SOMA – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Double Horizon by Sarah Sze

Posted by Cindy on May 14, 2023

May 142023

Yerba Buena Center Bridge

Double Horizon is a 5,500-pound boulder split open like a geode. The split sculpture is embedded with tiles to create pixelated color images of the sky at different times of the day.

Sze was born in Boston in 1969 and lives in New York. She received a BA in Architecture and Painting from Yale University in 1991 and an MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 1997. Sze builds her installations and intricate sculptures from the minutiae of everyday life.

Sze was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003 and a Radcliffe Fellowship in 2005. In 2013, she represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. Her work is exhibited in museums worldwide and held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Tate Modern. Sze has created many public works, including pieces for the Seattle Opera House, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, and The High Line in New York.

Arc Cycle

Posted by Cindy on February 19, 2023

Feb 192023

Folsom Street / Moscone Center Metro Wagner’s installation uses six photos from her 1978-84 series “Moscone Center” The photos documented the excavation and building process of Moscone Center. The photos were laser-etched onto a 14-by-26-foot pane of glass. The works show the rebar and early construction forms of the convention center rising in what was once home to a large Filipino American community that was mostly eliminated by the construction project. Catherine Wagner (born January 31, 1953) is an American photographer, professor, and conceptual artist. Her works have been acquired by several major Bay Area museum collections as well as Continue Reading

Face C/Z

Posted by Cindy on February 19, 2023

Feb 192023

Yerba Buena / Moscone Center Muni Station This piece, found at the Yerba Buena/Moscone Center Muni station is by Leslie Shows, a Los Angeles-based artist whose mixed-media works incorporate assemblage, painting, drawing, glass, and sculptural relief. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. According to the artist: “All my work is quite layered in the associations and different registers of meaning. ‘Face C/Z’ is like a threshold to a tunnel in a certain way, but Continue Reading

923 Folsom

Posted by Cindy on June 25, 2019

Jun 252019

The artists of this striking piece on Folsom Street are Lisa Levine and Peter Tonningson. Levine holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and an MFA in Photography from Brooklyn College. Peter, a native Californian earned both his BFA (San Francisco Art Institute) and MFA (San Jose State University) in photography. The two met at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley where they were both artists-in-residence. They live in Alameda and teach fine art photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Lisa and Peter have been collaborating for several years utilizing Continue Reading

Wall Art #1012 on Mission

Posted by Cindy on March 12, 2019

Mar 122019

1400 Mission Street This artwork is part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art Program. The piece covers the façade at the corner of 10th Street and Jessie Street and is the height of the ground story, and spans approximately 66 linear feet of the facade along 10th Street and 27 linear feet along Jessie Street. The original wall drawing was created in 2002 and was originally installed in a private residence in Los Angeles. The drawing was applied directly to a plaster substrate, transported, and installed on site. The installation is a rather complicated process done by a team Continue Reading

Planters

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2018

Aug 172018

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

Global Garden

Posted by Cindy on March 26, 2018

Mar 262018

474 Natoma South of Market On this affordable housing unit are digitally embossed metal panels entitled Global Gardens, by artist Catherine Wagner. The images are of culturally specific plants representing the diverse community. Catherine Wagner is a Professor of Studio Art, as well as the Dean of the Fine Arts Division at Mills College. She received her BA and MFA from San Francisco State University. Wagner is an American conceptual artist whose process involves the investigation of what art critic David Bonetti calls “the systems people create, our love of order, our ambition to shape the world, the value we Continue Reading

Local Color by Leah Rosenberg

Posted by Cindy on March 21, 2018

Mar 212018

Natoma at 180 New Montgomery This wall of colors that include small tables and chairs is a by Leah Rosenberg and was sponsored by SitesUnseen. Leah Rosenberg is a San Francisco-based artist whose practice spans a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, and performance. Color plays a primary role in her work. Rosenberg received a BFA from Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, BC, in 2003 and went on to get an MFA from California College in San Francisco in 2008. Sites Unseen is a fiscally-sponsored public art project of the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD)

