

Point of View

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2018

Aug 172018

Pier 27 Point of View is comprised of two sculptures that resemble lighthouses — one is installed at the Port of San Francisco, and an identical tower is in Haifa, Israel. Viewers look into a periscope-like screen to see a live feed of the other location. The installation is dedicated to San Francisco’s late Mayor Edwin Lee. The project aims to celebrate “the vibrancy of the cities’ art and technology sectors.” San Francisco and Haifa became sister-cities in 1972. The Sister City Committee commissioned Saron Paz and Mathew Passmore to create the installation after San Francisco officials traveled to Continue Reading

Planters

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2018

Aug 172018

San Francisco Superior Court 850 Bryant Street These two planters sit outside of the front entry of the San Francisco Superior Court, they are by Raymond Sells. Raymond Sells was born in San Francisco in 1931. He studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Francisco State University receiving a BA in 1959 and an MA in 1968. He taught at Skyline College he died in 1983. *

Words in White Light

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2018

Aug 162018

Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom The largest piece of art in the Transbay Terminal is Jenny Holzer’s digital work “White Light,” which encircles the main atrium with 16-foot-high excerpts from historical and literary texts. All related to the Bay Area, they are spelled out in animated, pulsing LED configurations. Some of these texts are on view for no more than 20 seconds; others run as long as 90 minutes. The longest excerpt thus far, taken from a work by poet Edith Arnstein Jenkins, had to be broken into shorter elements — its full length is five hours and 20 minutes. Continue Reading

Frederick Olmsted at CCSF

Posted by Cindy on August 9, 2018

Aug 092018

CCSF Phelan Campus Hall of Science The Theory of Science is the title of two murals at the west entrance stairs of the Science Hall. The murals show students engaged in various branches of scientific research such as viewing bacteria through a microscope, conducting field research, and excavating dinosaur remains. These were painted in 1941 as part of the New Deals’ Federal Art Project. Frederick E. Olmsted Jr. was born in San Francisco in 1911. He died in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1990. Olmsted Jr. studied science at Stanford University and was a student of Ralph Stackpole’s at the California School Continue Reading

Dudley Carter the GGIE and CCSF

Posted by Cindy on August 7, 2018

Aug 072018

CCSF Campus Phelan Avenue Diego Rivera Theater and Conlan Hall During the second season (1940) of the Golden Gate International Exposition, organizers began the Art in Action program in the Hall of Fine and Decorative Arts. During the 1939 season, the hall had housed the art collections of European and Pacific cultures. The concept was a working art exhibit in which artists of many media, including sculptors, painters, muralists, weavers, stained glass artists, printmakers, potters, and engravers were invited to move their studios into the Hall and create their art while the public watched. Artists included sculptor Ruth Cravath, mosaic Continue Reading

North-Shore Pump Station Stained Glass

Posted by Cindy on August 4, 2018

Aug 042018

North Shore Pump Station The intersection of Bay Street and Embarcadero The stained glass window in the North Shore Pump Station was created by Narcissus Quagliata. The piece was commissioned in 1980-81. According to the Arts Commission meeting minutes of July 12, 1982, the total cost for the commission of a 12-panel window was $6665. Narcissus Quagliata has been on this site before. He was born in Rome, Italy in 1942 where he studied painting with Giorgio De Chirico. Narcissus moved to the United States in 1962 and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving both a Bachelors Continue Reading

Authors from Latin American Roots

Posted by Cindy on July 30, 2018

Jul 302018

San Francisco Public Library Grove Street Entrance This art work of charchoal and pastel on paper and canvas is by Enrique Chagoya. It was a gift from the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. Measuring 160 inches square, the mural contains some thirty names of prominent Latino American writers and poets who have made important contributions to literature. They include Claribel Alegria, Isabel Allende, Jorge Amado, Manlio Argueta, Miguel Angel Asturias, Mario Benedetti, Jorge Luis Borges, Lydia Cabrera, Alejo Carpentier, Rosario Castellanos, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Julio Cortazar, Ruben Dario, Rosario Ferre, Carlos Fuentes, Romulo Gallegos, Jorge Icaza, Sor Juana Inex Continue Reading

Peter VandenBerge at CCSF

Posted by Cindy on July 27, 2018

Jul 272018

Childcare and Development Center CCSF Phelan Campus The building is now Closed This whimsical mural is by ceramic artist Peter VandenBerge. It measures 8′ by 5′ and is made of ceramic tiles. Vandenberge has been on this site before. VandenBerge was part of the legendary group at University of California, Davis, during the 1960s. Working under Robert Arneson he was part of the Funk Art movement but evolved in his own direction. He is best known for his larger-than-life busts and figures, elongated beings that are roughly constructed, reminiscent of ancient tribal art, and finished with texturing, glazes, and stains. Continue Reading

