United Nations Plaza Fountain - A Troubled Birth

Fulton and Market, Aug 1964. Source: Open SF History

Earlier entry: United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction (June 22, 2023)

The United Nations Plaza Fountain has its origins in the early 1960s with a grander redesign strategy for Market Street.  The Market Street Development Project, a group of businessmen working with the San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association (SPUR), commissioned the study What to Do About Market Street (1962). They assigned themselves the "task of changing Market St. from a shabby main stem into a beautiful boulevard second to none."  Lawrence Halprin and Associates contributed a chapter in this document which contained the earliest proposal to Market Street with the Civic Center by opening up Fulton Street to create the space that became UN Plaza.

This work was followed up with a Market Street Design Task Force that began looking at the addition of the underground transit system that would become MUNI and BART.  Their 1965 report proposed narrowing Market Street, expanding sidewalk dimensions and creating a series of plazas.  This included closing Fulton Street from Market Street to Hyde Street to create a space tentatively named the Fulton Plaza or the Fulton Street Mall.  In late 1967 the firms of Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke rendered this plan and presented it to the Board of Supervisors. This included the formal proposal to close Leavenworth Street between McAllister and Fulton Streets and Fulton Street between Market and Hyde Streets thus creating the footprint for a future plaza.  Mayor Joseph L. Alioto proposed naming it United Nations Plaza in 1970.

Model showing plans for park at United Nations Plaza. Source: San Francisco Historic Photograph Collection

By that time Lawrence Halprin's firm had joined Mario Ciampi's and John Carl Warnecke's firm to form the Market Street Joint Venture Architects. This organization would create the design for all of Market Street, its plazas and its transit stations.  According Pacheco, Halprin had conceived the original design of the United Nations Plaza fountain in 1962 during his "Modernist period." Hirsch describes Halprin's conception of United Nations Plaza being "dominated by a major sculpture" that would "direct views, ceremonial processions or parade events off Market Street and toward City Hall."

One of the earliest reactions to the design of the fountain for UN Plaza came at its unveiling in December 1970 at a San Francisco Art Commission meeting. Commission president, architect Ernest Born, generally praised the design of the Plaza, however, he excoriated Halprin's fountain:

This is a flamboyant example of a designer's ego. The fountain is a gross intrusion of a personal idea into a public space. It's hypocrisy. Whoever designed this wasn't thinking about the people who are going to use it. He was only thinking of himself. Why does this thing have to be so vulgar?

Model showing plans for fountain in United Nations Plaza. Source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Born was reacting to Halprin's initial very large design that dwarfed the eventual final design.

The negative feedback continued the following year. In May 1971, the Civic Design Committee of the Art Commission unanimously asserted that Halprin's fountain was "not suitable." Art Commissioner and future San Francisco supervisor Thomas Hsieh complained:

We are very unhappy about this... It is a very fine design for a shopping center, but it is totally disproportionate in this area... The design just has nothing to do with Market Street and nothing to do with Civic Center. The designer just doesn't seem to respond to criticism or suggestion.

Columnist Jack Rosenbaum reported that by mid-1970 the Art Commission continued the discussion about the fountain for several sessions and wanted to see it redesigned.  Nevertheless, in December 1971 the full Art Commission voted to approve the broad Phase 1 of the Market Street design plan, with artists Ruth Asawa and Antonio Sotomayor (who described the fountain as "troughs for horses") voting against it.

Halprin's fountain itself came to a final vote in March 1974 when the commissioners in attendance voted it down by 4 to 3. The vote was changed to 4 to 4 when the Commission chairman, who was only supposed to be allowed to vote to break a tie, cast an affirmative to make the result a tie.  This created an opportunity for a second vote.  A few weeks later the Art Commission reconvened to  approve the fountain by 6 to 4.  All of the "no" votes against came from members of the commissions's Visual Arts Committee - Ruth Asawa, Anita Martinez, Antonio Sotomayor and Ray Taliaferro.  

Ruth Asawa summed of the change of course: "We voted in good faith March 4 and then they 'imported' some people to vote, some people who are there only when it is political and the fountain was approved." There was apparently behind the scenes pressure that allowed Halprin's design to prevail, probably coming from the influence of the three firms of the Market Street Joint Venture Architects and business interests wanting to assure a smooth Market Street reconstruction.

"We could be making a fortune building fountains in San Francisco"

Editorial cartoon by Ken Alexander showing prisoners breaking rocks under armed guard, source: San Francisco Examiner March 24, 1974

Public opinion did not favor the fountain. Storm clouds quickly formed.  In 1971 the fountain's cost had been estimated at $500,000. By the 1974 the actual cost had risen to $1,150,000 due to inflation and "more precise pricing." A San Francisco Examiner editorial called for scaling back the project; Supervisor Quentin Kopp explored placing a "statement of policy" opposing the fountain on the June 1974 ballot.  Five other supervisors joined him as co-sponsors. The ballot statement would have read:  

Should a fountain, constructed of granite slabs and estimated by the Department of Public Works bureau to cost $1,150,000, be built in United Nations Plaza on Market Street at the juncture of Leavenworth and Fulton Streets?

He fulminated that Halprin's fountain was "an architectural travesty" and "an environmental insult." Reacting to this public opinion, Art Commissioner Edward Callanan, an ex-officio member as President of the Library Commission, defended the fountain, remarking that "The tidal wave of water motion over the blocks will be pleasing to people." Commissioner Loris De Grazia defended her decision: "My vote stands for what I believed in... Now let's get on with completing the project."

Bowing to this pressure, the Art Commission reconvened for a special meeting lasting three minutes voting 6 to 2 to reverse their March 18 vote. Supervisor Kopp backed down and removed his ballot issue. Commissioner Ray Taliaferro proposed using the allocated funds for local artists and suggested that a competition might be held. Looking back it's apparent that the Lawrence Halprin had long had plans for this location and had the influence of the Market Street Joint Venture Architects and other political forces behind him. There would be not be any search for an alternative design or designer.

A year later, Halprin submitted a scaled back fountain design that that he presented to the Art Commission on April 24, 1975. Former commissioner Ernest Born, who had earlier been an outspoken opponent of the fountain, assisted Halprin in his presentation. The price tag remained at $1,200,000 for this more modest project. The design included a new element -- a 18 foot obelisk made of polished black granite in front.

source: The San Francisco Chronicle April 22, 1975

This time the Art Commission approved by a vote of 8 to 2 (Ruth Asawa and Sotomayor continued their opposition).  Ruth Asawa's closing comment was "$1.2 million is a lot of money to spend on just one thing."

After its final approval, columnist Herb Caen couldn't resist getting another dig in at the fountain, approvingly quoting Eleanor Rossi Crabtree, the daughter of former Mayor Angelo Rossi, who described the "fountain of slabs" as "Holy Cross cemetery with the sprinklers on."

The City planned to have the fountain complete to coincide with with the nation's Bicentennial celebration in July of 1965.

Bibliography

"Art Board Favors Mountain Fountain," San Francisco Examiner March 19, 1974.

Bartlett, Robert, "S.F. to Vote on Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 26, 1974.

Caen, Herb, "3-dot Journalism Spoken Here," San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1975

City & County of San Francisco, Market Street Design Task Force. Market Street Development: An Analysis (The Task Force, 1965).

"Commission Approves $1.2 Million Fountain," San Francisco Examiner April 22, 1975.

Cone, Russ, "Two-week Deadline on Market St. Face-lift," San Francisco Examiner November 7, 1967.

Cooney, William, "Fuss Over S.F. Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 25, 1974.

Craib, Ralph, "New Fountain Vetoed: 'Too Blocky,' Says Art Committee," San Francisco Chronicle May 8, 1971.

"Divided Verdict on Plazas," San Francisco Chronicle December 22, 1970.

Hirsch, Alison Bick., City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America (University of Minnesota Press, 2014).

