16th and Harrison
Mission District / SOMA
Mission Creek Mosaic Mural
Ceramic tile and mirror mosaic, 15 ft. x 8.5 ft.
Funding provided by Potrero Nuevo Fund administered by New Langton Arts.
Avenida del Rio tile mural marks one end of what is hoped to be the Mission Creek Bikeway and Greenbelt.
The bikeway will follow the path of the now-buried creek. When the Forty-Niners arrived, they filled the creek in and built a railroad on top. Now what remains is a curved urban anomaly of a street cutting through the San Francisco street grid. The trail would follow this scar and bring life and activity to the area, and connect the Mission to Mission Bay once again.The Mission Creek Bikeway will begin at 16th and Harrison Streets, winding around the nose of Potrero Hill, crossing 7th Street and the Caltrain tracks, continuing along the south side of the Mission Creek Channel and connecting with the new Giants stadium, and, of course, the waterfront. A spur of the bikeway will extend from the 8th and Townsend traffic circle along Townsend Street, connecting with the Caltrain station, where a BikeStation is also being planned.
THE VISION:
The Bikeway will reclaim much-needed open space, creating space for recreation, vegetation, and an opportunity to enhance public awareness of the environment. The Mission Creek Bikeway will also serve as a critical transportation link in a city where 1 of 25 adults relies on a bicycle for daily commuting. With one end in the Mission area — a densely populated neighborhood popular among bicyclists — and the other in South of Market (SOMA) — a quickly changing area begging for greater transportation choices, the Bikeway bridges an important gap in the city’s Bicycle Network. Once completed, a person will be able to ride a bike from most locations in the Mission district to most locations downtown and in SOMA and Mission Bay almost entirely on comfortable, convenient bike paths and bike lanes.
Artists for this mosaic were Lillian Sizemore and Laurel True.
Lillian Sizemore has studied mosaics at the prestigious Studio Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, Art History at the Universita de Bolgna and holds degrees in Fine Art and Italian from Indiana University. As a professional artist, educator and independent scholar, she is faculty at the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland and a visiting artist as the Getty Villa, in Los Angeles, The Legion of Honor in San Francisco and The Field Museum in Chicago.
Laurel True is an artist and educator specializing in mixed media, glass and ceramic mosaic and public art. She received her BA in African Art and Cultures and has studied at Studio Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, Universite Chiek Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, Parsons School of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago. True is the co- founder of the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, CA and has fostered education in the mosaic arts through teaching and lecturing around the world.
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