Alleyways of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2018

Mar 202018

Jessie and Annie Streets Sites Unseen is a fiscally-sponsored public art project of the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD). They presently have three projects on the outskirts of San Francisco’s Museum District. The first is Love Over Rules These 6 X 6 Neon letters are on the exterior wall of the Salma Family Building at 165 Jessie Street. However, the best viewing is on Annie Street. The light sculpture is the first permanent public artwork in the U.S. by New York-based artist Hank Willis Thomas. A tribute to the artist’s cousin, murdered in 2000, the blinking white neon installation shares Continue Reading

Frank Stella at 222 2nd

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

222 Second Street Frank Stella was born in 1936 in Malden, Massachusetts. He studied painting at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and at Princeton University. After graduating, he moved to New York and began his career with his renowned series, Black Paintings. These two pieces by Stella are titled “Riallaro”; a 1997, pixel painting. “The Pequod Meets the Delight”; a 1992, pixel painting, purchased for $1million. This area is a Privately Owned Public Open Space in San Francisco. Open to the public for enjoyment during business hours.

Glass Goddesses

Posted by Cindy on September 9, 2017

Sep 092017

Trinity Plaza Market at 8th April 2017 Trinity Plaza falls under the 1% for Art program. Although the project began construction several years ago, the public space areas are not yet complete. The concept for the public space (titled “C’era Una Volta” – Once Upon a Time) was developed by artist Lawrence Argent. The overall composition of the open space is comprised of glass and marble sculptures, a stone wall and assemblage of blocks evocative of a quarry, and several scattered marble blocks with partially carved sculptures that appear to emerge from the stone. Two of these glass sculptures can Continue Reading

Ringold Alley’s Leather Memoir

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2017

Jul 172017

Ringold Alley Between 8th and 9th Streets Harrison and Folsom SOMA Prior to the AIDS crisis, Ringold alley served as one of the go-to places for gay men to rendezvous after the numerous gay bars along Folsom Street (the “Miracle Mile”) closed for the night. Until the 1990s, Ringold Street continued to play a major role in San Francisco’s leather and gay SOMA scenes. Leather Memoir is a project to honor the history of this area. “Leather Memoir” consists of several custom fabricated features. A black granite marker stone mounted at 9th and Ringold features an etched narrative, which includes a Continue Reading

Woodward Garden

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2017

Feb 042017

Woodward Gardens Duboce and Woodward Street Mission/South of Market On January 19, 1873, 12,000 people showed up at Woodward’s Garden in the Mission District to watch Frenchman Gus Buislay and a small boy soar aloft in a hot air balloon. The man who made it happen was Robert B. Woodward. Woodward had made his fortune in the grocery store business. In 1849, he opened a store right off the waterfront to serve the ever-increasing number of people flooding into the Port of San Francisco for the Gold Rush. With the acumen of a savvy businessman, he realized the ’49er economy Continue Reading

The Metropolitan Laundry Company

Posted by Cindy on August 15, 2016

Aug 152016

7 Heron South of Market, San Francisco The lovely trumpet vine on this building is hiding a lot of the detail of the brick work, but the buildings history is the real charm. Built around 1907, this was once part of the Metropolitan Laundry Company and Power Plant. According to the January 8, 1910 Journal of Electricity, this was a modern, cutting edge plant. It was touted as the largest and most up-to-date in the U.S. The whole laundry facility was housed in two buildings and covered an acre of land. The second building, at the corner of Berwick and Harrison, is Continue Reading

1176 Harrison

Posted by Cindy on August 10, 2016

Aug 102016

This 9,796 square-foot building is actually two: the east section was constructed in 1912 and the west section was constructed in 1929. The buildings were unified by the present façade in 1929, This 1-story, steel and reinforced concrete industrial building was designed in the Art Moderne style. The interesting architectural details include an incised sign that reads “San Francisco Galvanizing Works,” concrete beltcourses, a stepped recessed bay, galvanized metal rivets, and a parapet. Like its neighbor at 1140 Harrison it to sits in the Western SOMA Light Industrial and Residential Historic District. Also likes it neighbor it is historically significant due to Continue Reading

1140 Harrison Street

Posted by Cindy on August 4, 2016

Aug 042016

This nondescript industrial building is about to be torn down for a giant condominium project. I thought it time to get it documented before it disappeared. Part of the SOMA Light Industrial and Residential Historic District, the building has been marked historical due to its age, but that does not prevent it from being torn down, it is simply a designation. Built in 1907, the building is a 75,625 square-feet, 1-story, brick masonry industrial building in a modified Renaissance Revival style. The rectangular-plan building, clad in smooth stucco on the primary façade and brick on the secondary facade, is capped by Continue Reading

