Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Holographic Entities Reminding of the Universe

Posted by Cindy on May 11, 2021

May 112021

Holographic Entities Reminding of the Universe

May 2021 Pierpoint Lane between Third Street and Bridgeview Way – San Francisco Artists Statement: Consisting of nine artworks, this installation reflects my interest in ancestral traditions and folklore that speak to the interrelatedness of all beings, animate and inanimate, in the universe. The sculptures are inspired by shapeshifters: ever-evolving entities that continue to reinvent themselves by embracing dualites and celebrating new identities. The tallest, Ichiren-Bozu, is a mythic character that represents consciousness. The upward movement and repetition of form implies growth and prosperity. Traveling down the lane one will also encounter Continuous Eyes, the archetype of the protector: Animated Continue Reading

Orbital

Posted by Cindy on May 7, 2021

May 072021

May 2021 Pierpoint Lane between Third Street and Bridgeview Way Artists Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno – Studio Futureforms Artists Statement: Orbital is a contemporary garden folly, exploring geometric and material exuberance it evokes organic forms found in nature, but also giant robots and futuristic space vehicles. The structure is composed of three coiled legs that spiral towards the sky. The exterior surface is defined by stainless steel origami skins, while the interior space is wrapped by a vortex of colorful tactile shingles. Orbital’s dynamic form evokes an era of rapid change and uncertainty, while also inspiring curiousity and playful Continue Reading

Rolling Reflection

Posted by Cindy on March 29, 2021

Mar 292021

February 2021 1500 Mission Street This piece sits in what the project calls the forum, it is by Sanaz Maninani. Sanaz Mazinani is an artist and educator based between San Francisco and Toronto. Mazinani works across the disciplines of photography, social sculpture, and large-scale multimedia installations, Mazinani holds an undergraduate degree from Ontario College of Art & Design and a master’s degree in fine arts from Stanford University. Her work has appeared in solo exhibitions at institutions including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the West Vancouver Museum. * This is just one of several pieces of art Continue Reading

1500 Mission Street

Posted by Cindy on March 23, 2021

Mar 232021

February 2021 This is what is left of several buildings that once sat on this site. Built in 1925, 1500 Mission was a one-story reinforced concrete industrial building originally designed in the Classical Revival style for the White Motor Company. The White Motor Company was created out of the White Sewing Machine Company. Founded by Thomas H White in 1876, his son, Rollin Henry White, invented the auto flash boiler in 1899. With his two brothers, Windsor and Walter, the sons diversified the sewing machine company’s products by introducing trucks and the White Steamer automobile in 1900. Around 1940, the Continue Reading

Refrain by Walter Hood

Posted by Cindy on March 19, 2021

Mar 192021

February 2021 Hunter’s Point/ Bayview Refrain was produced in 2015 and is made of steel. Walter Hood is the creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California. He is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and lectures on professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of the 2017 Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, 2019 Knight Public Spaces Fellowship, 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, and 2019 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. Funding for the piece was proved by the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, the budge was $250,000. Refrain Continue Reading

Frame by Mildred Howard

Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2021

Mar 082021

February 2021 Bay View / Hunter’s Point Frame is an enlarged version of an antique Rococo style frame. Howard’s frame is at the scale of the natural world around it, between 15-20 feet high. The use of the frame is no longer intended to frame a single small work of art, it frames the multiple views and perspectives of the Shipyard’s landscape. Frame is a piece that sits in collaboration with Walter Hood’s Refrain. Frame–Refrain transfers the framed object’s connoted values of appreciation, privilege, and value to the landscape itself. Frame–Refrain provides a historical point of contact between the worlds Continue Reading

Stream of Consciousness

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2021

Feb 252021

February 2021 Bayview / Hunters Point Hillpoint Park – Picnic Area Innes Court Stream of Consciousness is a 120 foot long ribbon of historic, contemporary, and scientific images interspersed with literary quotes. The tiles tell the story of water from the depths of the sea to the constellations in the sky. The images were made by Bayview Hunters Point school children This piece was funded by the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Created by Think Round Inc., the piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and created by Heidi Hardin working with Colette Crutcher. The work of Continue Reading

Floating Points

Posted by Cindy on February 16, 2021

Feb 162021

February 2021 1500 Mission Street Shannon Finley, a Berlin- based artist, created this piece that stands by the front door to 1500 Mission, between the glass facade and a 30 foot green wall. It stands 15-foot high and is made of stainless steel, powder-coated matte black. Comprised of multiple planes set at various angles, the sculpture is intended to act as a companion piece to the building itself — its light mimicking the light of the building’s facade. “Floating Points” is Finley’s first US commission. Shannon Finley is a sculptor, painter and animator who creates works that reflect a strong Continue Reading

