Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

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

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

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

Tapestry of Life: The Warp and Weft of Care

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2019

Jun 222019

Tapestry of Life: The Warp and Weft of Care

CPMC Cathedral Hill Campus1101 Van Ness Avenue Deanna Marsh began by photographing medical gauze and digitally manipulating the image. This horizontal sculpture is metal and kiln-formed glass intended to “echo the woven tapestry beneath, becoming abstract Petri dishes of our individual biology with circulatory flow and beauty in each glass ring”. Deanna Marsh earned her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design. After a successful career in graphic design, she went on to spend four years studying metalsmithing at Sierra College. Marsh works primarily with glass and metals, recycling wherever possible, and utilizes solar energy in her studio, to power Continue Reading

Conservatory of Flowers Photo Montage

Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2019

Jun 212019

CPMC Cathedral Hill Campus1101 Van Ness Avenue This photograph, by Stephan Bay, is a collage of CPMC employees. This Giclee on canvas was done in 2018. Stephen Bay is a landscape photographer. Born in Canada, Stephen studied engineering and computer science while learning photography on his own. After earning his Ph.D., Stephen moved to Silicon Valley to work as a data scientist. He married and became a US Citizen in 2008. In 2014 Stephen and his wife quit their jobs and began exploring the United States photographing as they went along. They eventually settled in San Diego where Stephen is Continue Reading

Split Button

Posted by Cindy on June 19, 2019

Jun 192019

University of Pennsylvania Front of the Van Pelt Library Split Button by Claes Oldenburg cost $100,000 with $37,500 coming from the University, $375,000 from NEA and the remaining raised through contributions. It is made of reinforced aluminum, weighs 5000 pounds and meashures 16 feet in diameter. A legend exists, mainly circulated by students at the University of Pennsylvania, that attributes The Button to the university’s founder, Benjamin Franklin. A monument of a seated Franklin stands near the sculpture; legend has it that when this man of considerable girth sat down, his vest button popped off and rolled across the Continue Reading

Paint Torch

Posted by Cindy on June 1, 2019

Jun 012019

Pittsburgh, PA Lenfest Plaza Installed in August 2011 at a daring 60-degree diagonal position, the 51-feet high Paint Torch sculpture by Claes Oldenburg in Lenfest Plaza honors the act of painting—from the classical masters in PAFA’s museum to the students in PAFA’s School of Fine Arts. Paint Torch, commissioned by PAFA, stands on the point of its handle in a gravity-defying gesture. Nearby on the plaza floor is a six-foot high “glob” of paint, part of which the brush has lifted into the sky in a depiction of the act of painting a picture. The “glob” and “blip” at the tip of the brush Continue Reading

Covenant by Alex Liberman

Posted by Cindy on May 30, 2019

May 302019

University of Pennsylvania Locust Walk Weighing over 25 tons, Covenant, the creation of Alexander Liberman (1912-1999) was commissioned as part of the university’s fulfillment of the Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art requirement. Alexander Liberman’s sculpture has been described as so “wildly asymmetrical” that every change in the viewer’s angle of perception alters the apparent axes. During his long career, his sculpture became increasingly monumental, and he characterized his larger works as a kind of “free architecture” that should have the impact of a temple or cathedral. In Covenant Liberman specifically intended to convey a feeling of unity and spiritual participation. The installation Continue Reading

Grumman Greenhouse

Posted by Cindy on May 26, 2019

May 262019

Grumman Greenhouse Lenfest Plaza This crashed and artfully crumpled full-size airplane is titled “Grumman Greenhouse,”. The creation of 27-year-old Jordan Griska was installed in 2011. The plane is a U.S. Navy Grumman Tracker S-2E, built in 1962. It flew from aircraft carriers. Mothballed in the 1980s, it had a second career helping to fight forest fires in California. Jordan bought it on eBay for about the same price as a cheap used car. Inspired by origami, Jordan folded the Grumman to look like it had nose-dived into the ground. He then replaced its cockpit innards with a working greenhouse, lit Continue Reading