Kusserow, H.W., "BART Hit on 'Wrong Foot'," San Francisco Examiner December 22, 1970.

Lindsay, Georgia. "Bricks, branding, and the everyday: Defining greatness at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco." Archnet-International Journal of Architectural Research, 2017.

Livingston and Blayney, What to Do about Market Street: Prospectus for A Development Program, prepared for the Market Street Development Project (Livingston and Blayney, 1962).

Mario J. Ciampi and Associates & John Carl Warnecke and Associates, Market Street Development Plan, Report No. 3: Street and Sidewalk Design Proposals (The Associates, 1965).

"Market St. Renovation Heads Picked," San Francisco Examiner December 20, 1962.

"Mayor Wants to Name BART Plaza for U.N.," San Francisco Chronicle October 24, 1970.

Minutes of the Arts Commission of the City and County of San Francisco (The Commission, 1970-1975).

"New Design for U.N. Fountain," The San Francisco Progress April 16, 1975.

"The New U.N. Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle April 22, 1975.

"Plaza Fountain Plans Rejected," San Francisco Chronicle April 4, 1974.

Rosenbaum, Jack, "Scene Shifting," San Francisco Examiner May 4, 1971.

"S.F. Fountain Costs Double," San Francisco Chronicle March 21, 1974.

"Too Costly," San Francisco Examiner March 25, 1974.

"U.N. Fountain May Go," The San Francisco Progress April 3, 1974.

"U.N. Plaza Fountain Design Dies," The San Francisco Progress April 5, 1974.

Waugh, Dexter, "UN Plaza Wins by Full House in Arts Board," San Francisco Examiner November 2, 1971.

Zane, Maitland, "A Debate Over Art for U.N. Plaza," San Francisco Chronicle March 30, 1974

United Nations Plaza Fountain - A Troubled Life

 

source: "Question Man - What is a San Francisco Eyesore?" San Francisco Chronicle January 14, 1980

The fountain at the United Nations plaza is cement. Tons of cement are not pretty. (Jannette Anderson, 1980).

Construction of the fountain had not yet begun when United Nations Plaza was dedicated in June 1975, the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco.  The fountain itself was dedicated on April 25, 1977, but it was a dry event -- water was not scheduled to flow until July.  Newspaper articles through 1978 noted the continued malfunctioning of the valves that controlled the water spray.

The only time the United Nations Plaza fountain appears to have been fully functional was in early 1979.  It provided a very different experience than we get today.

image source: San Francisco Examiner February 6, 1979

A 1979 photo shows a gush of water like we never see today. A San Francisco Examiner article accompanying accompanying the photo provides an explanation of the fountain's operation from Don Carter, who along with Angela Danadjieva was principal-charge of the project for the Halprin firm.    

He explained that the fountain alternated between periods of calm, periods of jacuzzi-like waves and a climax he called the "jets cycle" when it erupted like a 25 foot high geyser.  When the weather was too windy, these water intensive events would be shut down by automatic computer control. One of the geyser events was coordinated with curtain times at the adjoining Orpheum Theater. During some of the "low tide" periods the water level dropped 30 inches from the peak water level and allowed people to walk inside the dried out structure. Carter expressed a hope that children would wade in the fountain on warm days.

While some observers were delighted by the variety and periodicity of the fountain's activity, others were puzzled by it.  According to one denizen of the plaza: "When the spray isn't working, people think its broken. The sprays only operate three times a day."  Given the common windy conditions in the plaza, it likely operated less than that.  The equipment that created these effects fell into disrepair in the early 1980s, eliminating the "earth-tides" symbolism that formed a significant part of Halprin's vision.

The San Francisco Chronicle's famed architecture writer Allan Temko was no fan of the fountain. He called it a "pomposity of ... madly assembled granite." He also lamented that "for the $2 million this fountain cost we could have bought four or five Henry Moores, to name a sculptor who might have dome justice to the grand entry to the Civic Center."

It was not long before the fountain became a casualty of the neighborhood's street life.  In mid-1979, Kevin Starr, San Francisco City Librarian from 1973 to 1976 and later a San Francisco Examiner columnist, wrote an erudite put-down of the fountain entitled a "$1.5 Million Pig Pen" He wrote scathingly of the crowd surrounding it.

The noise (every other word referred to an act of incest) came from a dozen or so men holding confabulation on the corner near the fountain. They were drinking from bottles and cans wrapped in brown paper bags, and they were shouting to each other in cacophonous discourse.

Garbage and filth surround the fountain. I stepped gingerly around wads of gum, cigarette butts, vomit, a half-eaten fly-infested turkey drumstick, flattened beer cans and empty bottles. I noted three empty bottles of Thunderbird, two empty bottles of Franzia Brothers white port and one bottle of Night Train Express pear wine.

Great granite blocks rise in a certain sculptured disorderliness that is actually a pyramidal order. From various points water rushes down the granite to a pool below, putting the fountain into dramatic motion. The flow of water came up against a barrier of refuse, however, where it was supposed to flow most dramatically out of sight--a dam of beer cans, wet paper and broken glass, and a horrible primeval compost ooze composed of God-knows-what.

The UN fountain is not even a year old, but already heavy graffiti mars many of its noble facades. The stones facing Leavenworth Street are the most heavily defaced with scores of insipid or obscene scratchings.

Starr held no objection to the fountain itself, but to the fountain within its societal environment. He lamented that the "very symbolic center of our city, the UN Plaza at Civic Center, is a miasma of filth and defacement." When Janette Anderson, at the top of this entry, identified the fountain as a "public eyesore" and misidentified it as being constructed from ugly cement, her opinion was probably formed as someone who did not want to hang around to appreciate it.

The ensuing years brought small adjustment to the plaza -- the removal of benches, engraving in the sidewalks commemorating the 40th anniversary of the United Nation's founding.  But the fountain remained an issue.  When it wasn't fenced off it attracted homeless bathers and drug users.  Chronicle writer Ilene Lelchuk reported that "The spraying fountain in San Francisco's United Nations Plaza is used as a toilet, bathtub and crack den more often than a soothing place to relax and read a book." Because they"giving up on fishing hypodermic needles and human feces out of the fountain," the Department of Public Works surrounded it with a temporary barrier.

United Nations Plaza Fountain with temporary chained barrier and "No Trespassing" sign (source: Hirsch, 2005)

In 2005 the fountain received a short respite when the plaza was spruced up for the the celebration of World Environment Days recognizing the 60th anniversary of the UN Charter in San Francisco. "Attractive" bollards and chains were erected to discourage bathing. Then Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered an increased police presence to prevent drug use and other antisocial behavior. He also intended United Nations Plaza more "active" by using it as a performance space and bringing in food trucks.

UN Plaza Fountain during 2005 World Environment Day celebration with United Nations Flags (image source: Hinshaw, 2015)

In 2003, John King, Allan Temko's successor at the San Francisco Chronicle, pronounced that "as good as Halprin is, this fountain hasn't stood the test of time." The granite structure did not cohere with its surroundings in the plaza and formed an obstacle to pedestrian flow to Leavenworth Street at the north.

1986, architectural historian Gray Brechin wrote a review of a 70th birthday exhibition for Lawrence Halprin given at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Here he discussed the many successful projects on display, however, he also cited a "necessary but tragic omission": Halprin's work on San Francisco's Market Street beautification project in collaboration with Mario Ciampi and John Carl Warnecke in the 1960s and 1970s.

He put his finger on the larger problem with their vision.

Market's [Market Street's] problems supersede design and maintenance. In the fifteen years since the beautification was completed, American society has undergone vast changes that Halprin and Ciampi could not anticipate. Market was designed for a stable, upscale retail base and middle-class consumers, but business was driven out by the long process of construction, and the boulevard has now surrendered to the dereliction, addiction and insanity that have grown yearly more noticeable and controllable. The usual attempted solution has been to put more cops on the beat, but symptoms indicate a problem that designers are helpless to correct and in some cases have worsened.