Prevailing Winds

Posted by Cindy on February 9, 2021

Feb 092021

February 2021 1500 Mission Street “Prevailing Winds” by artist Catherine Wagner . Catherine is a San Francisco-based artist, known best for her conceptual photography. Wagner’s work often involves extensive research and, in this instance, she studied Bay Area wind patterns and then laser cut the resulting cartographic data onto eight aluminum panels. Lining the South Van Ness sidewalk of the 1500 Mission Street project, these functional sculptures have arrow-shaped holes and rectangular notches, which both help mitigate the wind and add poetry to the urban landscape. Ms. Wagner is a Professor of Studio Art, as well as the Dean of the Continue Reading

Haig Patigian’s Creation at the GGIE

Posted by Cindy on February 3, 2021

Feb 032021

February 3, 2021 300 Filbert / Filbert Steps Haig Patigian is represented on this site with many of his works. Patigian (1876-1950) was born in the city of Van in the Ottoman Empire. His parents were teachers at the American Mission School in Armenia. He was largely self-taught as a sculptor.Patigian spent most of his career in San Francisco, California and most of his works are located in California. This piece of art is now on private property, but proudly displayed. It is the studio model of Haig Patigian’s Creation that was sculpted for the Golden Gate International Exposition. It Continue Reading

Absorption

Posted by Cindy on November 4, 2020

Nov 042020

488 Folsom Street San Francisco Absorption is the first permanent public art installation in the United States for Berlin-based artist, Alicja Kwade. According to Kwade’s artist statement, Absorption (2018), is a sculptural abstraction utilizing mirrors and stones to produce an optical illusion that plays with viewers’ perceptions of dimensionality. The installation was included as a way to “contribute something soulful, stimulating, and timeless to the public space at Avery Lane,” Alicja Kwade (1979 – ) is a Polish-German contemporary visual artist. Her sculptures and installations focus on the subjectivity of time and space. At 19 Kwade moved to Berlin where she Continue Reading

Signal on Treasure Island

Posted by Cindy on October 23, 2019

Oct 232019

699 Avenue of the Palms Treasure Island While much of Treasure Island is under construction you must reach this piece via a detour, the road will end on 9th Street near Avenue B. In 2015, the historic east span of the Bay Bridge was taken down and its remnants granted to 15 artists around the state. One of these artists was Tom Loughlin a San Francisco based conceptual artist who received 36 tons of steel from the bridge. The piece, Signal, is meant to function like a giant tuning fork vibrating at 35 hertz, the frequency of a foghorn: “You’re Continue Reading

Pathways

Posted by Cindy on October 21, 2019

Oct 212019

Chase Center 500 Terry A Francois Boulevard Adam Eli Fiebelman is a San Francisco based artist who is known best for his stencil and cut paper-based works. His childhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico was spent examining and interacting with the surfaces of the city through making graffiti art. His awareness of the structures we use every day but often overlook has become the subject of his current work: the buildings, doorways, fenced trees, discarded buses and chipped alley walls that fill our cities and map our lives. Through an intricate process of hand-cut stencils and enamel painting, he explores Continue Reading

Benny Bufano’s Grave

Posted by Cindy on October 19, 2019

Oct 192019

Holy Cross Cemetery Colma, California Bufano’s gravesite is marked by his own sculpture of St. Francis. The statue overlooks that part of the cemetery that holds the unmarked graves of indigent children, the only part of the cemetery that permitted the type of statuary marking Bufano’s grave. Bufano was a well known San Francisco artist whose work has been in this site many times. Beniamino Bufano (October 15, 1890 – August 18, 1970) was an Italian American sculptor, best known for his large-scale monuments representing peace and his modernist work often featured smoothly rounded animals and relatively simple shapes. He Continue Reading

Marina Airfield

Posted by Cindy on October 12, 2019

Oct 122019

Marina District This airfield was originally part of the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE). During the 266 days the Exposition ran the field was used several times a day. Aviator, stunt pilot, and native San Franciscan, Lincoln Beachey had been a main attraction of the fair, however, he was tragically killed performing at the fair. From Disciples of Flight.com: “On March 1915, a crowd of 50,000 gathered in the fairgrounds to watch Lincoln J. Beachey’s spectacular flying stunts, with another 200,000 spectators packed into the surrounding hills for a free viewing. This event would unveil Lincoln’s latest and most Continue Reading

