Gates – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Gates of Kezar Stadium

Posted by Cindy on April 3, 2018

Apr 032018

Kezar Stadium
Frederick Street Entrance

These gates stand at the entry to Kezar stadium and were installed in 1991. There are 22 of them around the stadium

Kezar Stadium has a long history in the City of San Francisco, but much of its original elements no longer remain.

The gates were purchased by the San Francisco Arts Commission for $99,825 and were the product of designer Alan Fleming.

According to the artist the final design is evocative of the merging of the natural and the man made, the hard edge and the soft edge, the straight line and the curved, that is representative of the park as a whole. The gates are 10-12 feet in height, 7-16 feet in width. Fabricated in galvanized steel, the gates were to be painted dark green.

Fleming holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Michigan State University and a Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley. He is a licensed architect and general contractor.

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 for his work was matched by his commitment to ensuring that people from all walks of life had access to parks and open space. It was these commitments that lead to his appointment by Governor Jerry Brown as Commissioner of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission in 1978.

The Landscape architect on the project were Sarah Sutton and Chris Kukula of Wolfe Mason and Associates.

The Visitacion Valley Greenway is composed of a linear series of six publicly owned parcels (each a block long), cutting a swath through the heart of Visitacion Valley. Over a period of 16 years it has been developed by the members of the Visitacion Valley Greenway Project in partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (SFRPD) and the Trust for Public Land. Originally a PUC easement, it took 5 years of negotiations to gain permission to build the Greenway. The Visitacion Valley Greenway is a Parks Partner of the San Francisco Parks Trust.

Visitation Valley Greenway would never have been possible without the tireless effort of artists Fran Martin, Anne Seeman and Jim Growden.

Fran Martin, Design Coordinator for Visitacion Valley Greenway was responsible for the tile work.

Fran holds an MA in art and worked as a sculptor until 1995. In 1994 she began working full time as a co-ordinator of the Visitation Valley Greenway Project.

Jim Growden was the designer for the entry gates and fencing.

Jim received an M.A. in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972. Jim worked as a sculptor of wood and steel, for 25 in San Francisco. In 1993 he moved to Visitacion Valley where he became involved with the Visitacion Valley Greenway.

Jim Growden has created 8 of the Greenway’s 12 signature gates and finials, as well as the cut steel images of native animals and plants seen at the Native Plant Garden, as well as on Leland Avenue.

Fran Martin created 2 of the Greenway’s gates, weir walls, tile work and patios with columns sites.

The Gates of Cayuga Playground

Posted by Cindy on October 30, 2013

Oct 302013

End of Cayuga Avenue at Naglee Avenue
Under the Bart Train and The 280 Freeway
Outer Mission

Cayuga Playground is once again open. Your first greeting is the painted still fence, titled Cayuga Portal. Through the City’s two-percent-for-art program, the SFAC commissioned artist Eric Powell to create two new decorative gates for the park. The design for the main entry gateway features vignettes drawn from Braceros’s sculptures linked together by images of plants and leaves that echo the park’s lush plant life. The gates were commissioned for $78,000 in the 2009 City Budget, Cultural Affairs Department.

Berkeley artist Eric Powell studied painting, drawing, and sculpture at California College of Arts & Crafts.

On his website his artist statement sums up so well the love-hate relationship most every artist goes through:

“From the beginning of my career as a metal artist in 1989, I had the clear and tenacious intention of having my work be a direct outcome and expression of my life experience, where life and work were not in two separate worlds. I wanted to love what I do, to have my work be a developmental experience and a forum for growth and expansion for all involved. In this culture such a notion is often seen as naïve, and indeed some naivety is required.

The work I have done and the relationships and business around it have certainly comprised a rich and growth-oriented journey. At times I would say that the whole thing is a dream come true and at other times I would say ‘don’t try this at home or anywhere else’. No matter how much experience or schooling or knowledge one has, most of what is needed has to be discovered or invented along the way. And I would not have it any other way.

The studio is a laboratory, a workshop and a factory. It is a place to learn and teach and to refine and deepen the sacred act of making something with ones’ own out of steel that ‘works’ aesthetically, functionally and in its’ craftsmanship. The studio itself is part of the work; it is a constantly changing work in progress. My collection of metal and other ‘magic’ objects (‘magic’ being in the mind of the beholder) is part and parcel of the studio atmosphere. I have been greatly enriched by viewing, studying and hearing the work of other creative people.

I felt early on that I wanted to add to the ‘soup’ of this long and rich lineage. It is not a matter of feeling qualified to add my part; it is a matter of not accepting that I am not qualified. Much of the art and music that I most admire, upon some investigation, sprung from this sensibility; from a place of receptivity. This is where the underground reservoir can be accessed. It is sometimes difficult to maintain this state of mind. But if the internal fire is burning, we don’t have much of a choice. ”

The entry gate off of Alemany Blvd.