The Whales of the GGIE

Posted by Cindy on July 26, 2018

Jul 262018

Originally created for the Golden Gate International Exhibition Moved to Steinhart Aquarium Moved to CCSF In Storage These whales were in the San Francisco Building at the Golden Gate International Exhibition and were sculpted by Robert Howards. After the GGIE closed the whales were moved to a prominent place in front of the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park Robert Boardman Howard (1896–1983), was a prominent American artist active in Northern California in the first half of the twentieth century. He was celebrated for his graphic art, watercolors, oils, and murals as well as his Art Deco bas-reliefs and his Continue Reading

Magical Stained Glass

Posted by Cindy on July 23, 2018

Jul 232018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Blvd Forest Hill These stained glass windows reside in the chapel of the 1920’s Spanish Revival portion of Laguna Honda Hospital. The groundbreaking ceremony of the hospital was overseen by Mayor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, the hospital opened in 1926, having replaced an earlier almshouse”. The artist is unknown at this time, although the author is working hard to find out who executed these lovely pieces. * *

St. Francis of Assisi in the Fragrance Garden

Posted by Cindy on July 23, 2018

Jul 232018

St. Francis of Assisi in the Fragrance Garden

Fragrance Garden Botanical Garden Golden Gate Park This statue was part of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island. It is by Clara Huntington who has been on this site before. Huntington was the adopted daughter of Collis Potter Huntington, one of the Big Five railroad magnates. “Oh, Clara Huntington, yes, Clara Huntington Young. She is an older woman, much older than I, and she did the St. Francis figure, you remember, that was among the daisies. I think she’d worked some in the East. But I think it was when I first moved up here that she called Continue Reading

Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2018

Jul 192018

Mission Police Station 630 Valencia Street Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars is the creation of artist Gary Dwyer. Installed in 1984, Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars sits in the lobby of the police department. Dwyer created this sculptural installation based on a legend of the Ohlone Indian tribes which originally inhabited the area. The legend refers to the cluster of stars called the Pleiades. Stone furniture in the lobby is arranged in the pattern of the Pleiades. Framed panels feature imaginary legends about the Pleiades as told by the area’s diverse residents. Gary Dwyer taught Landscape Continue Reading

The SFPL Card Catalogue

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2018

Jul 172018

San Francisco Public Library 3rd, 4th, and 5th Floors With the move to the new Main Library, items in the card catalog (used to access the collection for more than 100 years) have been replaced by an online computer system. Artists Ann Hamilton and Ann Chamberlain embedded these obsolete cards in plaster covering the principal diagonal wall on three levels of the building. Each card is annotated with a quote from its corresponding book or from another book associated with the title by subject matter. Nearly 200 individuals annotated the cards in a dozen different languages. The cards not only represent a Continue Reading

Constellation at the SFPL

Posted by Cindy on July 10, 2018

Jul 102018

San Francisco Public Library Atrium area 160 names of writers are illuminated on a wall that rises five stories behind the grand staircase in the atrium of the San Francisco Public Library. The artist’s work is inspired by a Beaux Arts tradition with origins in the Bibliotheque Saint-Genevieve in Paris (a model for the old Main Library). On that building, authors’ names were inscribed on the facade according to the location of their works inside. Nayland Blake revisits this idea of an index of authors with glass shades placed before fiber optic light beams. Each shade is inscribed with Continue Reading

Hands by Vicki Saulls

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2018

Jul 072018

Eureka Valley Rec Center 100 Collingwood Castro The project consists of casts of hands of citizens throughout the neighboring community. The call for volunteers read: “My sense of the center is that it’s a really welcoming place for diverse interests and community groups. I wanted to use the welcoming theme and came up with the idea of using hands and gestures. My plan is to use various groupings–parents and children, friends, couples, partners–doing gestures. They could be holding hands, holding a basketball, playing cards. I expect some people will have ideas better than mine as far as the final gestures Continue Reading

Dolphin from the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939

Posted by Cindy on July 4, 2018

Jul 042018

Dolphin from the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939

Presently in storage at Golden Gate Park This statue is from the Golden Gate International Exposition. It is by Cecilia Bancroft Graham. Graham was born in San Francisco, on March 2, 1905. She studied at the California School of Fine Arts, graduated from Mills College in Oakland, and studied sculpture with Oscar Thiede in Vienna, Louis de Jean in Paris, and with Carl Milles at Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. She passed away in Carmel, California in 1984. The statue was placed around the Fountain in the San Francisco Building. The center whales were by Robert Howards. The whales sculpture was Continue Reading