WFT at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Posted by Cindy on May 21, 2019

May 212019

Polk Street Between Hayes and Grove Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth’s is the artist behind this neon work on the western side of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Kosuth’s work was selected by the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) in 2015, to be the first public art project funded through the Public Art Trust with the contribution made by The Emerald Fund. The Emerald Fund was responsible for two residential buildings that have views of this art piece. The Public Art Trust provides private developers with projects in various zoning districts options regarding the use of their 1%-for-art requirement. Developers may Continue Reading

“Modern and Ancient Science” by Gordon Langdon

Posted by Cindy on May 6, 2019

May 062019

“Modern and Ancient Science” by Gordon Langdon

George Washington High School 600 32nd Ave Over the door to the library at George Washington High School is this Gordon Langdon mural titled Modern and Ancient Science. On the left is Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Robert Andrews Millikan, who is recognized for measuring the elementary electronic charge. The center panel, apparently, represents Academy Award-winning actress Claudette Colbert, a popular French-born American actress of the 20s and 30s. Ancient Science is shown on the right. Above you can better see the Pythagorean Theorem in a book sitting above Claudette Colbert. Gordon Langdon was born in San Francisco, on March 9, 1910. Continue Reading

“Advancement of Learning through the Printing Press” by Lucien Labaudt

Posted by Cindy on May 3, 2019

May 032019

"Advancement of Learning through the Printing Press" by Lucien Labaudt

George Washington High School 600 32nd Avenue This mural, by Lucien Labaudt resides on the east wall of the library at George Washington High School it was completed in 1936 as part of the WPA. In this mural you will find such notables as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Junipero Serra, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Alva Edison, and Edgar Allan Poe. Labaut’s intent was to give an expression of mankind’s knowledge through the printed word by showing portraits of literary men, scientists, statesmen, and religious teachers, all grouped, with symbolic attributes surrounding the central figure of Gutenberg, patron saint of printed books. * Continue Reading

“Contemporary Education” by Ralph Stockpole

Posted by Cindy on May 1, 2019

May 012019

"Contemporary Education" by Ralph Stockpole

George Washington High Schoool 600 32nd Street Library Contemporary Education by Ralph Stackpole resides on the west wall of the library at George Washington High School. It was painted in 1936 as part of the WPA and the New Deal. Newspaper accounts at the time state that Stackpole was “interpreting contemporary education in the American high schools.” Ralph Stackpole(1885-1973) Stackpole grew up in Oregon and came to San Francisco after the turn of the century. He was a sculptor, muralist, etcher, and teacher and was one of the cities leady artists during the 1920s and 30s. He was already quite Continue Reading

“Athletics” by Sargent Johnson

Posted by Cindy on April 30, 2019

Apr 302019

George Washington High School 600 32nd Avenue Football Field Originally awarded to San Francisco artist Beniamino Bufano, the commission for this work went to Sargent Johnson after Bufano was fired by the WPA when he proposed to use the Marxist labor leader Harry Bridges as a model in his iteration for the frieze. This 1942 Federal Arts Project gave Johnson the chance that he needed to express himself in new materials, and allowed him to work on a massive scale in well-equipped studios. This giant sculpture was done in 3 by 4-foot panels so that it could be transferred from Continue Reading

Dewey Crumpler at George Washington High School

Posted by Cindy on April 28, 2019

Apr 282019

Dewey Crumpler at George Washington High School

George Washington High School 600 32nd Avenue This three panel mural by Dewey Crumpler is a direct response to the 1960s controversy over the Life of Washington murals. However, even these stirred controversy in their day, not with the subject, but with the artist. The Art Commission, and the students had far different opinions as to the qualifications of the chosen artist. It is a fascinating story which you can read HERE in Crumplers own words. In 1993 Crumpler wrote this about his murals: “In 1966 the student wing of the Black Panther Party saw some murals in the hallways Continue Reading

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