Tag: sculpture
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Goddess of Progress
City Hall South Light Court Goddess of Progress by F. Marion Wells The plaque that accompanies her reads: On April 17, 1906, the dome atop San Francisco’s City Hall that was completed in 1896 supported a twenty foot statue by F. Marion Wells. The Goddess of Progress, with lightbulbs in her hair, held a torch…
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EL Granada Apartment Building Goes Back to Its Roots
EL Granada At Sather Gate 2510 Bancroft Berkeley, California The Granada was built by Patrick O’Brien in 1904, and had been passed down in the family ever since. He built it so that everybody in the family would always have a roof over their heads, and so the building would always support the family. Like so…
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Glass that challenges your understanding
San Francisco International Terminal Terminal Two Air Over Under by Norie Sato – 2011 These two Huge panels are easier to see than to photograph. (The above photo is courtesy of FlySFO) They are hand painted and silkscreened glass enamels on float glass and measure 16 ft. x 150 ft. each. Norie Sato’s imagery was inspired…
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Ford Elementary School Lunette
Ford Elementary School 2711 Maricopa Avenue Richmond, California Sally Swanson Architects of San Francisco designed a new $19 million energy-efficient school to replace the outdated original Ford Elementary School in Richmond, California. The new school’s design is a modern interpretation of the Mission Style. The school’s framework, a repeating 30-foot grid, creates the flexibility for the educational programming…
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Flight Patterns
San Francisco International Airport Terminal One Boarding Area C Flight Patterns by Larry Kirkland – 1987 Stainless steel cables, painted aluminum tubing, sheeting and screening 264 in. x 276 in. x 756 in. Born in 1950 in Port Hueneme, California, Larry Kirkland moved with his military family throughout the U.S. and abroad during his childhood.…
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Thousands and Thousands of Tiles
San Francisco International Airport International Terminal Main Hall Gateway 2000- by Ik-Joong Kang This artwork contains 5,400 unique 3 in. x 3 in. paintings, wood carvings, tiles and cast acrylic cubes. The artist began working in this 3 in. x 3 in. format when he was a student and commuted long distances to various part-time…
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Stacking Stones
San Francisco International Airport Terminal Two Level Two Stacking Stones by Seiji Kunishma – 1983 These stones were commissioned by SFAC for the airport in 1983. They remained in the airport during the new construction. Born in Nagoya, Japan, Seiji Kunishima is an internationally renowned artist whose sculptures are characterized by a serene balance between…
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Topo in Cloth and aluminum
San Francisco International Airport Departure Lobby Terminal 2 Kendall Buster -Powder coated steel tubing; greenhouse shade cloth- 288 in. x 288 in. x 192 in Topograph I & II Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well…
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Welcome
San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim Level 1 Dan Snyder – Polyurethane Paint on Aluminum -1983 Titled Welcome North, Welcome South, Welcome East, Welcome West, is designed to greet visitors from around the world. According to Mr Snyder’s website: Dan was born in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1941. His father…
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Takaroa
1086 Green Street Russian Hill Takaroa Fountain by David Ruth 2004 Pyrex Glass This fountain sits outside a condominium complex on Green Street, and was a private commission. According to David Ruth’s website: The Look of ice comes from the fusing of borosilicate glasses like Pyrex. After I was introduced to the material I tried…
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Goldsworthy III
San Francisco Presidio Main Parade Ground Anza and Sheridan This is the third installation of Andy Goldsworthy’s at the Presidio in San Francisco. It is titled Tree Fall. There are two other Goldsworthy’s on the Presidio Grounds that have appeared in this site before and can be seen here. The exhibit is in the Old…
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Guglielmo Marconi Memorial
Lombard Avenue On the drive up to Coit Tower North Beach This memorial to Guglielmo Marconi was placed sometime in 1938-1939. A group called the Marconi Memorial Foundation incorporated in the 1930s for the purpose of enshrining Marconi as the inventor of the wireless (a fact contested by the Russians). They placed two memorials…
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The Rebirth of Cayuga Playground
Cayuga and Naglee Avenues Outer Mission The 3.89 acre, 63 year old, Cayuga Playground closed December 2011 for a badly needed $8.4 million renovation. About $7.3 million of the renovation was paid for by the 2008 voter-approved parks bond, $711,000 from a state urban greening grant and $1.36 million from BART’s Earthquake Safety Program Impact Compensation.…
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William Alexander Leidesdorff
One Leidesdorff Financial District The plaque outside this building celebrates the architect, leaving one to assume that that is who this person is. However, this is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. Leidesdorff was born to a Dane and a Creole in the Virgin Islands in 1812. Legally recognized by his Danish father, Leidesdorff came under the…
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Thomas Starr King
Franklin between Starr King and Geary Japantown/Western Addition/ Fillmore Due to the lack of land their are very few bodies actually buried within the City of San Francisco. This is why the Sarcophogus of Thomas Starr King is so unusual. Thomas Starr King, a young, inexperienced Unitarian minister, came to San Francisco in 1860 when…
