Public Art – Page 12 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Victoria Manalo Draves Park

Posted by Cindy on September 11, 2011

Sep 112011

SOMA

Folsom Street Between 6th and 7th

Victoria Manalo Draves Park

How many times do we walk by something every day, and forget that, yes it is art. These fence panels are on a park with a fascinating history.

Victoria “Vicki” Manalo Draves (December 31, 1924 – April 11, 2010) was an Olympic diver who won gold medals for the United States in both platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She was born in San Francisco. Born to a Filipino father and an English mother that met and married in San Francisco. She couldn’t afford to take swimming lessons until she was 10 years old and took summer swimming lessons from the Red Cross, paying five cents admission to a pool in the Mission district.

This 2-acre park is located between Folsom and Harrison Streets, and Columbia Square, and Sherman Avenue, and adjacent to the Bessie Carmichael Elementary School. In 1996, Mayor Brown and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to allow for a series of property transfers between each agency to construct a new neighborhood park in the South of Market Area. In February 1997, the Board of Supervisors approved an exchange and lease agreement between the City and SFUSD to purchase the Bessie Carmichael School site for a new city park.

Bessie Carmichael school had been a very sad sight. It opened as a temporary school in 1954. Temporary trailers served as classrooms and they surrounded a blacktop area. It was very, very bleak, and lasted in that state for 52 years. The new school is modern, light and airy, and far more conducive to learning. 1 out of 5 students at Bessie Carmichael live in transitional housing: a shelter, residential hotel, or an over-crowded living condition. It was time the kids got a nice place to attend school.

The park is also a wonderful spot for children to come and play.

The panels are aluminum. The were commissioned by the SF Arts Commission for the Park and Recreation Department in the 2006-2007 budget for $60,000.

The artist is Irene Pijoan (1953-2004) Born in Switzerland, she received her MFA from the University of California, Davis. She was a professor at the San Francisco Arts Institute.

The creatures are of air and the sea and were dedicated to the artists daughter Emiko Pijoan Nagasawa.

Bankers Heart

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2011

Aug 272011

Financial District – San Francisco

555 California Street

This is in the center of A.P. Giannini Plaza. A.P. Giannini was born in San Jose, California and was the Italian American founder of the Bank of America. He founded the Bank of Italy in 1904. The bank was housed in a converted saloon directly across the street from the Columbus Savings & Loan as an institution for the “little fellow”. It was a new bank for the hardworking immigrants other banks would not serve. He offered those ignored customers savings accounts and loans, judging them not by how much money they already had, but by their character. His role in the 1906 earthquake is stuff of legends, he got the money out of the bank and drove it on a horse drawn wagon to his own home down the peninsula. This was vital as the city began to come back to life, he had some of the only accessible money after the fire. (others were afraid to open vaults to soon knowing the money in hot vaults could be ruined if they did so). A.P. had money to start loaning out and getting the economy back on its feet quickly. His history is one of greatness, and worth reading about if you get a hankering.

This piece is called Transcendence by Masayuki Nagare and is made of 200 tons of black Swedish granite.

Wikipedia tells of Nagare’s life. “born February 14, 1923, is a modernist Japanese sculptor who has the nickname “Samurai Artist”. In 1923, he was born in Nagasaki, to Kojuro Nakagawa, who established Ritsumeikan University. As a teenager, he lived in several temples in Kyoto where he studied the patterns of rocks, plants and water created by traditional landscape artists. In 1942, he went on to Ritsumeikan University where he studied Shintoism and sword-making, but he left before graduation. Afterwards, he entered the naval forces preliminary school, and experienced the end of the Pacific War as Zero Fighter pilot. After the War, he learned sculpture by self-study while roaming the world. Nagare’s works include “Cloud Fortress” which was destroyed at the World Trade Center.”

He has a website that does have an English Translation page.

This piece was dubbed “The Bankers Heart” by famous San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. When NationsBank acquired BofA in 1998, a joke making the rounds said conquering Chief Executive Officer Hugh McColl Jr. was going to hijack the sculpture to the bank’s home office in Charlotte, N.C. NationsBank adopted the BofA name and took most of its operations but left its “heart” in San Francisco.

This piece was commissioned in 1969 during the construction of the building.

The Tenderloin

Posted by Cindy on August 21, 2011

Aug 212011

The Tenderloin – San Francisco

149 Mason Street

This block of Mason Street is looking so much brighter now that Glide has moved into the block. This is on the outside of GLIDE Economic Development Corporation’s 149 Mason Street Studios, an eight-story building which features 56 furnished studio apartments designed for people who have been chronically homeless.

The colorful tiles are by Johanna Poething. Her prolific amount of work has shown up in this website many, many times. According to her website, Johanna Poethig is a visual, public and performance artist who has exhibited internationally and has been actively creating public artworks, murals, paintings, sculpture, and multimedia installations for over 25 years

If you are interested in learning more about the housing project you can go to Glide’s website here.

Western Addition – Pastime

Posted by Cindy on August 10, 2011

Aug 102011

Western Addition – San Francisco

Corner of Franklin, Page and Market Street

It is no secret that I consider graffiti to be an art form. Do not confuse that with tagging, (those single color scribbles) or bombing (just really, really large tags) which fall into a whole other category. But the question is, where does graffiti leave off and art begin. I can not, nor do I want to, answer that question. The above is why I am on this subject. This fabulously colored wall is by a graffiti artist known as Pastime. So is this just graffiti, or is it a fabulous piece of art?

