SOMA Financial Area – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Node by Roxy Paine

Posted by Cindy on May 14, 2023

May 142023

Yerba Buena/Moscone Muni Station

Node by Roxy Pain

Node is by New York artist Roxy Paine. Paine describes the eight-ton sculpture as an “enormous bio-industrial rhizomatic organism” and “an elegant line connecting earth to sky, people to underground systems and sculpture to city.”

I have been a huge fan of Roxy Paine’s and have seen many of his sculptures throughout the US, including Dendroids in Philadelphia. It is time San Francisco has a representation of his work.

Paine is a contemporary American artist best known for his tree-like structures he calls Dendroids. “I’m interested in taking entities that are organic and outside of the industrial realm, feeding them into an industrial system, and seeing what results from that force-feeding.” Paine was born in New York, NY, in 1966 and attended the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico before returning to New York to study at the Pratt Institute

The sculpture was funded through the Art Enrichment Ordinance at a cost of $1,456,000.

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

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

California Mission

Posted by Cindy on June 26, 2019

Jun 262019

Millenium Tower 301 Mission Street Public Entrance On the day I visited this piece it was hard to see as the restaurant has used the wall to stack extraneous furniture. The piece is titled California Mission and is made of Reinforced Fiberglass and Steel covered in a polyurethane paint. The artist, Yoran Wolberger (b. 1963, Tel Aviv, Israel) earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute’s New Genres Department. The artists statement regarding the piece: “The goals for this work were to inspire conversation about a complex Californian past, which encouraging tower residents to engage with one another about Continue Reading

Secret Garden

Posted by Cindy on October 22, 2018

Oct 222018

Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom Julie Chang is a San Francisco-based artist who, at the time of her selection, coincidentally lived within blocks of the Transbay Transit Center. Chang received her MFA at Stanford University in 2007. She also received an MFA Studio Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito in 2007. Chang’s 25,000 square foot terrazzo floor of the Grand Hall of the Transbay Terminal is meant to evoke a lush sunlit Victorian garden. Mined from local ecology, design elements include California poppies and jewel-toned hummingbirds highlighted by mirrored glass. Integrated into the design is a Continue Reading

Bus Jet Fountain

Posted by Cindy on October 2, 2018

Oct 022018

Transbay Terminal 2nd and Folsom Bay Area artist Ned Kahn has been in this site before. He lived in San Francisco for over 20 years, many of which were spent designing educational exhibits at the Exploratorium. He recently moved to Sebastopol in Sonoma County to expand his studies and laboratory space. Mr. Kahn’s work is a seamless synthesis of nature, art and technology. With extraordinary technical ability, he demonstrates the versatility of turbulent systems, such as the vortices of wind and water. His dazzlingly complex but comprehendible images of nature respond to viewers, conform to architectural structures, and reveal and Continue Reading

Words in White Light

Posted by Cindy on August 16, 2018

Aug 162018

Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom The largest piece of art in the Transbay Terminal is Jenny Holzer’s digital work “White Light,” which encircles the main atrium with 16-foot-high excerpts from historical and literary texts. All related to the Bay Area, they are spelled out in animated, pulsing LED configurations. Some of these texts are on view for no more than 20 seconds; others run as long as 90 minutes. The longest excerpt thus far, taken from a work by poet Edith Arnstein Jenkins, had to be broken into shorter elements — its full length is five hours and 20 minutes. 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.

The Band

Posted by Cindy on October 3, 2015

Oct 032015

535 Mission Street The Band by Anton Standteiner -2014 This piece is part of the City’s art requirement for new construction. The artwork is a sculptural composition by Anton Josef Standteiner entitled “The Band”, constructed of bronze, copper, and steel, situated at the corner of Minna Street and Shaw Alley. The piece consists of four separate sculptures representing members of a music group, with each sculpture measuring approximately 10 feet in height. Standteiner, along with his brother and father make up Mountain Forge, a metal working shop in Tahoe, California since the 1960s.

Thomas Houseago

Posted by Cindy on May 26, 2014

May 262014

Foundry Square 1st and Howard These two sculptures are by Thomas Houseago. The standing is titled Boy III and the one laying is Sleeping Boy. These are both white coated bronze. Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Planning Commission This information about the artist comes from the San Francisco Planning Commission. Thomas Houseago was born in Leeds, England in 1972. In 1989 he received a grant to attend a local art school called the Jacob Kramer Foundation College, and later continued his studies at Central St. Martin’s College of Art in London. After finishing college in London, Houseago attended De Continue Reading