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West Coast War Memorial to the Missing
Presidio Lincoln and Harrison Boulevards This memorial is in the memory of the soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast guardsmen, who lost their lives in service of their country in the American coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The memorial consists of a curved gray granite wall decorated with a bas…
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Frank Marini
Marini Plaza North Beach Frank Marini (1862-1952) is mentioned often in Alessandro Baccari’s book, “Saints Peter and Paul: ‘The Italian Cathedral’ of the West, 1884-1984.” Marini was a major civic benefactor, participating in the work of the Salesian groups at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. He was a sponsor of the boys’ club,…
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Guardians of the Gate
Pier 39 Fisherman’s Wharf Guardians of the Gate by Miles Metzger Metzger attended Denver University and the Instituto de Allende in Mexico. Guardians of the Gate, which depicts a “nuzzling” male and female with a pup, was created in 1990 and cast in Everdur bronze in 1991. Metzger considers the sculpture one of his favorite pieces.…
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Ruth Asawa at Ghirardelli Square
Ghirardelli Square Fisherman’s Wharf This fountain is titled Andrea’s Fountain and is by Ruth Asawa. It sits in Ghirardelli Square. There is a plaque next to the fountain that tells the story of the piece, it reads: Then-owner William Roth selected Ruth Asawa, well known for her abstract, woven-wire sculptures, to design and create the…
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Abstract Sculpture at 100 Buchannan
100 Buchanan UCSF Dental Center Market Street/Hayes Valley These two abstract sculptures are by Andrew Harader. Harader attended Cal State University in Long Beach and then received an MFA in 1976 at the Maryland Institute’s Rhinehart School of Sculpture. He is presently the coach at Andy’s Tennis Camp in Palo Alto. The piece is owned…
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Damoxenus and Kruegas
Entryway to the Olympic Club 524 Post Street Union Square Domoxenus Established on May 6, 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America’s oldest athletic club, which makes it appropriate, that these two statues of Damoxenus and Kreugas stand outside its front door. Damoxenus and Kreugas were boxers. Domoxenus of Syracuse was excluded from…
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Tekakwitha Lily of the Mohawk
Mission Dolores Cemetery 16th and Mission The Mission District Saint Kateri Tekakwitha baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), is a Roman Catholic saint, who was an Algonquin–Mohawk virgin and religious laywoman. Born in Auriesville (now part of New York), she survived smallpox and was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic and settled for the last years of…
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Father Junipero Serra
Mission Dolores 16th and Dolores The Mission District This sculpture, found inside the cemetery is by Arthur Putnam. The cast stone sculpture is one of a series of allegorical figures originally commissioned to depict the history of California for the estate of E. W. Scripps. This cast was funded by D. J. McQuarry at the cost…
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The Bohemian Clubs Allegorical Figures
624 Taylor Street Nob Hill These four bas-relief, terra cotta panels are between the second and third floors of the Bohemian Club on the Post Street side. The first panel depicts Art and Architecture represented by a semi-nude turbanned male figure kneeling. In his proper left hand is a mallet which rests on the ground…
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Bret Harte at the Bohemian Club
624 Taylor Street Nob Hill The artist, Jo Mora, created and donated the sculpture to the Bohemian Club of which he and Bret Harte were members. In 1933, when the old Bohemian Club was torn down, the memorial was removed and reinstalled on the new club in 1934, Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 6, 1902) was an American…
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California Masonic Memorial Temple
1111 California Street Nob Hill Designed by Albert Roller (April 20, 1891 – July 12, 1981) the California Masonic Memorial Temple was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1958. An icon of mid-century modernist architecture, the structure is located at the top of Nob Hill across the street from Grace Cathedral. It is a testament to simple lines,…
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U.S. Custom House Sculpture
555 Battery Street Financial District U.S. Customs House Most of the granite sculptures on the U.S. Custom house were done in-situ by unknown artists. The roof top sculpture, however, was done by Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper (April 8, 1875 – 1937) was an American sculptor. Born in Glenwood, Iowa, and based in Denver, Colorado, Cooper studied under Preston…
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Regardless of History
400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow Bill Woodrow (1948) was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s onto the international contemporary art scene. Woodrow’s early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in…
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Huru by di Suvero
Crissy Field Huru 1984-1985 Steel “Huru”, at 55 feet, is the tallest sculpture in the exhibit. A simple tripod base supports a six-ton upper section made of two long pointing pieces, like open scissors that move in the wind. Some read them as welcoming arms; to me they looked like futuristic machine guns, or…