Pastime is a member of the Lords. According to Graffiti blog Graffhead the:

LORDS Production Crew has been operating in San Francisco for almost two decades, manipulating the stark walls of the urban landscape to make the wasteland a tad more livable for those of us lucky enough to notice and appreciate their nocturnal artwork. For example, the wall across from Amoeba Records on Haight is one of their collaborative murals, generally referred to as “productions” in graffiti lingo. LORDS members have been featured in the documentary ‘Piece By Piece’ (chronicling 20 years of SF graffiti), as well as the independent feature film ‘Quality of Life’ (a fictional drama about SF graffiti writers).

I have borrowed the following photograph from Fatcap another graffiti blog.

This is what all the work I have ever seen by Pastime looks like. So again, the question: When does tagging become graffiti become art?

This piece is no longer available for viewing, the building has been torn down.

Hayes Valley – Pop Up Art

Posted by Cindy on July 26, 2011

Jul 262011

Hayes Valley – San Francisco

I had the privilege of catching Andy Vogt in the process of making this piece. We chatted for awhile, as he worked putting lath into the chain link fence. This space surrounds a temporary landing spot for the Museum of Craft and Art. The museum is presently in a storage unit plunked down on the corner of Hayes and Octavia. The exhibit around the museum will run through October of 2011 and is entitled Place Making. The museum invited three artists and architects to design installations based on the sites impermanent condition with architectural themes consisting of proxy, transparency, layering and light.

Andy was the creator of the first of these installations. He is a San Francisco based artist with a BFA from Carnegie Mellon. His biggest constraint was putting sculptural elements into this space. Lath is typically no more than four feet long, but Andy was working with many pieces that were much shorter. Then he had the width and height of the chain link panels which was already installed before he began work. His work is really rather phenomenal, there is such an earthy quality to working with reclaimed lath, it has such wonderful different tones and age marks, making many personalities blend into one installation.

His website has photos of other installations he has done.

This installation is not longer available for viewing.

Pepe Ozan’s Invocation

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2011

Jul 182011

Potrero Hill – San Francisco

This sculpture is located at the corner of Bayshore Blvd, Cesar Chavez and 26th Street, just to the side of Highway 101. Though it was installed in 2004, to mark the beginning of a new bike path, they just started construction on said path this month.

The sculptor, Pepe Ozan, stated that the piece represents an Eagle-Warrior, an institution that survived all of Mesoamerica’s civilizations throughout 2000 years until the arrival of the Conquistadors. The Eagle-Warriors were a corps of elite who served as leaders in religious ceremonies as well as on the battlefield.

The plaque on this sculpture reads “Presented to Honor the Indigenous Heritage of This Region”

The piece was part of the SFAC 2006-07 budget and cost $14,000.

Pepe Ozan (1940-2013) was an Argentinian sculptor that was very active with Burning Man.

From the Burning Man Blog:

One of Pepe’s lingam sculptures was first burned at Burning Man in 1993, and he created “Pepe’s Tower” each year after that until 2000. In Burning Man’s early years in the Black Rock Desert, the ritual burning of “Pepe’s Tower” on Friday night was traditionally followed by the burning of the Man the next evening. The Friday night ritual became more elaborate each year, and in 1996 it was renamed “The Burning Man Opera”.

“Le Nystere de Papa Loko” opera, 1999 (Photo by Tom Pendergast)
Pepe’s elaborate operas included “The Arrival of Empress Zoe” (1996), “The Daughters of Ishtar” (1997), “The Temple of Rudra” (1998), “Le Mystere De Papa Loko” (1999), “The Thaur-Taurs of Atlan” (2000), and “Ark of the Nereids” (2002), which featured a 35′-long mobile sculpture / musical instrument in the form of a Spanish Galleon crossed with a mythical aquatic creature. These epic performances, remembered fondly by so many in our community, would feature over 2,000 dancers and performers – in a true demonstration of radical inclusion, any and all Burners were invited to participate.

My office is only 5 blocks from this spot, and I drive by this spot at least 3 times a week. I am not sure if I really have never seen it, or, more likely, the city finally got around to clearing away overgrown trees and shrubs.

I bring this up, not to point out my intense concentration on the road while I drive, but to discuss a problem that the City of San Francisco has with its art collection It has been said that the cities collection is valued at around $90 million dollars and includes over 4,000 items, one of the richest city-owned art collections in the world.

Sadly, management of the collection is so shoddy that the city cannot say for sure how many pieces it owns. Some pieces have been damaged because of lack of maintenance or poor storage; others have disappeared entirely.

The San Francisco Arts Commission is the city agency responsible for the collection. The page of their website that listed the collection shut down recently, with an apology that they were trying to get a better handle on the collection and bring a more complete list to the public.

Since the Civic Arts Collection’s inception in 1932, a full survey of the city’s holdings has never been done. A complete inventory is under way, but until its scheduled completion in late 2012, the city can only guess at the collection’s size.

Approximately 900 pieces are in storage, while the rest are scattered around parks, hospitals, offices, courtrooms and other public city-owned spaces.

The budget to tally, repair and keep an eye on the collection is minimal, and the staff almost non-existent.

What I suspect here is that this particular sculpture was hidden in the local flora, only to be discovered again after the gardeners arrived.

SOMA – Califor’ya

Posted by Cindy on July 11, 2011

Jul 112011

SOMA – San Francisco

This mural is on a building at the corner of 7th and Folsom Streets, (It is on the 7th Street side) in the South of Market area of San Francisco.

It was done by 1:AM short for First Amendment, a gallery at 1000 Howard Street in San Francisco.