These designers, and one assumes city leaders, aspired to transform Market Street according to their aspirations, to make it a vital, thriving prosperous destination and a source of civic pride. The interval of time between the formation of this vision (circa 1960) and its realization (mid-1970s) saw many social changes nationally and locally.

Brechin continued:

It is impossible to evaluate Halpin's Hallidie and UN Plazas apart from the poverty they collect and contain. In UN Plaza at the Civic Center, the derelicts sun and prowl through Halprin's usually dry fountain. These plazas remind me of ragged spectators in the Roman ruins, or of Blade Runner.

Halprin defended and fought for the vision of his fountain until his death in 2009.  He didn't question his design. Instead he insisted that the city leaders should prevent the antisocial behavior from happening in the first place. "I'm not angry at the homeless," he said. "I'm angry at the people who let them not act civilly."

United Nations Plaza and its fountain continue to challenge San Francisco's leaders and its government.

Previous entries:

"United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction" (June 22, 2023)

"United Nations Plaza Fountain: A Troubled Birth" (August 1, 2023)

Bibliography: 

(Many of the articles can be found in the Newspaper Clipping File folder for "United Nations Plaza")

Adams, Gerald, "Another City Fountain Dispute Is Bubbling Up," San Francisco Examiner February 6, 1979.

Better Market Street Project EIR Appendix 6: Cultural Resources Supporting Information (San Francisco Department of Public Works, [2016]).

Brechin, Gray, "Choreographer of Space," San Francisco Focus August 1986.

"Commission Approves $1.2 Million Fountain," San Francisco Examiner April 22, 1975.

Cone, Russ, "Valve Makes A Fountain of A Fiasco at UN Plaza," San Francisco Examiner March 17, 1978.

Day, Linda, "Lawrence Halprin and the Public Realm: Can the United Nations Plaza Unite San Franciscans?," Planetizen July 20, 2017. 

Fagan, Kevin, "U.N. Plaza Finally Getting New Look," San Francisco Chronicle March 19, 2005

Hinshaw, Mark, "Halprin Fountain Finds New Life," Landscape Architecture October 2005 [available through JStor].

Hirsch, Alison Bick, "The Fate of Lawrence Halpin's Public Spaces: Three Case Studies," Masters Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2005.

King, John, "A Vision Revision: U.N. Plaza Plan Lacks Attractions for Visitors," San Francisco Chronicle May 6, 2003.

Lelchuk, Ilene, "U.N. Plaza's Architect to Fight Redesign," San Francisco Chronicle April 18, 2003.

Lelchuk, Ilene, "City Give up on U.N. Plaza Fountain," San Francisco Chronicle March 12, 2003.

Pacheco, Antonio, "Another Halprin-designed plaza could be on the chopping block, this time in San Francisco," The Architects Notebook May 30, 2018

Robinson, Gene, "U.N.'s Party in Its Plaza" San Francisco Chronicle June 27, 1975.

Stack, Peter, "A Brainy Fountain Is Dedicated," San Francisco Chronicle April 26, 1977.

Starr, Kevin, "$1.5 Million Pig Pen," San Francisco Examiner June 12, 1979.

Starr, Kevin, "Our Public Space Crisis," San Francisco Examiner June 13, 1979.

Temko, Allan, "The 'New' Market Street -- An Unfulfilled Promise," San Francisco Chronicle March 21, 1979.

Waugh, Dexter, "U.N. Plaza Stirs Market St. 'Renaissance," San Francisco Examiner September 13, 1978.

United Nations Plaza Fountain Introduction

Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) was a legendary creative figure who lived and worked in the Bay Area. He was first and foremost a landscape architect, however, he also employed his talents in the fields of city planning, the visual arts and filmmaking.

United Nations Plaza Fountain, photographed by Charles A. Birnbaum, 2005 (source: The Cultural Landscape Foundation)

 
Halprin's United Nations Plaza Fountain was dedicated on June 26, 1977, the 32nd anniversary of the United Nations.  Located 600 feet from the Main Library, the fountain is marked off by longitudinal and latitudinal bands on the plaza's surface.

United Nations Plaza, Google Satellite View

The fountain takes up a footprint of 80 by 130 feet within the 2.6 acre United Nations Plaza. It consists of approximately 100 wire sawn pieces of Sierra white granite mined at the Raymond quarry near Fresno, granite symbolizing strength. This is the same granite used for City Hall and other civic buildings. These pieces were cut into varying shapes and range in width from 6 inches to four feet. The entire work weighs 3,300,000 pounds and is arranged into seven clusters that represent the seven continents.

Georgia Lindsay noted that with his fountains, Halprin aim to "represent" nature rather than "recreate" it. According to James Haas:

Halprin has developed an affection for Sierra Nevada views of water coursing through huge granite rocks, and he tried to bring that effect to his fountain by placing gigantic stacks of granite slabs around its outer edge up to twenty feet tall and smaller chunks of granite in the center, over which shot several spouts of water that eventually collected in pools.

The United Nations Plaza fountain has been alternately described as "smart" or "brainy." That was owing to a computer system that controlled water flow. It was to draw water from an underground creek below the plaza. The computer would be connected to gauges that would measure wind velocity in order to lower the flow when the weather was windy, lessening the spray that might soak passersby. The computer also would regulate the depth of water in the fountain's pools to vary from being dry to an accumulation of eight feet of water according to the time of day.

These computer controls apparently never worked for long, if at all.

From the moment it was proposed up through the present, Lawrence Halprin's United Nations Plaza Fountain has never ceased to be a source of controversy. Later blog entries will look at the fountain's troubled history.

Later entries:

"United Nations Plaza Fountain: A Troubled Birth" (August 1, 2023)

"United Nations Plaza Fountain: A Troubled Life" (August 17, 2023)

Bibliography

Adams, Gerald, "Another City Fountain Dispute Is Bubbling Up," San Francisco Examiner February 6, 1979.

Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Volume 68 (K.G. Saur, 2011).

Brown, Mary, San FranciscoModern Architecture and Landscape Design 1935-1970: Historic Context Statement. (San Francisco City and County Planning Department, 2011).

Cindy, "UN Plaza Fountain," Art and Architecture of San Francisco [blog] March 7, 2001.

Haas, James W., The San Francisco Civic Center: A History of the Design, Controversies, and Realization of A City Beautiful Masterpiece (University of Nevada Press, 2019).

Katz, Bernard S., Fountains of San Francisco (Lexikos/Don't Call It Frisco Press, 1989).

"Latest Plan to Revamp San Francisco’s U.N. Plaza Unveiled," The Cultural Landscape Foundation March 14, 2019

Lindsay, Georgia, Bricks, Branding, And the Everyday: Defining Greatness at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research (July 2017).

Pacheco, Anthony, "Another Halprin-designed plaza could be on the chopping block, this time in San Francisco," The Architects Newspaper May 30, 2018.

Stack, Peter, "A Brainy Fountain Is Dedicated," San Francisco Chronicle April 26, 1977.

Mid-Market Art Walk – presented by Jason Gibbs 4/22/202

These are rough notes that often quote unattributed sources.

