Ingelside – 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 City College Terminal and the affordable housing project on 1100 Ocean Ave. Unity Plaza occupies the space between the bus loop and the housing development.

Some of the larger scenes in the stairway consist of:

City College students, taken in 1973

The Sundial at Ingleside Terrace

Street Cars

The Rail and Streetcar Intersection in 1904

The Ingleside Presbyterian Church founded in 1907

The project was created by Wowhaus Studios who have been in this site before. They are photographs printed on porcelain enamel tiles and installed in the risers. Wowhaus sourced the images directly from community members and the library archives.

This was paid for by the San Francisco Arts Commission with a budget not to exceed $15,000.

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

The Sundial at Ingleside Terrace

Posted by Cindy on June 17, 2014

Jun 172014

Entrada Court Ingleside Terrace What is now Ingleside Terraces was the southwestern most portion of San Miguel Rancho, bordered on the west by Rancho Laguna de la Merced. Rancho Laguna de la Merced and San Miguel Rancho were apparently the last of the Mexican “ranchos” to be incorporated in what we now know as San Francisco. The sundial was dedicated on October 10, 1913, with a rather spectacular event attended by 1500 people. According to the dedication brochure: “The ceremony attending the dedication of the sundial at Ingleside Terraces was one of rare delight. It took place at the Continue Reading

Sun Spheres on Ocean Avenue

Posted by Cindy on October 19, 2012

Oct 192012

1344 Ocean at Grenada Ingleside/Sunnyside There are three of these mosaic Sun Spheres on Ocean Avenue between Miramar and Grenada. Done by Laura True, they were installed in 2008. The Spheres range in size from 3′ to 5′ in diameter and were commissioned by the SFAC at a cost of $47,500.

CCSF – Up Tight

Posted by Cindy on December 15, 2011

Dec 152011

Ingleside San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue This is titled Up-Tight #1 by Jaques Overhoff. Mr. Overhoff has been in this blog before with a piece on SF City College campus. Up-Tight #1 is painted concrete. The name was to symbolize the stabilizing effects of the tension cables. That made absolutely no sense to me until I found an earlier photo of the piece. Obviously some restoration is in order for this piece that was installed in 1977.

CCSF – Sentinels

Posted by Cindy on December 14, 2011

Dec 142011

Ingleside San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue Campus * * Sentinels by Aristides Demetrios This one piece is titled Sentinels. It is by Aristides Demetrios who has been in this site before with his aeolian harp. This piece of welded bronze plates is titled sentinels and was done in 1973. The piece is on permanent loan from the SF Arts Commission. In May 2010 the SFAC acknowledge that there was need for a complete conservation assessment as the piece was showing significant corrosion at the seams due to trapped moisture. It was assumed at that time that the work Continue Reading

William Wareham at SF City College

Posted by Cindy on June 14, 2011

Jun 142011

San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue Campus This piece at City College San Francisco, Ocean campus, is titled “Wyoming Coup” by William Wareham. It was installed in 1972 on the West Lawn of the Science Building. William Wareham graduated with an MA and MFA from UC Berkeley in 1971, he did his undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art. He has always had a strong metal theme in his work. Since his stint as the first Artist in Residence at the Norcal Solid Waste Systems facility in 1990, where he set up the studio and wrote the safety manual, Wareham Continue Reading

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), Continue Reading

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 Continue Reading

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 Continue Reading

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 Continue Reading

Guns and Roses

Posted by Cindy on June 9, 2011

Jun 092011

San Francisco City College Ocean Avenue At the entrance to San Francisco City College is “St. Francis of the Guns” by Bufano. Born in Italy, in 1898, Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano taught at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute, (but was dismissed in 1923 because he was considered too modern), the University of California, Berkeley, and Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts so his work is (or should be) well known to natives. Following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, then Mayor, Joseph Alioto, initiated a voluntary Continue Reading