According to 1:AM they are “a gallery that stands behind the freedom of speech. We strive to showcase, teach, and inspire the public on street and urban art through our exhibitions, education, and street productions… With the gallery, classes, and a veteran mural production team, 1:AM has become a pillar in San Francisco street art culture. ”

I contacted 1:AM to see what the mural was all about and this is what one of the artists told me:

“My name is Robert and I’m one of the artist involved with the mural. We really appreciate the communities interest and curiosity about the mural. We painted this mural more for the public in that area, seeing as how that particular wall is often plagued with graffiti. The theme of the murals we usually paint have to do with the community and the surrounding area. For example, this mural is down the street from court and gets a lot of foot traffic from people either going or coming from court. It’s intended to be a positive and uplifting work of art, for people who usually would be stressed out from either work or just having a bad day, thus the vibrant and exciting colors used along with the playful phrase, ‘cus after all “That’s Califor’ya!” ”

UPDATE 4/2013 There was a slight mishap with a mistaken painting over of this mural. It is back with a few minor changes – here is the new view.

Embarcadero Center –

Posted by Cindy on July 9, 2011

Jul 092011

More on the Embarcadero Center, San Francisco.

Walk inside the Hyatt Regency adjacent to Embarcadero Center One, ride the escalator up and, behold, Charles O. Perry’s “Eclipse”, a 40-foot high geodesic sphere consisting of 1,400 pieces of curved metal tubing joined together in pentagons and supported by three massive steel legs.

Continue out onto Justin Herman Plaza. Justin Herman was the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency. According to SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) “Justin Herman was responsible for guiding the Agency during its early years. As Executive Director of the Agency from 1960 until 1971, Herman oversaw the construction of a number of schools, playgrounds, churches and low-income apartments. He was the architect of much of the changing face of San Francisco at that time. But for all of the benevolence he bestowed, “redevelopment” remained highly controversial. Much of the reason lies in the fact that urban policy in the 1950’s through the 1970’s was distributed in a top-down fashion. It was formulated and implemented by “experts” who knew what was “best” for cities and communities – even in cases where the cure might seem worse than the problem. This professional detachment was to be incendiary when applied to the simmering unease that existed in the many communities of color in San Francisco at that time.”

The Plaza is dominated by the Vaillancourt Fountain. Near the ground floor restaurants between the Hyatt Regency and Embarcadero One is this wonderful sculpture. Jean Dubuffet’s La Chiffonniere, a stainless steel structure with black epoxy that represents a cartoon-like ragged woman. Walking around this gem evokes different pictures with every angle.

*Behind the fountain on Market Street you will bump into these two fellas. “Yin and Yang” by Robert Arneson they were originally commissioned by the University of California at Davis where Arneson taught until 1991 (he died in 1992).

Robert Arneson gained notoriety as an artist in the 1960’s when he became associated with the Bay Area’s funk art movement. At a time when ceramics were relegated to “craft”, his use of clay in irreverent, unorthodox ways challenged the art world’s conceptions of what was considered fine art. His offbeat sense of humor created a firestorm with his portrayal of the murdered mayor, George Moscone.

It is one of the most notorious conflicts between an artist and city politics, the bust was ultimately rejected by the Arts Commission for its inclusion of references to Moscone’s assassination and the subsequent trial of Dan White. Currently the bust is in a private collection.

As a professor at UC Davis, Arneson was an easily accessible member of the community, many people I have known through the years had the pleasure of taking classes from him, and walked away feeling they had made a friend not just taken an art class.

The Arneson pieces were part of the 2006-2007 SFAC budget, they were purchased for $225,000.

Sydney Walton Park

Posted by Cindy on July 5, 2011

Jul 052011

This is one of the entries to Sydney Walton Park in the Embarcadero Area of San Francisco. It sits surrounded by Jackson, Pacific, Davis and Front Streets. This wonderful park is full of art, and history. It is just a marvelous oasis in the middle of lots and lots of high rises. You will also find Kokkari Restaurant across the street on Jackson, one of the best Greek restaurants you will ever have the pleasure of dining in.

The Arch above is the Colombo Market Arch on Front Street, it is the only structural piece remaining from the old San Francisco produce market, a series of brick buildings that occupied this area. This is the part of town nicknamed the Barbary Coast. By 1892 it had become a raucous district of prostitution, dance halls and thievery. The Coast continued to flourish until 1911, when Major James (Sunny Jim) Rolph initiated a clean-up. Shut down for good in the early 1920’s, it became the Produce District.

Golden Gateway Center, created in the 1960s, was designed as a mixed-use, urban residential community. At that time, it was the largest project of its kind in the country. By law, art was required as part of the project, originally the pieces were slated to be spaced around the project, and indeed some are, but later it was decided to put all the art in the park, and this is the result. The two-acre site was designed by the well-known landscape architect Peter Walker (managing partner of Sasaki Walker, later to become SWA).

Penquins by Benny Bufano was one of the original pieces and it stands outside the park on Davis Court. Bufano is one of San Francisco’s most prolific artists and you can find his pieces in many places on this website.

“Portrait of Georgia O’Keefe” Marisol Escobar, 1982

O’Keefe sits on an old tree stump like an ancient wizard, loosely dangling her walking stick and flanked by two compact woolly dogs.” This description is based on photographs Marisol Escobar took while visiting the 90-year-old O’Keefe in New Mexico. Her sculpture, with her two pet show dogs, is the product of that visit. Marisol Escobar was born in 1930 in Paris to wealthy Venezuelan parents who were traveling through Europe. As a child, Marisol was educated in private schools in Los Angeles, then continued her art studies in New York City. In 1963 the Venezuelan Marisol became U.S. citizen.