Hallidie Plaza - Market Street Joint Venture / Skidmore , Owings & Merrill (1973) - one of three major plazas (w/Embarcadero/Justin Herman and United Nations) a sunken courtyard - “a space to negotiate between the relatively spare, technologically oriented BART tunnel and bustle and visual richness of the city” / “open air courtyard for day time entertainment activities” / part of the Market Street Beautification Project originating with a 24.5 million dollar bond passed in 1968. SOM designed both Powell & Montgomery Stations (noted for their bubble surfaces) BART service began in 1973, MUNI in 1980. In the 1970s there were free noon-time concerts sponsored by the Market Street Development Project and Local 6 drawing thousands
Other Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings in SF: St Aidan’s Church (Diamond Heights) 255 California Street (Industrial Indemnity Bldg), Alcoa Building (1 Maritime Plaza) California First Bank Building (370 California), Crown Zellerbach (1 Bush) B of A Building, Hartford Insurance Building (636 California), One Metropolitan Plaza (425 Market) Shaklee Terraces (444 Market)

Nigel Sussman (1983?- ) - Hallidie Plaza SF Mural (2023)
artist also a freelance illustrator, does architectural drawing, Berkeley based

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) - Yesterday and Today (1983-1984)
Realized with help from her children, grandchildren, used baker's clay - 4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 ½ cups water and an oil-based plastic sealant called Varathanet. cast into glass-fiber reinforced concrete / shows her husband, Albert Lanier / “she just really wanted everyone to be involved – yeah, anyone can be part of the project - they don't have to have some special training or skill, but you'll learn a lot on the way, from her.” “Ramada Renaissance Hotel. In keeping with the Renaissance tradition, the hotel commissioned sculpture, paintings and other objects of art to create an ambiance of elegance and quiet luxury for its guests.” 7 panels = 7 hills of SF Miwok / Junipero Serra / 14 feet high, 60 feet long, each panel 1500 lbs,

Read more about Ruth Asawa on our blog.   

Market Street Beautification (1968-1971) Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009), Mario Ciampi (1907-2006) and John Carl Warnecke (1919-2010)
Redevelopment in conjunction with BART construction beginning in the summer of 1967. Paid for by a $25 million bond issue. – sought uniformity, City government began limiting the size and configuration of business signs and severely downplaying neon, especially in the downtown area, in the name of “beautification”. Sidewalk width (widened to 35 feet) herringbone pattern, paving materials, proportion of curb to sidewalk width (15-18 inch curbs) / oriented to pedestrians, tree-lined sidewalks, incorporation of the subway, boarding islands, F streetcar (also involved kiosks, news racks, bicycle racks, benches – now gone) Ciampi and Halpern fought behind closed doors, Warnecke mostly absent but did prevail with the notion of a unified design // Lawrence Livingston Jr. (1981): “sterile, formal concept apparently was supposed to be vitalized by a series of plazas” / City required theaters to remove their awnings / initially planted tulip trees, they died and were replaced with sycamore (1974).

Read more about Warnecke elsewhere on the blog.  

Willis Polk (1867-1924) / Arthur Putnam (1873-1930) / Leo Lentelli (1879-1961) - Path of Gold Light Standards - 1908-1925 (1-2470 Market Street) Original Standards replaced with replicas – part of the CITY BEAUTIFUL movement Willis Polk designed the base and pole (Hallidie Building, Beach Chalet, Kezar Stadium). Arthur Putnam was commissioned to create the Winning of the West bases with three bands of historical subjects: ox‐drawn covered wagons with weary pioneer and dog, seated pumas (mountain lions) looking down at a scared jackrabbit and overlooked by an Indian head, and alternating prospectors and mountain Indians. (also the Sphinx in GGP). Leo Lentelli with Walter D'Arcy Ryan designed the tops - both participated in the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915 "The permit for the project was linked to graft payments to Mayor Schmitz, political boss Abe Ruef, and seventeen of the eighteen members of the Board of Supervisors."

San Francisco Arts Commission / San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority bus shelters – Arts Commission outdoor gallery. 18 bus shelters, commissioned artists on an annual basis since 1992

Katy Boynton - Heartfullness (2012) (Market & Turk) - Bay Area artist, large scale works in metal / her first sculpture, created for Burning Man / installed 12/2024 "a steel sculpture of a mended heart, embodying the strength of the human spirit." originally presented at Burning Man, night illuminated by a red glow “During the day the rusted metallic surface catches the sunlight, a testament to the resilience of a heart that has weathered life's challenges. At night the heart glows with a warm inner light, symbolizing the unyielding fire within us all. The cracks and imperfections transform into pathways for this radiant light to project outward. Just as the heart becomes a beacon of light, so too do we, when we embrace adversity and allow our own inner light to truly shine.”

Iwamoto (Lisa) Scott (Craig) - Penumbra (2022) 960 Market Street - https://www.iwamotoscott.com/projects/penumbra 'a partial shadow between regions of full shadow and full illumination' designers of the building Serif A series of sculptural Y-shaped columns march along the long sides of the courtyard space, supporting a lattice of radial steel plate beams from which Penumbra's precisely crafted aluminum modules are suspended. variously-angled tapering aluminum modules frame the sky, surrounding urban fabric and space, and the changing light of day.

Clare Rojas (1976-) - promise 2014 aka Sharing Flowers (982 Market Street) - works in a variety of media, including painting, installations, video, street art, and children's books. Her gallery describes her: A magic realist artist with a talent for abstraction whose visual language is rooted in Peruvian folklore and Californian ecofeminism. Married Mission School Barry McGee. Mural only supposed to be up for a year / flowers a star like precious object / work inspired by American folk art and quilting / Artist is SF resident, graduate of the Chicago Art Institute.

Untitled (2013) Os Gemeos and Mark Bodé (1963-) – pronounced Ose Zhe' mee ose // Identical twin artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo (1974-) Sao Paolo / includes one of the twin’s characters and Cheech Wizard by Vaughn Bodé / Hirschhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution (Bodé - cartoonist, muralist, tattoo artist, lives in Daly City – Santana Family mural near 24th St BART

Oshun Mural (2002) – Debra Disman (1956-) - Turk and Taylor Streets - a drop-in center for women and their families, is a program of the H.A.F.C.I. Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. Site of Compton’s Cafeteria. The spirit goddess Oshun reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. According to the Yoruba elders, she is the "unseen mother present at every gathering" ..."nurture healing and build strength among women and their families..." Oshun’s color is yellow, and her metals are gold and copper. Other symbols depicted in the mural include peacocks and mirrors, reflective of vanity and physical beauty. Oshun represents life’s joys, and all that makes it worth living – Los Angeles based artist does installation art, performance art, bookworks – worked as a decorative painter in SF

Hueman (Allison Tornero) (1985- ) 'Our Home of Sampaguitas and Dahlias' (51 6th Street) - artist based in Oakland "commemorates the history of Filipinos in SOMA" / created the work “Spray Ballet” on 5 buildings in Hickory Alley (now covered with graffiti) / designed a Golden State Warriors shirt and painted a mural on a Norwegian cruise liner, portrait of Kobe Bryant for Nike

Lanterns 500 block Stevenson Street near 6th Street (2021) The lanterns are a collaboration of the Plinth Agency, The Bayanihan Community Center, SoMa Pilipinas, the 6th Street Safety Group, Friends of Stevenson Alley They are not our traditional five-point parol or Filipino Christmas lanterns, which are inspired by the Star of Bethlehem and the story of Nativity, and nor the famous San Fernando Lanterns, nor that of the red round lanterns you find in Chinatown and Chinese restaurants which are associated with the full moon and Lunar Festival When lit, these brass lanterns will cast shadows of the graphical textures in the lanterns. In spring & summer of 2019, several community stakeholder meetings convened to develop a strategic plan for the 500 block of Stevenson Street. Zendesk, the Mid-Market CBD, SFMTA, & OEWD committed investment in new streetscaping and lighting elements, alongside a series of events, with SF Parks Alliance set to manage the project. Fabricated by HYBOCOZO Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk. Based in Los Angeles / created Aurum in Mint Plaza / geometric sculptures, often with pattern and texture that draw on inspirations from mathematics, science, and natural phenomena (not like their work)

Faith, Hope and Charity (2019) – Sylvester Guard Jr. Art Commission approved 8/2019. installed at the Seneca Hotel, which is located on 34 6th St. at Stevenson St. The painted mural will measure approximately 10 ft. by 24 ft. The project is funded by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The painted mural will not become part of the Civic Art Collection. / The artist formerly homeless / involved with the Tenderloin Museum and Community Arts Program Hospitality House. Created a mural next to the playground at Turk and Hyde.

Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) - Giant (1001 Market Street) - dates from 2013. Painted over their 2001 work "Pavil" (Wick) - their first US exhibit "dedicated to Jade, Nekst & Tie." – a hat with a JADE throwup, the spray can in a shape of balaclava wearing character with a NEKST belt buckle, and TIE button on the bag to name a few. "Their first significant artistic influence outside their immediate environment, and their limited access to American hip hop, stemmed from a chance encounter with Barry McGee (also known as Twist), who was in Brazil for several months on a study abroad program through the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993. Technique and experience were shared, and McGee provided photographs of American graffiti." [wiki] NYT: The American artist Barry McGee was that door-opener for Osgemeos. It was 1993 and the twins were 19 years old when he first phoned their house. McGee, who got his start as a graffiti artist in 1980s San Francisco, was in their hometown, São Paulo, thanks to a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. McGee was introduced to well-known contemporary Brazilian artists, but he still felt like he was missing out on what was happening in the streets. Until one day, while riding his bike around the Vila Mariana neighborhood where he was staying, he saw a massive mural of B-boys break dancing painted by Osgemeos. “I hadn’t seen any work in my life that looked like theirs,” he said. “It was very elaborate and it was already distinctive at that point.” Graffiti made by the duo on the street where they grew up in Cambuci, São Paulo, pays homage to Portal, a collective of artists who strongly influenced the duo’s work. Brazil is known for a type of graffiti called pixação, a cryptic lettering style rooted in protest against corruption and inequality. The streets of São Paulo were covered in it then, so Gustavo and Otávio’s detailed and colorful character work stood out next to the stark letters and symbols. It was tagged as “GEMEOS” and there was a phone number sprayed in the corner. McGee wanted to know who the artists were, so he called them. The twins’ mother, answered the phone. She invited him to the family’s home to meet her sons and sit down for a traditional Brazilian meal of feijoada. It wasn’t until they started to talk at the dinner table that the brothers realized who McGee was. “We were like, ‘Oh my god, this is Twist,’” Gustavo said, referring to one of McGee’s most well-known monikers. The twins had been admiring his graffiti in skateboarding magazines for years and were floored that the artist wanted to get to know them.

The Luggage Store Annex of the The 509 Cultural Center (1007 Market Street) - related to 509 Ellis / Swim Gallery – sign by Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001) is a non profit artist run multidisciplinary arts organization, founded in 1987.

 
Community Arts Program Hospitality House - since 1969 (1009 Market Street) https://www.hospitalityhouse.org/community-arts-program.html "is the only free-of-charge fine arts studio and gallery space for artists and neighborhood residents whose socioeconomic struggles would otherwise prevent them from accessing the powerful artistic and cultural landscape of this community. Each year, more than 3,500 artists benefit from the free materials and space to create, house, exhibit and sell their artwork."

Untitled? (2023?) - MONK6. The type of "graff" is called a "rappel". bombingsci Instagram: “"I write MONK6. I am based out of Portland, OR and San Francisco, and I’ve been writing for a little over three years now. I love all kinds of graffiti but I’ve always been especially drawn to clean, legible straight letters/pieces.There is nothing I love more than letters, and I am always trying to add funk and creativity to improve my letters. I love learning new styles and lately I have been adding characters to some of my pieces as well. I enjoy painting everything from rappel spots and heaven spots to chill cutty spots that nobody will ever see.” Facebook comment: “The fines for abseiling illegally off most city structures is ABSURD, in every country! If a man wants to die doing something he loves, let him!” Other MONK6 Tags at 1242 Market St, 1 Grant Avenue (old bank), Hotel des Arts on Bush St., 720 California

International Art Museum of America - (1023 Market Street)
founded in 2011 by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III (1951-2022) an artist who claims to be a reincarnation of the Buddha Vajradhara,] and originally only contained works by him. Building designed by Weiya Noble.

Sanaz Mazinani (1978-) - Infinite Reflections (2022) (1028 Market Street) Persian-Canadian artist -- Uses Dichroic Glass (applies multiple micro-layers of metal oxides to the glass surface. Materials like titanium, silicon or magnesium create an interference effect, causing the glass to reflect and transmit different wavelengths of light)- this glass changes colors depending on the angle of the light. She is trying to evoke "dynamism and richness of Market Street: the beauty of living in a city." interposed lines and angles, casts reflections, will change its appearance through the day and night (also the artist of Rolling Reflection at 49 South Van Ness) - hearkening to Market Streets theater marquees

The Ladder (Sun or Moon) (2020) - Iván Navarro (1066 Market Street) - Chilean artist (1957- ) living in NYC – uses electric light as his primary medium, making politically charged sculptures and installations that address the violence inflicted by the Chilean state. an Inuit myth about the origin of the sun and the moon 12-story tower fronting Market Street, consists of a ten-storied neon and steel ‘ladder,’ resembling a functional fire escape, with each diagonal section corresponding to the height of one story of the building. Looking upwards, a ladder of bright white light disappears skyward, and transports viewers from the traditional urban street life setting to an unexpected experience; a sensation of mystery and transcendence, which distinct to Navarro’s artwork, is also reminiscent of the marquee that adorned the Granada Theater in the 1920’s (later the Paramount Theater), the site upon which 50 Jones now sits.

Richard Louis Perri [Luckey] (1944- ) - 1091 Merrills Drug Center (6th Street / IOOF) - from 2015, neighborhood artist has a studio in the building, moved in 2021 – came to SF in 1967 with flowers in his hair / oil painter / paints pictures of undiscovered places in San Francisco. He loves this city, made it his home. It is his inspiration.

Alicia McCarthy (1969- ) - Untitled (2018) (1100 Market Street) Born in Oakland, still lives there, Mission School artist, commissioned by the Luggage Store Gallery. Woven pattern. Early work was largely associated with collective practices, graffiti art, and San Francisco’s active queer punk scene. abstract paintings embrace a punk/folk aesthetic (also called “urban rustic” “naive aesthetic” using flawed gestures) that combines the Bohemian street culture of San Francisco with forms of folk art. Often uses found or inexpensive objects. Grafitti using the names “Fancy” and “Probe” almost kicked out for spraying graffiti at the AI - Taught a class at the California College of Art, Art Institute – Low Budget High Art - Also creates skateboard decks.

Rigo 23 - Ricardo Gouveia (1966- ) - Truth Mural (2002) - 1101 Market Street Portuguese from Madeira artist, lived in SF, now in LA. part of Clarion Alley Collective, evokes advertising art – Work dedicated to Robert King Wilkerson is the only member of the Angola 3 to be exonerated and released after 32 years mostly solitary confinement, one of the co-founders of the Angola Black Panthers. highlights world politics and political prisoners. Created Victory Salute is a monument of that moment which was specifically built on the San Jose State University – for Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
Inner City Home (6th near Clementina) One Tree (101 on ramp 10th and Bryant)

UN Plaza Fountain (1975) – Lawrence Halprin - the fountain became the “principal feature” of the plaza, designed to serve “as a focal point at the Civic Center axis and establish...a visual hub from the street to City Hall” - dedicated June 26, 1975, UN’s 32nd anniversary
It is made from the same Sierra white granite that City Hall and the other civic buildings in the area are constructed from, arranged into seven clusters to represent the seven continents, and the water is supposed to display “...both jet action and tidal action, imitating the back and forth and up and down motion of the sea” "Halprin has developed an affection for Sierra Nevada views of water coursing through huge granite rocks, and he tried to bring that effect to his fountain by placing gigantic stacks of granite slabs around its outer edge up to twenty feet tall and smaller chunks of granite in the center, over which shot several spouts of water that eventually collected in pools." - James Haas “designed to be a “smart” fountain. Its water jets are controlled by an electronic console regulating an interlocking system of pipes, pumps, meters, and vales. Each of the nine spurting slabs has a wind monitoring device to control the water flow, presenting wind-blown spray from dampening passersby / computer control art commissioner: "This is a flamboyant example of a designer's ego" "The fountain is a gross intrusion of a personal idea into a public space" "resembles the ape grotto at the SF Zoo" Ruth Asawa and Antonio Sotomayor voted against Quentin Kopp: "an architectural travesty and environmental insult" was going to propose a ballot initiative to block it - "Should a fountain, constructed of granite slabs and estimated by the Department of Public Works bureau of engineering to cost $1,150,000 be built in United Nations Plaza on Market at the juncture of Leavenworth and Fulton streets?" Ruth Asawa: "We voted in good faith on March 4 and then they imported some people to vote, some people who are there only when it is political and the fountain was approved." Ray Talliafero: "unimaginative, uncreative and wholly lacking in esthetic excellence." Antonio Sotomayor: "the design would be much more fitting for the pit of the bears at the zoo" pro: Ed Callanan: "The tidal wave of water motion over the blocks will be pleasing to people."