Wentworth Alley Mosaic

Posted by Cindy on October 6, 2019

Oct 062019

Wentworth Alley Chinatown This new mosaic, found on Wentworth Alley off of Washington is titled Dragon Boats Chasing Moonlight and was created by the youth program attached to the Chinatown Community Development Center. The piece was installed in September of 2018 to commemorate the Autumn Moon Festival. The inspiration for the piece stems from an ancient Chinese legend, where teams traditionally competed against each other racing dragon-shaped boats. Designed by the students with the help Rita Soyfertis, the mural, which contains more than 30,000 tiles, is said to “represent the connection of hard work and dreaming big,” * *

Marina District Lighthouse

Posted by Cindy on October 4, 2019

Oct 042019

1 Yacht Road Marina District Once there was a grand plan to construct two of these stunning stone lighthouses at the harbor entrance in the Marina District. The harbor itself was originally built as a lagoon for the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition of 1915. The lighthouse was the idea of Captain B.P. Lamb of the Park Commission, who also suggested the general design of the tower. The design followed that of Roman military watchtowers built for the Punic Wars. Captain Lamb was quoted as saying, “Yachtsmen have been forced to rely on shore lights in making the harbor at night.” The city Continue Reading

Forest Hills Muni Station

Posted by Cindy on September 21, 2019

Sep 212019

Where Dewey Blvd and Laguna Honda Blvd. meet The Forest Hill Station is a Muni Metro station in the Forest Hill neighborhood across from Laguna Honda Hospital. Built in 1916-1918 the station was originally built as part of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. It is the oldest subway station west of Chicago. Scenes from the films Dirty Harry (1971) and Milk (2008) were shot inside of this station. Forest Hill Station was built in a “restrained classical revival style which has remained largely unaltered to the present. There are also a few decorative features suggestive of an Art Nouveau aesthetic. The station Continue Reading

Noguchi at Chase Center

Posted by Cindy on September 12, 2019

Sep 122019

Chase Center Plaza Waterside Dogpatch Play Sculpture by Isamu Noguchi is on loan from SFMOMA to the Chase Center. This author has an issue with the loaning of art from a public museum to a corporate entity, and for that reason, I would like to directly reprint an article from ArtsJournal.com “Chase Center was responsible for [SFMOMA’s] logistical expenses” for this program, according to the museum. In response to my query, SFMOMA’s spokesperson told me that it had entered into this partnership with a sports venue in order to “inspire and encourage new audiences to connect with contemporary art, Continue Reading

Alicia McCarthy at the Proper Hotel

Posted by Cindy on September 10, 2019

Sep 102019

Market Street and 7th Street This mural, covering an entire wall facing Charles J. Brenham Place (extension of 7th Street) is by Alicia McCarthy. McCarthy’s work has a tendency towards the Naïve or Folk character and often uses unconventional media like house paint, graphite, or other found materials. McCarthy is best known for her weave paintings such as this. McCarthy was born in 1969 and grew up in Oakland where she presently resides. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993 and an MFA from UC Berkeley in 2007. In 1992, the dean of the San Continue Reading

Seeing Spheres at Chase Center

Posted by Cindy on September 6, 2019

Sep 062019

Chase Center 1 South Street Bayside Entrance Dog Patch Seeing Spheres by Olafur Eliasson This work, which consists of five 15-foot polished steel balls arranged in a circle was created in Berlin, fabricated in Amsterdam, then shipped through the Panama Canal for installation. Created using ten tons of polished steel the piece arrived by barge at the Port of San Francisco and was then trucked to Mission Bay. The work had to be done in the middle of the night as pieces were so large the moving process required temporarily removing overhead Muni wires. The mirrored surfaces all point towards Continue Reading

Point of Departure

Posted by Cindy on September 3, 2019

Sep 032019

Masonic and Geary Streets The intersection of Masonic and Geary was completely redevloped by the city as part of a streetscape project. The art work chosen for the project was Point of Departure by Scott Oliver. To get inspiration for the signs Oliver stood on the corner for five days asking three questions of passers by. The three questions, stamped into the poles, were: “Where are you going right now? Where and when were you born? Where do you want to go that you’ve never been before?” Some respondents answered in their native languages, which is why some signs are Continue Reading