San Francisco City College Mosaics

Posted by Cindy on June 13, 2011

Jun 132011

Two polished marble mosaics stand at either end of the Science Hall on the City College of San Francisco Campus. These mosaics are by the Swiss-born artist Herman Volz and represent fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics in tiny tiles.

Completed on site, the mosaics took two years to install with a staff of eight workmen. Each tile is of varying thickness, resulting in shadows that emphasize their shape. Each marble tile was carefully polished, cemented onto the façade of the building, and then polished again. Begun during “Art in Action” at the Golden Gate International Exhibition (1939-1940), they were restored in 2005. They are absolutely huge, and it is very difficult to get a good enough photograph to convey the message. This is taken from several yards away, just to give you a sense of the massiveness of the project.

Volz was educated in Europe and came to the US in 1933, where he became well-known as a painter, lithographer, and mosaic/ceramic artist for the WPA. He exhibited at San Francisco’s Museum of the Legion of Honor from 1937-1941 and won the San Francisco Art Association prize in 1937.

The color palette of the mosaic is also difficult to photograph, I have broken out some of the more easy to photograph pieces for you here.

The quote in this detail photo reads “Give me a base and I move the world.”

Olmec Heads in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on June 12, 2011

Jun 122011

San Francisco City College
Ocean Avenue Campus
Frida Kahlo Garden

The giant Olmec head, “El Rey,” San Lorenzo #1 was carved by Ignacio Perez Solano, also know as “il Maestro.” The head is an accurate reproduction of the original piece from San Lorenzo in Veracruz, Mexico. The 3,000 year old original basalt head is believed to be a portrait of a ruler from this ancient civilization. The stone originated some 50 miles from where the statue was discovered.

The piece was given to City College of San Francisco in 2004 by then Vera Cruz Governor Miguel Alemán Velazco in honor of the new Pan American Center at City College. It is now the centerpiece of the proposed Frida Kahlo Garden next to the Diego Rivera Theater. Placing Olmec replicas in major cities had been a personal endeavor of Governor Aleman. These heads, of enormous size, demonstrate the power, scale and majesty of the Olmec culture, which was centered in the State of Veracruz. At the presentation the governor closed his remarks with wry humor. He mentioned that in November his term of office was up and therefore the presentation had to be in October. Then he said, you may “lose your heart in San Francisco, but never the head.”

Peace in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on June 11, 2011

Jun 112011

This statue of “Pacifica” is in the courtyard of the Diego Rivera Theater on the City College of San Francisco Ocean Avenue Campus. Originally, an 80 foot tall sculpture of Pacifica graced the Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island, she was destroyed by the Navy in 1941 when they took possession of the island. Sal Daguarda undertook the project of reproducing a smaller version of Pacifica because of his ties to the long ago event. DeGuarda was a swimmer and performer for the Billy Rose Aquacade, entertaining the crowds during the 1939-1940 Exhibition. One day a photographer took his picture when he was in his swimming suit, and when he asked what it was for, the photographer said for a painting. Little did he know that he would be immortalized in Diego Rivera’s mural that was painted during the Exhibition, and is now on display inside the theater. On the 50th anniversary of the Exhibition, DeGuarda hit on the idea to reproduce the statue as a gesture to the West Coast “Statue of Liberty,” welcoming all people of the Pacific Rim. The result is a 15 ft. tall fiberglass likeness of the original in every detail.

The Art of Concrete at CCSF

Posted by Cindy on June 10, 2011

Jun 102011

San Francisco City College

Ocean Avenue Campus

This is called “Sculptural deck and Bicentennial Wings” by Jacques Overhoff. It was done in 1979. It is typical of Overhoff work, cast concrete with ceramic tile. Jacques Overhoff was born in 1933 in the Netherlands and studied at the Graphics School of Design and the University of Oregon. He moved to San Francisco in the 1950’s.

His civic sculptures range in style from symbolic figures to structural abstractions, as well as, in this case, entire sculptural plazas. This particular piece has suffered from abuse by skate boarders and taggers and was restored in 2008 by Karen Fix. Apparently, Overhoff visited from Germany and was happy with the work she did.

I have shot this looking through the wings, over the plaza and into the city. The next shot is of the “sculptural deck” looking back onto the “wings”

Looking up into the “wings”

This sculpture is outside of Batmale Hall at San Francisco City College, just off of Ocean Avenue.

The Presidio-Andy Goldsworthy

Posted by Cindy on April 27, 2011

Apr 272011

The Presidio
Near the Arguello Gate Entry

I have always been a fan of Andy Goldsworthy. I love the ethereal and temporary aspect of his work. This is titled Spire and is at the beginning of the Bay Area Ridge Trail near the Arguello Gate, west of Inspiration Point Overlook and north of the Presidio Golf Course Clubhouse.

This area is part of the historic forest of the Presidio, and is part of its designation as a National Historic Landmark District. The forest was planted over 100 years ago and, as usual, the Eucalyptus are doing just fine but the pines and cypress are declining. This particular grove is predominantly cypress, so the Trust removed 150 dying trees and is planting approximately 1200 over the next 10 years. I have to assume that Goldsworthy used these dead trees to build the Spire. The interesting thing I find is that since it was a military base 100 years ago the trees were planted in orderly military alignment. The Trust is keeping true to this.

The New York Times did an article on Andy Goldsworthy while he was creating this piece, it is excellent in its covering of the artist’s concept and plans for the site and the sculpture.

