Visitacion Valley – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Full Circles

Posted by Cindy on March 4, 2019

Mar 042019

Visitation Branch Library
201 Leland Avenue

Full Circles by Ilana Spector and Mark Grieve – 2011

This piece consists of interlocking steel hoops embellished with recycled bicycle gears and, according to Grieve, is intended to evoke a “universe of possibilities.”

Mark Grieve (1965-) is a contemporary American artist. He studied painting and drawing at the San Francisco Art Institute and the College of Marin and apprenticed in Japanese ceramics in the Hamada lineage. He practices in a variety of media including found objects and large metal sculpture as well as site-specific installations, performance, and public art.

Ilana Spector has a background in civics and law and brings a multidisciplinary approach to creating public artwork. She studied government and diplomacy, attending the London School of Economics and graduated from Georgetown University before attending UCLA School of Law. Ms. Spector joined Mr. Grieve in 2006 to complete an award-winning public sculpture. She studied drawing and painting at the College of Marin.

This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission for $75,000.

Hans Shiller Plaza

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2014

Aug 272014

Corner of Peabody and Leland Visitation Valley Opening in March 2001, Hans Schiller Plaza was the first Visitacion Valley Greenway site to be completed. Construction was supervised by the Trust for Public Land with funding from the Columbia Foundation founded by the late Madeleine Haas Russell. The gift was made in memory of her friend Hans J. Schiller. Hans J. Schiller was a Bay Area architect and environmental activist. Mr. Schiller’ s career spanned more than 50 years. Schiller settled in the Bay Area in the 1940s and established the firm, Hans J. Schiller Associates, in Mill Valley. Schiller’s passion Continue Reading

Benny Bufano in the Sunnydale Projects

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2012

Dec 122012

1654 Sunnydale Visitacion Valley This Beniamino Bufano statue is of a Bear over the Head of Peace. It was done somewhere around 1935-1940 and stands in front of the Community Center at the Sunnydale Projects. Bufano was a prolific sculptor in his time and his work can be found all over San Francisco. Sunnydale was built in the 1940’s as a means to house military personnel and their families, it was later bought by the city of San Francisco and converted to a low-income housing project. The Housing Authority was created in 1938 to help poor families build better lives Continue Reading

Mosaic Planter at Beautiful McLaren Park

Posted by Cindy on December 5, 2012

Dec 052012

Mosaic Planter at Beautiful McLaren Park

McNab Lake Wayland and University Street John McLaren Park Monica Treanor was educated in Trinity college, Dublin, Ireland where she graduated with a PhD in Environmental Sciences. She has worked as an ecologist on all seven continents. Her experiences stretch from the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, living on a uninhabited island to the frozen Antarctica where she was the ecologist on board a tall ship expedition. Monica’s passion for the environment and her extensive knowledge of the fine, intricate details of nature are delightfully exposed in her work as a mosaic artist. She first began her training as an apprentice Continue Reading

Philosophers Walk on the Top of the World

Posted by Cindy on November 22, 2012

Nov 222012

Philosophers Walk on the Top of the World

John McLaren Park Mansell Drive and John F. Shelley Drive Excelsior and Visitacion Valley This is the view towards downtown San Francisco from John McLaren Park. Named for John McLaren, the superintendent of Golden Gate Park from 1887 to 1943, it is the second largest park in the city, after Golden Gate Park. Within McLaren Park’s 312 acres are lawns and planted gardens, a lake and a reservoir, a golf course, picnic areas, playgrounds, baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, a soccer field, dog play areas, and an amphitheater. Rich in native plants and animals, the park Continue Reading

Visitacion Valley Community Center

Posted by Cindy on October 6, 2011

Oct 062011

243 Leland Avenue Visitacion Valley Community Center Artist: Victor Mario Zaballa A prolific and fascinating artist Victor Zaballa is an Aztec originally trained in aeronautical engineering in Mexico City. He has lived and worked in San Francisco for a number of years where he is a popular and respected member of the artist community. He works in every medium including cut paper, painting, tile, steel, wood, and wire sculpture, puppet theater, and music composition, performance and musical instrument invention and construction. His performing group “Obsidian Songs,” has been heard in numerous venues throughout California. He has had a kidney transplant and Continue Reading

Fire Station #44

Posted by Cindy on October 5, 2011

Oct 052011

Fire Station #44 Formerly #47 1298 Girard Street This piece is titled “Diagonal Relief” by Elizabeth Saltos. According to Elizabeth she creates sculpture from a continually evolving series of geometric configurations using a visual alphabet of shape, color and surface in dialogue with its architectural environs. This piece is on Firehouse #44. It was originally Firehouse #47 and is the oldest firehouse in the City of San Francisco still in use. The portion with the sculpture is a new section built in 1973. The older side was completed and ready to be occupied in 1913. The two-story brick building, designed by John Reid Continue Reading

Viscitation Valley – Rebar Art Consortium

Posted by Cindy on June 6, 2011

Jun 062011

Viscitation Valley - Rebar Art Consortium

Corner of Leland Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard – Viscitation Valley – San Francisco “Sprouting” from the sidewalk like stalks of organically grown street furniture, Street Life is a large-scale sculpture composed of surplus parking meter heads, painted dark orange, attached to tall, arcing steel poles. The sculpture marks the gateway to the entrance of what locals refer to as “downtown” Visitacion Valley. The installation is by a team of artists called Rebar. According to Rebar founder Matthew Passmore, “Street Life encourages viewers to imagine new possibilities for automobile infrastructure that is outmoded. The street furnishings of today may well be the Continue Reading