St. Josephs of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on May 9, 2016

May 092016

1401 Howard at 10th SOMA St Joseph’s Church was founded, at 10th and Howard, in 1861, by Archbishop Joseph Alemany. The church, home to over 300 mostly Irish families, was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The church we see today was constructed in 1913. By that time, the Irish of the neighborhood had moved away and the church welcomed families from Latin America, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. By 1980 St. Joseph’s was the largest Filipino parish in the US. The church building was designed by San Francisco architect John J. Foley in the Romanesque Revival style. Continue Reading

Jaques Overhoff and Margaret Mead

Posted by Cindy on September 14, 2015

Sep 142015

150 Otis Street Mission/South of Market This sculpture, by Jaques Overhoff, has sat on the side of 170 Otis Street, The Social Services Building, since 1977. The abstract sculpture is accompanied by a poem by Margaret Mead. At this time I am unable to determine whether or not this is part of Overhoff’s intent or a separate art piece all together. Jaques Overhoff, who has been in this site many times before was born in the Netherlands. He attended the Graphics School of Design at the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, and the University of Oregon. He moved Continue Reading

Handsignals

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2015

Aug 172015

McCoppin Plaza Market Street and Valencia Titled Handsignals, this piece sits in a small park made available after the tearing down of the Central Freeway that once bi-sected the area. The McCoppin Hub Project was a joint project between SFMTA, SFAC and SFDPW. For this reason it was impossible for me to garner from the hundreds of meeting minutes that I read, exactly what this piece cost the taxpayers of San Francisco. Originally proposed by Rebar the final product was created by MoreLab. Handsignals refers to the formal qualities of the numerous theater signs prevalent in the Mission District, and repurposes that Continue Reading

Hellenism in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2015

Jul 072015

This plaque sits, somewhat neglected in an ivy bed at the corner of 3rd and Folsom Streets at the Moscone Center. I, like so many people, have seen it, read it, and continued on my way. I began wondering what was behind it. The Greek immigrant community was one of the largest and most conspicuous communities South of Market prior to the 1960s. Greeks had begun coming to San Francisco even before the 1906 Earthquake, the community grew rapidly prior to the First World War as Greeks escaped their own war-torn and poverty stricken homeland. Many made their way across Continue Reading

The Rialto Building

Posted by Cindy on July 2, 2014

Jul 022014

116 New Montgomery South of Market I became intrigued with this building when a friend showed me this Black and White photo in the lobby of the Rialto. (Note: the round building on the left is the Crossley building) The Rialto is an eight-story H-shaped plan with center light courts. It has a steel frame clad in brick and terra cotta. The eighth story is highly ornamented. The façade accommodated the lack of interior partition walls by providing a large space between the window mullions. This allowed partitions to be erected between the windows once floors were leased. Since the interior Continue Reading

Covering Construction

Posted by Cindy on June 23, 2014

Jun 232014

4th and Folsom South of Market This piece, sponsored by the SFAC, is by Randy Colosky. It is titled Ellipses in the Key of Blue. According to Randy’s Website: Ellipses is the Key of Blue is 140 ft. long x 8 ft. tall, digitally printed and drawing mounted on plywood. According to the sign on the wall next to the piece: Ellipsis in the Key of Blue is a temporary mural by Randy Colosky commissioned for the construction barricade at the site of the upcoming Central Subway Yerba Buena/Moscone Station. Colosky has worked in the building trades and is interested in Continue Reading

San Francisco Flower Market

Posted by Cindy on June 9, 2014

Jun 092014

San Francisco Flower Market 6th and Brannan SOMA With the face of San Francisco changing so very rapidly right now, I thought I would take a look at a block of buildings that has been a stalwart in the South of Market area serving an single industry, the San Francisco Flower Market. There are only 5 grower owned Flower Markets in the United States, and San Francisco is privileged to have one of those. A coalition of three ethnic groups founded the organizations that began the early San Francisco Flower Mart. Italian growers started the San Francisco Flower Growers Continue Reading