Edgar Walter and Electric Power

Posted by Cindy on March 29, 2001

Mar 292001

Pacific Gas and Electric Building
245 Market Street
Embarcadero/Financial District

Above the arched entryway to the Pacific Gas and Electric building is this bas-relief depicting the primary activities of the company, hydroelectric power. At the top is a waterworks with water pouring through three openings symbolizing the “falling waters” that come from the mountains. This sign is flanked with two kneeling men facing the center. Under the base is a head of a grizzly bear, set amidst foliage, claws showing over the rim of the archway.

The sculptor for this entry way was Edgar Walter.

Edgar Walter was born in San Francisco, CA in 1877. He studied locally with Arthur Mathews and Douglas Tilden at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, and then continued in Paris with the painter Fernand Cormon and and the sculptor Jucques Perrin.

A longtime resident of San Francisco he was one of a group of West coast sculptors that included his teacher Douglas Tilden, Arthur Putnam and Beniamino Bufano.

Work in San Francisco included St. John at Grace Cathedral and the Spandrels at the San Francisco Opera House. He exhibited his Nymph and Bears at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and was awarded an honorable mention. There is cast of the work, also known as The Bear Charmer at the Hearst San Simeon State Park.

He taught at the CSFA (1927-36) and maintained a residence in San Francisco at 1803 Franklin Street until his death on March 2, 1938.*

Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges

Posted by Cindy on March 18, 2001

Mar 182001

Lining the 200 Block of Stevenson Street
Off of 3rd near Market

Locks and Keys For Harry Bridges was commissioned by Millennium Partners/ WGB Ventures Inc and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. The piece is by artist Mildred Howard, who has been in this site before.

Howard is known for her sculptural installations and mixed media assemblage work, Mildred Howard has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Adeline Kent Award from the San Francisco Art Institute, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and a fellow-ship from the California Arts Council.

When Howard was asked how she came by the image of a key and lock for the project, she answered that she was inspired by Harry Bridges as he opened up doors and that her locks are open to reflect that.

Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901–March 30, 1990) was an Australian-born American union leader, in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which he helped form and led for over 40 years. He was prosecuted by the U.S. government during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. His conviction by a federal jury for having lied about his Communist Party membership was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1953.

The Humboldt Bank Building

Posted by Cindy on March 15, 2001

Mar 152001

785 Market Street

When the 1906 earthquake struck, construction of the Humboldt Bank Building was already underway. Fortunately only the foundation had been laid, leaving the architect the leeway to make necessary changes. The architect, Frederick H. Meyer, used this opportunity to incorporate every known fire and safety feature of the time into the new structure.

The Humboldt Bank Building is a classic Beaux Arts building. One of the many Beaux Arts principals Meyer incorporated into the design was a hierarchy of space. In this case, a grand entrance lobby is topped by 19 floors of functional office space.

The entryway to the tower features a highly ornamented arch. Arched windows tied together with banded pilasters punctuate the tower-another classic Beaux Arts feature. All of this is complemented with richly detailed ornamentation.

Meyer chose to crown the building with a highly stylized dome. This dome was originally intended to mimic the Call Building, which survived the 1906 fire, but was subsequently altered so much in 1938 that it stands today, a former shell of itself.

In his second (post-earthquake) attempt, Meyer kept his original design for the façade, but changed the structural design significantly.

The exterior shell of the building was redesigned to be all concrete. Originally the entire building was to be clad in Colusa stone-from Colusa County, CA-however, Meyer knew that Colusa stone spalls (chips) when exposed to heat, so he limited the Colusa stone to the first three floors and clad the remaining floors in a terra cotta veneer.

The original plans called for the floors to be made of hollow tile; this was changed to reinforced concrete. Throughout the building, metal trim was used in place of high quality oak, at almost double the price.

The exterior windows are wire glass. Wire glass-thick glass with embedded chicken wire-is meant to prevent glass from shattering in the case of fire.

Many buildings built prior to the fire had water towers placed on their roofs. However, Meyer noticed that these often shook loose during the earthquake, rendering them useless in case of fire. As a result, the Humboldt Bank Building has standpipes and hoses on all floors. These are served by via pneumatic (not electric) pumps from a water tank in the basement.

Meyer saved his most advanced work for the elevators. Elevators often work as an air column during fires, and can feed a fire very rapidly. Meyer worked to separate the elevator shafts from the rest of the building. First, he completely lined the shafts in concrete. Then he placed “automatic doors” on the top and bottom of the shafts. If fire were to occur, the doors would close, isolating the elevator shafts from the rest of the building.

While the 1906 earthquake and fire were tragic, the lessons learned from the catastrophe spurred design innovation. This is what allows us to continue to enjoy such great buildings as the Humboldt Bank Building.

Brightening Mid-Market

Posted by Cindy on March 12, 2001

Mar 122001

982 Market Street
The side of the Warfield Theater
Mid-Market

This piece, finished in May of this year (2014), was done by Clare Rojas (who has been in this website before), along with the 509 Cultural Center.

The mural was sponsored, to the tune of $40,000, by the Walter and Elise Hass Fund.

Thanks to the Creative Work Fund, I was able to find this photo of the work in progress, as well as an explanation of the piece.

“The proposed mural will be a natural outgrowth of Rojas’s earlier work, which was overtly feminist and employed surreal or unreal figures in a narrative intent. She plans to re-integrate symbolic figures within a large-scale abstract composition for the mural.”

Due to the height of the building, the mural is easy to spot from many parts of town. Due to the historic nature of the Warfield, the mural will only be up for one year.