Read more about the UN Plaza on our blog.     

UN Plaza (Halprin, CiampI and Warnecke) In June 1967, construction of the BART Civic Center Station was commenced within the confines of Market Street, a city street. A portion of the construction activity was in the street area adjacent to the Orpheum property. The construction was substantially completed in February 1971 and fully completed in April 1971. Construction of the one acre United Nations Plaza began in January 1975 as part of the Market Street Beautification Project in conjunction with the Bay Area Rapid Transit station 1995, the Plaza received a facelift, adding more “memorial” content to what was in essence simply a plaza and fountain, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Charter. In three short months in 1995, the words of the UN Charter were carved on the black obelisk (Figure 6), a quote from Roosevelt (chosen by Halprin, who was working on the Roosevelt Memorial at the time) was carved into the fountain, granite inlays were placed into the brick mall with chiseled words from the UN in the stone, the names of all the member countries and the year they joined the UN were carved on granite lamp posts, and the UN emblem in the center of the plaza were all added

Lawrence Argent (1957-2017) - C'era Una Volta (Once Upon A Time) (installed 2017) [on private property] born in England, raised in Australia, NYTimes obit While conceiving his art projects, Argent asks himself big questions. For example: "How much data can we remove from a real object and still have something recognizable?" To paraphrase another of his inquiries: "How can I turn commonly held notions of beauty into something new and contemporary?" Argent asked himself that as he re-envisioned the classical form of the Venus de Milo, the armless Grecian wonder. His twisting sculpture – rising up to almost Statue of Liberty dimensions from a base that's four feet in diameter. Stands 92 feet tall, slightly shorter than the Statue of Liberty’s 111.5 feet measured from heel to crown, and 35 feet wide at the shoulders. Late Trinity landlord Angelo Sangiacomo asked him once if he could make the statue smaller. But only once. “I told him look, shrink it down and it just won’t work,” says Argent. “He said, ‘Okay, I trust you.’” Venus’s swirling profile is meant to suggest a figure bursting from the ground, like a liberated geyser. “I wanted it to look as if it’s emerging from the rock—pretending for a second that there’s not a six-story garage underneath us,” he says. Angelo Sangiacomo, who purchased the 4.5-acre site in 1977, began construction of Trinity Place in 2007, and welcomed the first residents in 2010. Sangiacomo, who passed away in December 2015 at the age of 91, called Trinity Place his lifetime dream and created the piazza and its art collection – C’era Una Volta (“Once Upon a Time”) — as a lasting gift to his beloved San Francisco. Argent also designed the courtyard floor's undulating, tile-mosaic pattern, as well as several other marble, sculptural elements, all meant to work cohesively as part of a "gestalt"," he says. which led him to ask, "How do we make a plaza appear that it's been there forever, and the buildings are actually built around the plaza?" “My task is to create something that fits the surrounding or the area. If it were to be removed, you would miss it.” At its feet are scattered 17 smaller marble sculptures to accentuate “Venus’s” classical elements. The works commemorate the property's former landlord, Angelo Sangiacomo, who contributed millions of dollars to the site and who died in 2015. [one of SF's largest landlords – known as the “father of rent control”] Custom-designed seven-foot glass bollards with illuminated hollow centers serve as dramatic showcases for sculptures within the glass. The decorative bollards, which weigh 8,000 pounds each, are located along the mosaic path connecting Market Street to Mission Street. A 20-seat Carrara marble table encourages people to gather for lunch or to meet friends in the lively piazza. To give the table “movement” and create the sense of gathering at a friend’s home, Argent added a “ripple” along the marble tabletop, creating the impression of a large tablecloth naturally creased in the center. Includes other elements that pay tribute to classical Mediterranean art and Sangiacomo’s love of things Italian. The mosaic floor, massive marble table, and carved figures emerging from boulders like half-excavated relics (one rock bears the likeness of Sangiacomo and his wife Yvonne, signature glasses and all) reflect the late landlord’s personal style of brash, volume-up-to-11 good taste. The gates between Phases 1 and 2 of Trinity Place, facing Mission street, form an enchantingly intricate bronze pattern inspired by the ancient street map of Genoa, Italy. The design honors the Genovese region, the ancestral home of the Sangiacomo family. Frankie Avalon sang "Venus" at the dedication

Richard Deutsch (1953-) - Victoria (installed in 2021) Artist lives in Davenport, CA. inspired by the ancient Greek sculpture, The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Also called the Nike of Samothrace. this 2nd-century BC marble sculpture pays tribute to the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). punctuate Trinity’s Eighth Street entry by following this ancient tradition of “welcoming” with an angelic winged figure. Victoria is made of a high-grade 316L stainless steel and white Carrara marble. The marble elements of the sculpture were fabricated in Pietrasanta, Italy and the block was quarried in one 50,000 lb piece. Crafted at the Santa Cruz Metal Works.

Charles Gadeken (1964) "Entwined" - 2024 "industrial artist working in the Bay Area for over 25 years" lecturer at Stanford. Burning Man affiliation. originally installed at Peacock Meadow in Golden Gate Park. "To control the shrub colors and radiation of light, look for the QR code at the various shrubs. Once scanned, the control panel for that shrub will pop up on your phone, allowing you to add your creative elements to the piece!"

Adamo Tadolina (1788–1863) - Simón Bolivar (1859/1984) The original is located in the Plaza Bolivar in Lima, Peru, the first copy is in the Plaza Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela. A gift of Venezuela - President Jaime Lusinchi and then Mayor Dianne Feinstein were present at dedication / 1983 bicentennial of Bolivar well-established Italian sculptor active in commemorative sculpture in both England and Italy in the 19th century.

Joshua Hubert – Spectra (2005) LED public art installation ... spans 1.6 acres across the rooftops of the San Francisco Public Library and the Asian Art Museum, where 1,271 individually programmable LEDs will pulse and shimmer in an audio-reactive display of color and light. Arranged in a dynamic waveform that mimics both light and sound spectrums

Jeremy Novy (1979- ) – Koi (2024) - stencil artist largest koi mural to date in Fulton Plaza / “taking ancient artforms and blending them with modern technology. Koi have long been an ancient symbol of courage and luck, and you can find them featured prominently throughout history in fine art, so he set out to combine this ancient symbol with the more modern medium of concrete.”