Take Root

Posted by Cindy on June 30, 2018

Jun 302018

Chinatown Public Library 1135 Powell Street Take Root is a set of bi-lingual panels referencing traditional Chinese salutary plaques in contemporary materials of rear-illuminated, die-cut anodized aluminum. The Chinese text is based on calligraphy written for Take Root by well-known artist and calligrapher C. C. Wang. It features a Chinese-American saying about setting roots in America, that is adapted from a traditional saying about returning to the old country at life’s end. The English text is a poetic translation. Light sconces bear the names of key departing and arrival cites in Asia and America. Copper-leafed columns bear copper panels that Continue Reading

San Francisco’s Sister Cities

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2018

Jun 282018

Hallidie Plaza Market Street This Sister Cities signpost was dedicated on June 28, 2018, it was created at the request of interim Mayor Mark Farrell. It was a joint effort amongst many departments of the city, Public Works managed the project and installed the foundation, SFMTA made and installed the signs, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission provided the pole. San Francisco’s sister cities include Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Amman, Jordan; Assisi, Italy; Bangalore, India; Barcelona, Spain; Cork, Ireland; Haifa, Israel; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Kiel, Germany; Krakow, Poland; Manila, Philippines; Osaka, Japan; Paris, France; Seoul, Korea; Shanghai, China; Continue Reading

Skydancing

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2018

Jun 282018

Laguna Honda Hospital Pavillion Atrium 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Forest Hill This is Skydancing by Takenobu Igarashi they are painted aluminum sculptures, reminiscent of blossoms and suspended from aircraft cables. Japanese artist Igarashi has taught at Chiba University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He collaborated in the foundation of the Faculty of Design at Tama Art University (Kaminoge Campus) to set up the first computerized design education in Japan and was the first Head of the Design Department. In 1994, he ended his 25 years of design activity and moved to Los Angeles to become a sculptor. Continue Reading

Nuotatori

Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2018

Jun 212018

North Beach Pool 661 Lombard Street This piece, by Vicki Saulls, is an actual cast of 23 residents of North Beach shown in their swim gear. Ms. Saulls also created Locus, a second piece of art that can be found at this North Beach pool. Vicki Saulls was born in Idaho and raised in the northwest, Georgia, and California. Saulls graduated with a degree in Art from University of California at Santa Cruz. Vicki embarked on a career as a museum modelmaker and sculptor for natural history museums, aquariums, and parks, at such venues as Monterey Bay Aquarium, Yosemite National Continue Reading

Building the Iron Horse

Posted by Cindy on June 19, 2018

Jun 192018

Laguna Honda Hospital Lobby of the Pavillion 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Forest Hill Owen Smith’s WPA-style mosaic murals depicting the building of the Golden Gate Bridge pay homage to Glen Wessel’s Professions mural series in the historic Laguna Honda lobby and provide a visual continuity between the old and the new buildings. The artist chose to illustrate the building of the Golden Gate Bridge because of the subject matter’s connection to the Wessel murals, which include themes related to labor and the four classic elements. To Smith, the building of the Golden Gate Bridge represents human audacity, bravery, skill and Continue Reading

Peter Vandenberge and his Whimsical Ceramic Art

Posted by Cindy on June 15, 2018

Jun 152018

Peter Vandenberge and his Whimsical Ceramic Art

Christopher Park 5210 Diamond Height Boulevard Diamond Heights These whimsical tile plagues are by Peter Vandenberge and reside inside, what is now, the nursery school in the Christopher Park Rec Center Building. Born in 1935 in The Hague, Vandenberg grew up in Jakarta. “I was obsessed with making things out of clay,” “I was like Pigpen,” the Peanuts character. “My mother and father were always telling me to get out of the mud.” In 1942 the Japanese invaded Indonesia and placed the expatriate population into POW camps, “The whole goddamn thing was a nightmare,” he recalls. “There was not enough food, there Continue Reading

Laguna Line

Posted by Cindy on June 14, 2018

Jun 142018

Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Forest Hill By observing Laguna Honda residents using wheelchairs and the handrails located throughout the building, Cliff Garten saw the potential for a public artwork in the form of a handrail. While meeting all codes and functional requirements, he transformed a ubiquitous handrail into a sensuous sculpture that addresses the space at a visual, tactile and psychological level. The Esplanade features approximately 600 feet of sculptural handrail elements that interpolate the interactive qualities of the handrail into other situations and activities in the hospital. The handrail is cast in bronze and embellished Continue Reading

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