Os Gemeos on Market Street

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2001

Mar 112001

1007 Market Street
Mid Market

This piece, sponsored by The Luggage Store Gallery and Funded by the Graue Family Fund for Public Art was done by Os Gemeos in September of 2013.

Os Gemeos have been in this website before. They are twin brothers from Sao Paulo with a wonderful and very distinctive style.

According to Juxtapoz: Many years ago, the Brazilian twin art duo, painted this exact roof. It was an impressive piece, but upon their recent return to San Francisco, the two decided to revamp with something new. In this new version, local graffiti martyr, Tie and the recently passed, Jade make special guest appearances on the attire of their fashionable spray painting character.

I wrote about their original piece quite a while ago and you can see it here.

Photo Courtesy of Juxtapoz Website

To see what this piece looked like before its upgrade click here

UN Plaza Fountain

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

UN Plaza
Civic Center

There is more to the U.N. Plaza fountain than meets the eye, however, typical of the City of San Francisco it took three redesigns, one public vote and a lot of back and forth (much of it ridiculous), to finally get the thing built.

The fountain was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. The Plaza was a joint effort between Halprin, Swiss architect Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke.

The fountain is intended to represent the seven continents of the world. Each “landmass” is tied together by the water symbolizing the ocean.

According to an April 26, 1977 San Francisco Chronicle article: The fountain was to be highly computerized. “On each of the nine spurting slabs of the fountain will be a wind measuring device and if it is real windy, the spurts will slow down or stop altogether to keep passerby from getting sprayed. Second, the computer will cause the depth of the waters in the fountain’s 100 foot wide basin to vary from bone dry to eight feet.”

According to the designer, Lawrence Halprin, this change in water height was to simulate the tides of the bay. None of these items were maintained properly and no longer work.

On the top stone far left is written: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation….It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” This is a quote from Franklin Roosevelt. The entire plaza was designed and built to honor the 30th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter that took place in the San Francisco War Memorial.

Designed in 1975 the fountain is made of 673 blocks of granite weighing between 3 to 4 million tons, it is 165 feet long and cost $1.2 million.

The fountain has had mixed reviews over the years. When it was dedicated in 1975, then-U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young described it as “a tribute to the U.N.’s goals of seeking peaceful resolutions to international rivalries.”

But then-Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko described it as “pretentious schmaltz . . . whose ‘tidal pools’ are supposed to simulate global oceanic action but rarely work and merely toss around empty muscatel bottles.”

The Plaza has the distinction of being in the Hall of Shame of the Project for Public Spaces, and it has been a source of controversy, anger and neglect for many years.

If you are interested in learning more about the problems of UN Plaza and how the fountain fits into these problems, there is a fabulous 30 minute radio show that you can listen to here.

The original design for the UN Fountain submitted to the SFAC

I want to thank Joel Pomerantz of Thinkwalks for going to the San Francisco library and sending me the entire file to “prove a point”. I am grateful for my friends that care about the minutia of San Francisco history as much as I do.

The Faces of 50 UN Plaza

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

50 UN Plaza
City Center

The Federal Building of San Francisco was vacated by the US Government in 2007 when they built a newer building in Civic Center. It has recently undergone a $121 million restoration and will be the offices of Section 9 GSA.

This article is about the exterior of the building.

In 1927, the government allocated $2.5 million for the Federal Building’s design and construction, although final costs reached a total of $3 million. Architect Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the building, which was constructed between 1934 and 1936.

Arthur Brown, Jr. (1874-1957) was born in Oakland, California. He graduated from the University of California in 1896, where he and his future partner, John Bakewell, Jr. were protégés of Bernard Maybeck. Brown went to Paris and graduated from the École des Beaux Arts in 1901. Before returning to San Francisco to establish his practice with Bakewell, the firm designed the rotunda for the “City of Paris” in the Neiman Marcus department store in San Francisco. Other notable San Francisco buildings include Coit Tower; San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; and the War Memorial Veterans Building. He was a consulting architect for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Federal Building is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. The six-story steel frame is encased in fireproof concrete with concrete flooring and roof slabs, important features after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The street elevation walls are constructed of brick but faced with granite, with the exception of a section of the McAllister Street elevation, which is faced in terra cotta.

Male and female mascarons (carved faces) adorn the exterior. The carvings sport different horticulturally themed headpieces, including corn, wheat, cat tails, and oak leaves. There are 18 of them in total.

Sadly it is not known who did all these wonderful carvings for the building.

The Embarcadero Ribbon

Posted by Cindy on January 29, 2000

Jan 292000

The Embarcadero

The Ferry Building, built in 1898, sits at the foot of Market Street.

In 1953, San Francisco proposed the Embarcadero Freeway that was to connect the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. Construction started at the Bay Bridge end; after 1.2 miles of freeway were built, neighborhood organizations began to gather and oppose the project. In 1959 the Board of Supervisors voted to stop the construction, marking the first time a government body had ever taken such an action. For years, the stub of freeway running across the waterfront stood as a monument to both grand freeway construction and its opposition. In 1986 the Board of Supervisors put forth a new urban plan for the waterfront that included a measure to tear the freeway section down, but the voters, afraid of gridlock, rejected it. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake changed everything.

The Embarcadero Freeway

After the earthquake, the California Department of Transportation proposed three scenarios: 1) retrofit the damaged freeway, 2) rebuild a depressed freeway or 3) demolish the freeway and replace it with a grade level street. The third choice was determined to be the wisest and most cost effective decision.