Frank Happersberger (1859–1932) - James Lick / Pioneers Monument (1894) Born in Dutch Flat, Placer County, studied art for 8 years in Munich, also created the Garfield statue in GGP - Gift of James Lick (died 1876): real estate investor, carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. The wealthiest man in California at the time of his death. Artist also created James Garfield memorial in Golden Gate Park. Two allegories – early days, plenty; two tableaus - In '49, commerce 47 feet tall Made of Rocklin Granite four bas reliefs, portrait medallions, names, flags and dates from CA history Eureka and The Bear – Eureka 12’6” weighs 8,000 lbs, right hand: spear, left hand: sheild + California grizzly bear Bronze wreath products of the state: fruits, nuts and grain, garlands of acorns and laurels Two dates: 1848, Discovery of Gold; 1850: admission to the Union Portraits: John Fremont, Sir Francis Drake, Father Junipero Serra, James Lick, John Sutter Names: Vallejo, Larkin, Marshall, Castro, Stockton, Sloat, Portola and Cabrillo Allegorical Figures: Plenty/Agriculture: heads of wheat crown Plenty, she holds a cornucopia of fruits Commerce: Goddess of the Sea – California's ports and shipping industry Early Days: mission padre, vaquero and Native American In ‘49: 3 miners examine a gold nugget, tools at their feet

Fred Parhad (1947-) - Ashurbanipal (1988) born in Baghdad, Assyrian. Studied at UC Berkeley, moved to NYC. Gift from the Assyrian people - restauranteur Narsai David (KCBS) led the raising of $95,000 for the sculpture Ashurbanipal: last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (668 BC–c. 627 BC). He introduced the first known systematically organized library, 30,000 clay tablets - inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform, whose text translates as: "Peace unto heaven and earth / Peace unto countries and cities / Peace unto the dwellers in all lands" "It's kind of generally known that the staff is not exactly excited about this status," said Karen Scannell, acting city librarian. "Most of them feel that it is not appropriate and doesn't really blend in with the general style of the Civic Center."

Double L Excentric Gyratory (1982) - George Rickey (1907-2002) gifted to SF in 1997 by George Djerrasi, best known for developing the oral contraceptive pill. Stainless Steel. The Landmarks Board, citing potential harm to the overall integrity of the nationally landmarked plaza and what the board considers an abuse of process, has balked at the rushed schedule ... withholding it "certificate of appropriateness" - Mayor Brown pushed it through the objections because he wanted it up in time for the US Conference of Mayors

“Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman” (2024) by Lava Thomas / multi-media artist, from LA Supervisor Mark Farrell introduced legislation in 2017 calling on the city to increase female representation in the public arena to 30%. That would include boosting the number of women in elected office, on corporate boards, on street signs and, yes, depicted in statues. Farrell's legislation, passed by the supervisors, also called for a statue of Maya Angelou to be installed outside the Main Library. - - Catherine Stefani took over the project once Farrell left elected office “in October 2019, city officials rejected Thomas’ design, saying the artist’s book-shaped sculpture etched with an image of Angelou’s face wasn’t what they had in mind: a traditional, figurative statue of the poet.” “San Francisco Arts Commission selected her proposal for a monument of the author outside the city’s Main Library, then rescinded the offer when San Francisco supervisor Catherine Stefani objected, wanting a traditional statue rather than Thomas’s design. “I was invited to apply,” Thomas recalls, “then found myself in an untenable position.” No one at the arts commission would speak to Thomas, and at the public committee meeting that followed the decision, she was not allowed to finish the three-minute statement she had prepared. The Bay Area arts community rallied,

Designing San Francisco

 (from the Art, Music and Recreation Center's Newspaper Clipping file)

Since the book's arrival a year ago, all of our copies of Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City by the Bay have been checked out nearly continuously.  Alison Isenberg's account of how our City was shaped by new visions of landscape, architecture and urban planning resonates in current San Francisco because of the massive changes taking place today.

For the most part Designing San Francisco does not discuss actual architectural and landscape features at length and instead focuses on creative, political and financial forces that shaped each project.  The book looks at specific projects like Ghirardelli Square, Sea Ranch, the Golden Gateway, the Embarcadero Center and the un-built San Francisco International Market Center.  Isenberg also explores issues like historic preservation, adaptive reuse and renovation, public versus private space and ownership, urban renewal, and height limits within the collective effort to design the City.

(from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Isenberg also hones in on particular figures who helped to guide and shape the City's built landscape like Karl and Jean Kortum, Lawrence Halprin, Ruth Asawa, Stuart and Caree Rose, Marion Conrad, Barbara Stauffacher and Virginia Green.

Those who have read and enjoyed this book can delve further into that time and place by using the Newspaper Clipping files in the Art, Music and Recreation Center.  We have contemporaneous files of newspaper clippings, flyers, and brochures for the following topics:

Bank of America
Buildings - Highrises
Embarcadero Center
Embarcadero Plaza
Ghirardelli Square
Golden Gate
Maritime Museum
Hyatt Regency
San Francisco Maritime National Historical ParkSan Francisco Urban Design Plan
Transamerica Spire

We also files for the following people on our Artists File:

Asawa, Ruth (artist)
Esherick, Joseph (architect)Halprin, Lawrence
Temko, Allan
Wurster, William Wilson (architect)

Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City by the Bay by Alison Isenberg (Princeton University Press, 2017).

 (from the Art, Music and Recreation Center's Newspaper Clipping file)

West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977

In her foreword to West of Center, Lucy Lippard describes the 1960s and 1970s as a time of passion and ideals.  While the book is about art movements across the Western half of the United States, San Francisco, which she describes as "the pulsing heart of the counterculture," occupies a prominent position in this book.

The books editors, Elissa Auther and Adam Lerner, contrast the experimentalism of the West Coast with the New York avant garde: "[T]he counterculture was a movement centered largely in the American West... San Francisco became its hub, serving as an alternative to New York as a site of creative activity."

The counterculture found its impetus for experiment in the various social and political movements of the time.  This aesthetic approach was closely association with movements for social change like The Farm, The Diggers, the Black Panthers, Los Siete de la Raza and others.  It also fostered individual personal transformation and heightening individual consciousness.


West of Center is divided into 20 chapters written by different authrs arranged by four themes: "Communal Encounters," "Handmade Worlds," Cultural Politics" and "Altered Consciousness."  Each of the chapter is beautifully illustrated and is well documented.

Chapters focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area include:

"Collective Movement: Anna and Lawrence Halprin's Joint Workshops" by Eva J. Friedberg

"The Farm by the Freeway" by Jana Blankenship

"San Francisco Video Collectives and the Counterculture" by Deanne Pytlinsk

"Handmade Worlds -- Handmade Genders: Queer Costuming in San Francisco circa 1970" by Julia Bryan-Wilson

"Paper Walls: Political Posters in an Age of Mass Media" by Tom Wilson

"The Print Culture of Yolanda M. López" by  Karen Mary Davalos

"The Countercultural 'Indian': Visualizing Retribalization at the Human Be-in" by Mark Watson

"The Revolution will be Visualized: Black Panther Artist Emory Douglas" by Colette Gaiter

"Signifying the Ineffable: Rock Poster Art and Psychedelic counterculture in San Francisco" Scott B. Montgomery.


West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, edited by Elissa Auther and Adam Lerner, editors (University of Minnesota Press; Published in cooperation with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 2012).

The San Francisco of Maya Angelou

The San Francisco Public Library is honored to be the home of “Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman,” Lava Thomas's monument to Maya Angelou. Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, came to the Bay Area with her family in the 1940s. She documented her eventful life through several autobiographies. We also have clues to her activities in San Francisco through our print and database collections.

The 1950 Census, found in Ancestry.com, shows her living with her mother, Vivian Baxter, her brother, Bailey, and her son, Clyde at 948 Fulton Street in San Francisco. The Census mis-records her first name as Margaret and notes that she worked as a "saleslady" in "retail music" (i.e., a record shop).

She was listed twice in the 1949 San Francisco City Directory.

Her name appears as the misspelled Margrette Johnson, a dancer residing at 948 Fulton Street (her family's address) and as Marguerite Johnson, a clerk for David Rosenbaum (the owner of the Melrose Record Shop).

At the beginning of her memoir Singin' And Swingin' And Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), she described getting hired at the Melrose Record Shop at 1256 Fillmore Street.

San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1951

The store featured jazz and rhythm and blues music not easily found in other stores. Louise Cox noticed the young Maya Angelou's knowledgeable taste in recordings and hired her as a clerk. 