Reflections

Posted by Cindy on April 21, 2014

Apr 212014

680 Folsom Street SOMA East of 5th This piece by Gordon Huether is titled Reflections. It is part of the 1% for Art program in San Francisco. According to his website Gordon Huether was born in Rochester, NY in 1959, to German immigrant parents. Having dual citizenship in Germany and the U.S., Huether has spent much time traveling between both countries. Huether learned art composition and appreciation at an early age from his father. In the course of his initial artistic explorations, Huether was resolved to create a lasting impact on the world around him through the creation of large-scale works Continue Reading

Marine Firemen’s Union

Posted by Cindy on April 14, 2014

Apr 142014

240 2nd Street SOMA East of 5th The Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association often referred to as the Marine Firemen’s Union is an American labor union of mariners working aboard U.S. flag vessels. The Marine Firemen’s Union is an affiliate union of Seafarers International Union.The union was formed in San Francisco, California in October, 1883 by firemen on coal-burning steamers. The building that holds this bas-relief was opened in 1957. Sculptor Olof Carl Malmquist designed the exterior bas-relief depicting marine firemen at work in a ship’s engine room. Olof Carl Malmquist (1894-1975) was born in Wallingford, Continue Reading

Underwriters Fire Patrol

Posted by Cindy on November 18, 2013

Nov 182013

147 Natoma SOMA/Financial District According to the History Department of the SFFD: On May 24, 1875, the City’s insurance companies joined together to organize and fund the Underwriters Fire Patrol. The UFP was like a fire department; it had its own firehouses, alarm system and firemen whose only task was salvage practices. The patrol worked at fires in conjunction with the SFFD. These firemen often worked below the fire floor and spread waterproof covers over merchandise threatened with water damage. They also saved and removed business records from the fire building. The insurance companies realized that if valuable items could be Continue Reading

Folded Circle Split

Posted by Cindy on April 12, 2013

Apr 122013

201 Spear Street SOMA Financial Area Folded Circle Split by Fletcher Benton – 1984 In walking through the lobby of 201 Spear Street I tripped upon this sculpture. The office building is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm M-F. Fletcher Benton (born February 25, 1931 Jackson, Ohio) is from San Francisco, California He graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. From 1964 to 1967 he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and taught as an associate professor and then professor of art at San Jose State University from 1967-1986. Fletcher Benton began his career as an abstractionist Continue Reading

Yerba Buena Gardens

Posted by Cindy on April 9, 2013

Apr 092013

Yerba Buena Gardens SOMA South of 5th Street Yerba Buena Gardens is a two-block public park that anchors the three sides of the Yerba Buena Center (YBC). The area got its name in 1835 for the “good herb”-mint-growing in the area. YBC is officially in the South of Market Area (SOMA). Jack London first called this area “south of the slot,” in reference to the cable-car tracks that ran down the center of Market Street. In 1847 when the city fathers laid out the SOMA, it was partitioned into lots twice the size of those in the north of market area. Continue Reading

Sumer #24 by Larry Bell

Posted by Cindy on April 6, 2013

Apr 062013

101 Second Street SOMA Financial District Sumer #24 by Larry Bell – Bronze Sumer #24 is a result of the POPOS program and the 1% for Art program of San Francisco. While it is viewable through the windows of the building it is available for viewing up close from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Larry Bell (born in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois) is a contemporary American artist and sculptor. He lives and works in Taos, New Mexico, and maintains a studio in Venice, California. From 1957 to 1959 he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles as Continue Reading

The Bell Telephone Building

Posted by Cindy on April 4, 2013

Apr 042013

140 New Montgomery SOMA South of 5th The building that stands at 140 New Montgomery was built in 1925 for the Pacific Telephone Company, part of the Bell System. It was, at the time, the first significant skyscraper in San Francisco, as well as the city’s first skyscraper in the Moderne style. According to the San Francisco Newsletter, published in 1925, “The interiors are entirely fireproof and are exceptionally well lighted. Its features include a cafeteria for women employees and an assembly hall seating 400 people.” It was also the first building to be wired so that each desk could Continue Reading

Globe by Topher Delaney

Posted by Cindy on March 22, 2013

Mar 222013

299 2nd Street Courtyard Marriott Hotel – 1st Floor SOMA – Financial District Globe by Topher Delaney – Bronze This piece is a result of the 1% for Art and POPOS programs in San Francisco. It is available for viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. – However, if you step into the Lobby you can view it through the window if the courtyard area is not open. Topher (Christopher) Delaney‘s forty year career as an environmental artist has encompassed a wide breadth of projects which focus on the exploration of our cultural interpretations of landscape architecture, public art and the Continue Reading

Anish Kapoor in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 22, 2013

Feb 222013

235 2nd Street SOMA Financial District Making the World Many by Anish Kapoor – Stainless Steel Making the World Many is part of the 1% for Arts and POPOS programs of San Francisco. While viewable through the building window, the piece is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F. Anish Kapoor, (born 12 March 1954) is an Indian-born British sculptor born in Mumbai. Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in Continue Reading