Demolition began and the revival of the waterfront became the mission of the Port of San Francisco and the Planning Department. The Port’s goal was to attract more people to the waterfront and to transform the area from an industrial service road serving the piers to a grand urban boulevard. The planning, which had begun in the 1980s, was revamped, and construction took place from 1993 to 2000.

Freeway deconstruction doesn’t occur often. As a result, there are not a lot of successful examples for designers and planners to learn from. The deconstruction process along what is now simply called The Embarcadero in San Francisco is ongoing. As the Port and city learn how the public utilizes the waterfront area, its redesign and reconstruction continuously evolves.

The Embarcadero runs under the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Art Ribbon, one of the first projects to bring design cohesion to the Embarcadero, was a collaboration between architects Vito Acconci, Stanley Saitowitz and Barbara Staufacher. Begun in 1991, it is two miles of lighted glass block set in paving. Due to extensive committee review and resulting modifications to the project, the architects complained Art Ribbon was not the grand idea that they thought the waterfront deserved.

Restaurants and art work are a vital part of the new Embarcadero. See Cupid’s Span

Farmers Market at the Ferry Building

Art Ribbon was not only the first step in the process of turning The Embarcadero into a grand boulevard, it was also a pioneering project in which various art and governmental agencies began learning how to interact and live with San Francisco’s vibrant skateboard community.

When Art Ribbon was first constructed, the skateboard community found the sharp edges and different lengths of concrete very appealing; however, chips started appearing almost immediately in the structure from the skateboards. The differing reactions of the architects mirrored the various responses from the community.

Saitowitz asked furiously, “Can’t you understand you’re ruining something that belongs to you, the people?” Solomon, however, responded differently, “I love it that the skateboarders love it, and Stanley hates it that the skateboarders love it.” She felt that skateboarder’s usage was “part of the world.” Acconci also supported the skateboarders with this statement: “Our goal is to make spaces that free people-to make devices and instruments that people can use to do what they’re not supposed to do, to go where they’re not supposed to go.”

Pig Ears on the raised portion of the Art Ribbon

In 1999 the debate once again become a front burner issue when the city installed SkateBlocks, or “pig ears,” as the police department calls them, on the raised concrete portions of the Ribbon. SkateBlocks are manufactured in Seattle, Washington, by a company called Ravensforge. They are 3-inch high metal brackets that mount onto a surface and are designed specifically to deter skaters and skateboarders.

In December of 1999 the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter to the editor with this comment from reader Caroline Finucane: “I contend that the clips are far uglier and distracting than the skateboard marks and that the kids are actually using the benches in the only way possible. Concrete benches at the water are cold. You can’t sit on them. The Art Commission should lighten up and look at the Art Ribbon as a work in progress, thanks to the skateboarders. By the way, I am a middle-aged lady with a bad leg and I do freeze in my tracks when I hear the kids rolling, but the joy of their riding … pleases me.” Finucane went on to say that the clips were “mean spirited.”

This type of dialogue continuously confronts designers of public spaces, but it also helps to define and redefine how public space is used. Grassroots movements initiated by local communities help designers and government officials stay on top of changing attitudes regarding public property.

In the coming years Art Ribbon will be altered. The present plans call for making much of the Ribbon flush with the promenade. This will essentially make it disappear. Is this just another iteration for the promenade, a spiteful gesture toward skateboarders or the beginning of banal, bland and committee-designed public space?

Poetry of Pier 14

Posted by Cindy on January 19, 2000

Jan 192000

Pier 14
Waterfront/Embarcadero

This 637-foot-long pedestrian span opened in 2006. It is the newest recreational pier on the San Francisco waterfront.

The reason it exists is the breakwater on which it rests, a shield for ferries from winter storms; the design, by ROMA Design group was to top the pier with a 15-foot-wide corridor of concrete framed by long thin rails of horizontal steel.

This $2.3 Million was done in two phases.

Phase I construction was completed in 2004, and included building a 115-foot pier extension to connect the breakwater to the Embarcadero Promenade, a 30-foot diameter terminus at the outer

end, entry railings, and a portal structure with a rollup gate.

The playful swivel chairs, designed by ROMA Design Group and the Port, were fabricated by Eclipse Design, who also fabricated all 1300 feet of the Pier’s railing. These items were done in 2005 under Phase II.

Along the way you can read the Sailor’s Song (From Death’s Jest Book, Act I) by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)

TO sea, to sea! The calm is o’er
The wanton water leaps in sport
And rattles down the pebbly shore
The dolphin wheels, the sea-cows snort,
And unseen mermaids’ pearly song
Comes bubbling up, the weeds among.
Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar:

To sea, to sea! the calm is over.
To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark
Shall billowy cleave its sunny way,
And with its shadow, fleet and dark,
Break the caved Tritons’ azure day,
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O’er antelopes on Alpine height.
The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,
The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2000

Jan 162000

Justin Herman Plaza
Embarcadero

American Lincoln Brigade Memorial
Painted Steel, Onyx, Concrete and Olive Trees

In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a military uprising to overthrow the elected government of Spain. Forty thousand people went to Spain to fight for democracy. The 2,700 Americans who joined the fight were known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALBA). After Franco gained control of Spain in 1939 with help from both Hitler and Mussolini, the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II began.

The members have continued to fight injustice, supporting various international causes ever since. On Sunday, March 30, 2008, the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade unveiled this national monument in Justin Herman Plaza near Vaillancourt Fountain.