The Billboard November 5, 1949

Husband and wife Richard and Louise Cox ran the operations of the store. Angelou met her future husband Tosh Angelos working there.

Angelou made an appearance in the November 28, 1951 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with her married name -- Mrs. Marguerite Angelos. This family event happened at the Booker T. Washington Center and featured art and performances by children. Angelou assisted in putting the program together.

Her autobiography, Gather Together in My Name (1974), tells of her early forays into the performing arts. She told of being tutored by an experienced dancer named R.L. Poole. Angelou recalled her performing with him as the team Poole and Rita (Rita was a diminutive of Marguerite) at the Champagne Supper Club. This nightclub operated at 1849 Post Street between 1952 and 1955. The club frequently advertised in the Chronicle but there is no mention of Poole and Rita there. The dance team may have rated as "others" as shown in this blurb announcing comedy stars Red Foxx and Slappy White.

source: San Francisco Chronicle April 4, 1952

Around this time, Maya Angelou met dancer Alvin Ailey at the dance classes they took with avant-garde choreographers Walland Lathrop and Anna Halprin. Ailey's biographer described them forming a dance team, Al and Rita, that performed at small community events. Ailey, in his autobiography, noted they rehearsed frequently but never danced outside of her apartment.

Pearl Primus, the Trinidadian-American dancer and choreographer, also strongly influenced Angelou as a performer. She described being moved to tears watching Primus perform her dances rooted in African tradition. An awed Angelou auditioned for Primus who exclaimed, "You are a dancer. You are a dancer," and awarded Angelou a scholarship to study with her in New York.

Bibliography

Ailey, Alvin, Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey (Carol Pub. Group, 1995).

Angelou, Maya, The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library, 2004).

"David Rosenbaum [obituary]," San Francisco Chronicle January 6, 1998.

"Dealer Doings," The Billboard November 5, 1949.

Dunning, Jennifer, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance (Addison-Wesley, 1996).

"Notes And Addenda," San Francisco Chronicle November 28, 1951.

Polk's Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory (R.L. Polk & Co.,1949)

Schwartz, Peggy, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus, with Murray Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2011).

Databases used:

Ancestry.com
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive

San Francisco Chronicle Historical

John Carl Warnecke (1919-2010)

John Carl Warnecke (photo by Don Steffen in Newsweek October 2, 1967)

The Market Street Joint Venture Architects that re-envisioned and rebuilt San Francisco's Market Street in the 1960s and 1970s consisted of three firms: Mario J. Ciampi & Associates, Lawrence Halprin & Associates and John Carl Warnecke & Associates. 

John Carl Warnecke was a great power in his field. At that time he ran the largest architectural firm in the United States, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Honolulu and Washington, DC. San Francisco Chronicle, John King architecture writer described Warnecke as a "a Bay Area architect whose mark on the American landscape can be measured from San Francisco's skyline to John F. Kennedy's grave site."

Warnecke's main claim to fame was his association with president John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie (the architect's obituaries in the Chronicle and the New York Times both headlined this). He was commissioned by the Kennedy White House to redesign Washington DC's historic Lafayette Square. Following the president's assassination he was selected to design John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery with the Eternal Flame. Senator Edward Kennedy hired him to design McLean, Virginia home. Gossip writers also printed rumors that Warnecke was romantically involved with the president's widow. 

John Warnecke, tackle for the 1940 Stanford Indians (source: Merrick, Down on The Farm)

John Carl Warnecke was born on February 24, 1919 in Oakland, CA, son of architect Carl Ingomar Warnecke.  He attended Stanford University where he played tackle on the school's undefeated 1940 team that won the 1941 Rose Bowl. He remained physically imposing all his life at 6 foot 3 inches tall and 220 pounds. He quickly completed a bachelor's degree at Harvard University in 1942 where he studied with Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, an innovator in the use of new materials in construction and a proponent of functionalism in design.

Warnecke began his career as an apprentice to Arthur Brown, Jr. while studying at Stanford. Brown was one of the architects for of the Civic Center's San Francisco Opera House and War Memorial Veterans Building plus the Federal Building at 50 United Nations Plaza. Warnecke later worked for his father before starting his own firm in 1950. It stayed in business until 1980.

He wrote about his work for the biographical encyclopedia Contemporary Architects:

The firm has been asked to design in places–equally beautiful–which were built by man over generations: the environs of the White House; historic Annapolis; the campuses of of the University of California and Stanford University; old Monterey; the Royal Palace grounds of Honolulu; fashionable Nob Hill; a site adjacent to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo; and the historic residential area of Neuilly in Paris. In historic places such as these, the needs of the present must show respect for the past.

Warnecke has been called a forerunner of Contextual Modernism in architecture which according to Middleton emphasizes "spatial volume" with both a regularity in pattern and a lack of ornamentation. His architecture has sometimes been called brutalist. Krantz describes Warnecke's style as "a curious blend of Beaux-Arts neoclassicism, Bauhaus Modernism and Far Eastern exoticism."

John Carl Warnecke & Associates designed hundreds of buildings of all types. The firm was hired to work on many college campuses. These included local institutions like Stanford University (notably the designing the Maples Pavilion), The University of California at Berkeley (designing Moffitt Library), UC Santa Cruz (designing the McHenry Library), The San Francisco Theological Seminary, Sonoma State University, and the College of San Mateo. The firm also worked at Georgetown University, The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, The United States Naval Academy, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Tufts University. 

The Hart Senate Office Building (source: United States Senate)

John Carl Warnecke & Associates was also responsible for designing government buildings in Oakland, Sacramento, Washington, DC (including the Hart Senate Office Building), Minneapolis and Honolulu. Two entries from the American Architects Directory of 1962 and 1970 show some of this work and the awards that he and the firm received for it.

source: American Architects Directory, 2nd edition (1962)

source: American Architects Directory, 3rd edition (1970)

After retiring to the North Bay, John Carl Warnecke died on April 17, 2010 in Healdsburg, California.

Many of the buildings designed by John Carl Warnecke & Associates are a familiar part of the United States built landscape, but Warnecke's name has largely faded from discussion. There are not any books published about his life and career.

A subsequent blog entry will detail Warnecke's contributions to San Francisco's architecture.

Bibliography:

American Architects Directory, 2nd edition (R.R. Bowker Co., 1962).

American Architects Directory, 3rd edition (R.R. Bowker Co., 1970).

Better Market Street Project EIRAppendix 6: Cultural Resources Supporting Information (San Francisco Planning Department, 2014).

Cardinalis, Kye, "The Contextual Architectural of John Carl Warnecke," Atomic Ranch July 22, 2023.

Contemporary Architects, editor, Muriel Emanuel, 3rd ed. (St. James Press, 1994).

Grimes, William, "John Carl Warnecke, Architect to Kennedy, Dies at 91," New York Times April 23, 2010.

King, John, "John Warnecke - S.F. Architect with Close Ties to Kennedy Clan," San Francisco Chronicle May 7, 2010.

Krantz, Les., American Architects: A Survey of Award-Winning Contemporaries and Their Notable Works (Facts on File, 1989).

Merrick, Fred, Down on The Farm: A Story of Stanford Football (Strode Publishers, 1975).

Middleton, Deborah A. "Warnecke, John Carl," in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, editor in chief, Joan Marter (Oxford University Press, 2011).

"On The Square," Newsweek October 2, 1967.

Shearer, Lloyd, "Jackie Kennedy, World's Most Eligible Widow - Will She Marry Again," Pasadena Independent Star News December 4, 1966.

"Ted Kennedy's Virginia House On Market For Nearly $10 Million," Huffington Post May 22, 2012.

 
"Warnecke, John Carl," in Current Biography (The H.W. Wilson Company, 1968).

"Warnecke, John Carl," in Current Biography (The H.W. Wilson Company, 2010).