Tompkins Stairs

Posted by Cindy on August 7, 2019

Aug 072019

Tompkins Avenue Between Putnam and Nevada Bernal Heights Andre Rothblatt, was the architect responsible for the design of the Tompkins Stairway Garden. The zigzag tile design was inspired by the Steps to Peace painted by youth in the Syrian town of Deir Atiyah. According to a 2019 article in the San Francisco Chronicle: The park “won a $15,000 community challenge grant from the city to landscape the hill, but with no water, the unaccepted bit of Tompkins fell back into disrepair during the drought. They tried again with additional neighbors in 2016, this time applying for and receiving a water Continue Reading

ATSF Car Ferry Slip

Posted by Cindy on August 5, 2019

Aug 052019

The Atchison and Topeka Car Ferry Slip Between Piers 52 and 50 Mission Bay Built in 1950, not much remains of the ATSF Car Ferry Slip. What does remain consists of a large, fork-shaped pier covered in wood decking. Near the mid-point of the structure is a large, steel-frame freight tower consisting of a pair of smaller metal truss towers, each capped by a pulley wheel. The structure served the fleet of tugs and barges that carried freight cars between the railroad’s main railhead in Richmond and San Francisco. Transport to and from the docks was mostly by rail. Rather Continue Reading

Sculpture Garden of the Woodstock School of Art

Posted by Cindy on July 12, 2019

Jul 122019

The Sculpture Garden of The Woodstock School of Art In 1996, Pascal Meccariello, from the Dominican Republic, Alan Counihan, and Colm Folan, from Ireland, and husband and wife Hideaki and Eiko Suzuki, from Japan, were part of the Woodstock School of Art Sculpture Residency. They each picked various sites in the woods behind the school and created beautifully intricate sculptures, mostly of stacked bluestone. * **

OPUS 40

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2019

Jul 082019

Opus 40 50 Fite Rd Saugerties, NY Opus 40 is the work of just one man, Harvey Fite (December 25, 1903 – May 9, 1976). The sculpture, made of bluestone from the local quarries, covers 6 1/2 acres Fite created Opus 40 by hand. The work, which he said would take him 40 years (thus the name), consisted of ramps, stairways, pools, moats and other configurations carved in the bluestone. Fite died three years prior to the slated 40 year timeline. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,Fite grew up in Texas, where his family had moved early in his childhood. As a Continue Reading

Woodstock Artists Cemetery

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2019

Jul 082019

Woodstock, New York The Woodstock Artists Cemetery is officially operated by the Woodstock Memorial Society, the original 80 foot by 100 foot plot of land was purchased by John Kingsbury following the tragic death of his son. Additional land was purchased and the Woodstock Memorial Society was incorporated on November 4, 1934. In an effort to preserve the natural beauty of the landscape, the founding members sought to limit traditional symbols of grief. As a result, conventional tombstones and other visual intrusions were prohibited. As is still the case today, graves are marked only by ground-level stones, many crafted from Continue Reading

Fern Street’s New Look

Posted by Cindy on July 1, 2019

Jul 012019

Fern Street Fern Street at Polk Street Beginning in 2011 the City of San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority has worked with numerous residents, merchants and community groups to help create a safer streetsape design for Polk Street. The proposed conceptual design includes many improvements, the following three helping to explain the changes on Fern Street. Pedestrian safety features such as corner “bulbouts”, daylighting, crosswalk upgrades and traffic signal improvements Transit enhancement such as bus stop consolidation, relocation and bus bulbs Public realm improvements such as landscaping, street lighting, and alley enhancements Fern Street is part of the vibrant SF First Thusday Continue Reading

Vitreous Bench

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2019

Jun 282019

Millenium Tower 301 Mission Street The public entrance Catherine Wagner is an American conceptual artist. She was born in San Francisco on January 31, 1953. She received her BA and MFA from San Francisco State University. Although Ms. Wagner has spent her life living in California, she is an active international artist, working photographically, as well as site-specific public art, and lecturing extensively at museums and universities. In 2001 Ms. Wagner was named one of Time Magazine’s Fine Arts Innovators of the Year. The artist’s statement regarding the piece: “I have chosen to install a sculpture in the shape of Continue Reading

Digital Oaks

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2019

Jun 272019

Millenium Tower 301 Mission Street Public Entrance Amanda Weil founded Weil Studio in 1993. The studio’s specialization with large scale photographic glass is an outgrowth of Weil’s interest in the intersection of photography and architecture. Weil has a BA from Harvard College and spent a year at The Whitney Museum Independent Study program. This installation is an abstract collection of squares in multiple greens that lend light, calm and beauty to an overly large lobby. Eventually the squares sort themselves out and become a grove of California oak trees. This piece is part of the Millenium Towers 2% for Art Continue Reading

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