The monument was designed by Ann Chamberlain (1951-2008) and Walter Hood. Visual artist Ann Chamberlain is a former Program Director at the Headlands Center for the Arts who taught at several Bay Area colleges. In collaboration with Ann Hamilton, she designed the card catalog display in the San Francisco Library made with fifty thousand library cards, each with a hand-written note. Walter Hood is professor and former chair of the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

The memorial cost $400,000, and was donated by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and Veterans and Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

The Electric Sun Wall

Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2000

Jan 132000

Pier 15
Embarcadero

The Electric Sun Wall, along the south side of Pier 15, references a modified schematic of the museum’s complex photovoltaic energy system. The design elegantly expresses what’s going on behind the ten-foot wall of half-inch-thick steel plates, where photovoltaic energy gathered from the museum’s solar panels is converted into usable electricity. The project was designed by Mark McGowan.

The Exploratorium intends to become the largest net-zero energy use museum in the U.S., if not the world. This goal is being supported by the Exploratorium’s new partnership with SunPower, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high efficiency solar technology. The Exploratorium’s new home uses a 1.3-megawatt SunPower solar power system to offset its electricity demand.

“This project combines an effort to both innovate and think critically about the impact science can have on the world. Our net-zero goal is, in part, a way to reduce our global footprint and help improve the community we’ve been a part of for more than 40 years,” said Dennis Bartels, PhD, Executive Director of the Exploratorium. “Net-zero is a process – and an opportunity for the public to learn with us.”

Mark McGowan is the art director for the Exhibit Environment for the Exploratorium and head of the EE Design department with a staff of five artists and designers. He and his staff work with artists, exhibit developers, writers, and scientists to create meaningful environments and clear signage and labels for the hundreds of exhibits on the museum floor. Before joining the Exploratorium, Mark received his undergraduate degree in San Diego in Filmmaking/Photography/Architecture and an MFA in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Sun Swarm at the Exploratorium

Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2000

Jan 132000

Pier 15/17
The Embarcadero

San Francisco’s Exploratorium has moved to a new and much bigger location. This new location is allowing lots of outdoor exhibits that anyone can enjoy without paying the entry fee.

This fun piece is titled Sun Swarm and is by Chris Bell.

According to the Exploratorium’s website: This is an elevated topography of silvered squares inserted between the water and the sky, Sun Swarm is an architectural intervention that collects and disperses bits of sunlight across the deck of Pier 17. Clusters of tiny mirrors on the end of steel rods reach up from a series of pier pilings, swaying with the tide in unpredictable ways. Stretching for nearly 100 feet, Sun Swarm is an understated and elegant complement to the natural light play that occurs elsewhere over the water.

Chris Bell is an artist and a Sculptor who makes site-specific installations: total environments, considering all features of an interior space and using these to construct a place with a cause. Bell was born in Sydney, Australia in 1966. Two years study in Industrial design was followed by his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts, graduating in 1992. He has since exhibited sculpture or installations yearly, mostly with experimental art organizations. He has received support from The Australian Council of the Arts, Arts Victoria and the Pollock-Krasner foundation, (1999). He won Melbourne’s Fundere Sculpture Prize in 2003 and a major public commission for Melbourne’s new civic square in 2000. He has worked as resident artist at Belfast’s Flax Art Studios, the Noosa Regional Gallery and California’s Headlands Center for the Arts. He currently lives in San Francisco, having recently completed his MFA with Stanford University.

Fog Bridge #72494

Posted by Cindy on January 13, 2000

Jan 132000

Piers 17-19
Embarcadero

The Fog Bridge sits to the right of the new Exploratorium very near the entrance and was designed by Fujiko Nakaya.

Nakaya’s fog installation stretches across the 150-foot-long pedestrian bridge that spans the water between Piers 15 and 17. Water pumped at high pressure through more than 800 nozzles lining the bridge creates an immersive environment shrouding participants in mist and putting their sense of themselves and their surroundings at the center of their experience.

Although Nakaya’s fog environments have been presented around the world, this is her first project in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region famous for its dramatic fog. With the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, the completion of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the America’s Cup, and the reopening of the Exploratorium on the San Francisco waterfront, 2013 is being viewed in San Francisco as the Year of the Bay. Amid all of the water-related activity, Nakaya’s project will heighten public awareness of San Francisco’s dynamic weather and bay ecology for an international public.

Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya is the daughter of the physicist and science essayist Ukichiro Nakaya, renowned for his work in glaciology and snow crystal photography. Like her father, Ms. Nakaya’s lifelong artistic investigation engages the element of water and instills a sense of wonder in everyday weather phenomena. Working as part of the legendary group Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), she enshrouded the Pepsi Pavilion at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka in vaporous fog, becoming the first artist to create a sculptural fog environment.

Since that first project, Nakaya has created fog gardens, falls, and geysers all over the world. You can experience her permanent fog landscapes at the Nakaya Ukichoro Museum of Snow and Ice in Ishikawa, Japan; the Australian National Gallery in Canberra; and the Jardin de L’Eau, in the Parc de la Villette, Paris. She recently created a fog sculpture for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and consulted with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the Blur Building for the Swiss Expo in 2002 on Lake Neuchatel. Nakaya has also collaborated with artists Trisha Brown, David Tudor, and Bill Viola to develop fog performances and stage sets.

Nakaya collaborated with Thomas Mee, a Los Angeles-based engineer, in the development of her first fog installation in 1970. Mee had originally developed techniques for generating chemical-based artificial fog to protect orchards from frost. Through their collaboration and perseverance, Mee figured out a system for generating water-based artificial fog. The company he founded, Mee Industries, is now operated by his children. Nakaya has been collaborating with Mee for the last forty years.

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