Island Fever

Posted by Cindy on March 24, 2014

Mar 242014

50 8th Street SOMA/Civic Center I am a huge fan of Lady Mags and Amanda Lynn, and they have been on this website many times. I have also been walking by this piece for quite a while, admiring it and yet not quite having a chance to take pictures when it wasn’t blocked by cars. Finally, I had the chance, so here it is for your pleasure. According to Amanda Lynn’s website: Lady Mags and I (aka Alynn-Mags) recently completed the largest mural production we have ever created, and it all happened in less than 5 days! We were asked Continue Reading

Caruso’s Dream Causes Pianos to Fly

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2014

Jan 242014

55 Ninth Street Mid Market/SOMA I spoke with Brian Goggin about his installation of Caruso’s Dream well over a year ago. While it is taking a long time to get installed, and is was not quite finished when I wrote this post, I thought I would bring it to you anyway. Brian has been in this site many times, you can read all about him here. This is a public site-specific artwork commissioned by the developers of AVA 55 Ninth, a 17-story apartment complex on Ninth Street, sitting between Market and Mission. After singing Carmen in San Francisco, the famous tenor Enrico Caruso Continue Reading

Eng-Skell

Posted by Cindy on January 8, 2014

Jan 082014

1043 Howard Street SOMA It is hard to believe that in a world of corporate mergers and gentrification of neighborhoods, that the original company that built this wonderful deco building still occupies it. In 1900 W.A. England and H.D. Skellinger founded the Eng-Skell Company. The company made flavoring extracts for the bakery and bottling trades and specialties such as orange bitters for the bar trade. In 1930 the company built this three-story Art Deco building in SOMA. The building was designed by architect A.C. Griewank. It is 100,000 square feet and originally housed a laboratory, manufacturing plant, warehouse and office Continue Reading

Fire Station #8 a WPA gem on Bluxome Street

Posted by Cindy on October 21, 2013

Oct 212013

Fire Station #8 a WPA gem on Bluxome Street

36 Bluxome Street SOMA South of the Slot Fire Station Number 8 was built in 1939 as a result of the WPA The San Francisco Fire Department was a big beneficiary of W.P.A. The Department’s 1974 Historical Review noted, “One of the few advances made by the Department in these lean years resulted from the formation of the Works Project Administration. As a result of this program several of the Department buildings were remodeled, new heating and plumbing facilities installed, and much necessary maintenance accomplished.” Assistant City Engineer Clyde E. Healy’s December, 1939, report notes repairs to no less than Continue Reading

5th Street Plaza

Posted by Cindy on October 7, 2013

Oct 072013

400 Block of 5th Street South of Market From 2003 to 2009, the sound of work crews was a constant in the South of Market area due to a $471 million undertaking to retrofit the western approach to the Bay Bridge. (This construction should not be confused with the replacement of the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge.) One result of the undertaking is called 5th Street Plaza. Photo Courtesy of Bay Bridge Info Seismic safety retrofit work on the West Approach — bordered by 5th Street and the Anchorage at Beale Street — involved completely removing and replacing this one-mile stretch Continue Reading

Give me your tired, your poor…

Posted by Cindy on September 16, 2013

Sep 162013

Welsh and 5th Street SOMA Thanks to a recent upgrade to this mural I can write about it. It was originally done in 1992 and has been so faded it was difficult to see. The mural is by Johanna Poethig who has been in the website so very many times. Staff members from the San Francisco Human Services Agency contacted her about restoring her mural, “To Cause to Remember,” better known as the Statue of Liberty mural. It’s located on the side of a homeless shelter in the city’s South of Market district. On the 40-foot by 80-foot wall, Lady Continue Reading

Hall of Justice

Posted by Cindy on August 24, 2013

Aug 242013

850 Bryant South of Market The Seal of San Francisco adopted in 1859 features a sailor and a miner flanking a shield that bears a steamer ship entering the Golden Gate. Above the shield a Phoenix foretold of the great fire to come in 1906 and below the shield, the city’s motto, ‘Gold in Peace, Iron in War.’ This particular seal graces the outside of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on Bryant Street and was created by my dear friend Spero Anargyros (1915-2004). Spero has appeared in this site before here. This monument began as a 42 ton block of Continue Reading

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