Public Art Proposal Display

Art Proposals for the 49 South Van Ness Forum Sculpture Public Art Project

The San Francisco Arts Commission is conducting a selection process to choose an artist to create a sculpture or a series of sculptures for the outdoor entry forum to be located at 49 South Van Ness. The new City building will be a 16-story tower on 11th Street between Market and Mission Streets housing the City’s permit center, building inspection, and offices of the Planning Department and Public Works. The artwork is intended to create a sense of place, as well as delight and visual engagement for the building’s users. Four artists were chosen as finalists by a Public Art Selection Panel to create site-specific proposals for this artwork opportunity: Joseph Havel, Sanaz Mazinani, Ruben Ochoa, and Mark Reigelman.

 

 

 

Seven Spheres of San Francisco

Joseph Havel

Public Board SFAC 49 South Van Ness Forum Proposal_sm.jpgSeven Spheres of San Francisco will consist of a group of seven bronze spheres suggested by the seven square miles of San Francisco. The spheres will differ in size with two at 50” in diameter, two at 40”, one at 35”, one at 30” and one at 24 ”. The scale was selected to be intimate in experience achieving its sense of grandness and engagement not as a monument but as a series of orchestrated encounters. The spheres will extend approximately 75’ of the 150 foot forum with a cluster of three including one of the two largest in the originally designated single sculpture site. The general feel created by the placement of spheres will suggest inward momentum drawing the pedestrian towards an engagement with the offices ending with a pair of spheres including the second 50” sphere. Seven Spheres of San Francisco will be very visible from the central office lobby where the Sarah Sze sculpture is located as well as the mural site creating a dialogue with the other artworks. Each sphere will be a cast from a unique bundle of domestic fabric items collected from resale shops in San Francisco. The individual patinas will vary from tarnished and darkened gold to brown and black with each sphere having a distinct color. Bronze highlights will unify them into a cohesive ensemble. 

I am addressing San Francisco as a series of distinct neighborhoods all woven into the greater fabric of the city. My proposal is a visual music of spheres, each square mile unique yet all interacting as part of a greater musical score. This proposal is informed by Gary Kamiya’s book “Cool Gray City of Love” as well as Rebecca Solnit’s books, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”, “Wanderlust” and “Infinite City, a San Francisco Atlas”. “Cool Gray City of Love” has 49 chapters each a walking view of a different location in the city. My proposal “Seven Spheres for San Francisco “ intends to be the visual poetic equivalent. 
Formed as bundles of domestic fabric such as clothing each sphere is not simply a location. Instead it becomes a collection of individual lives. The direct casting process means these are lost fabric not lost wax so each sphere memorializes the materials used to make it. 
My personal experience of the city is reflected in this approach. I live my life here as a pedestrian and my daily encounters and surprises define my social geography.  

View a larger image of the proposal. 

Rolling Reflection

Sanaz Mazinani

Mazinani-Rolling Reflection-Poster_SM.jpgRolling Reflection’s thirty-seven sculptural forms span over 150 feet to transform the interior space between the buildings into an active site of movement and play, while reflecting the vibrancy of the city and diversity of its people. 

Each unique piece in the series unites the organic forms of nature with the hard geometric lines of the built environment to create a dualistic array which transitions with the movement and perspective of the viewer as they engage with the work. 

The color palette is inspired by the visible spectrum of light seen in the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay from the city’s shores. The variation of colors begins with the soft hues of the rising sun on the Bay and transforms to rich blues of the water in the midday sun. Finally, the colors shift to the golden tones reflected in the Pacific Ocean during the setting sun. Reflected light from the mirrored surfaces of the sculptures project bright splashes of color, shifting and animated by the time of day and the seasons.  

The various heights of the stainless-steel sculptures mimic the East-West elevation of the city. This unique representation of geological formations of San Francisco characterized by peaks and valleys is seen in the 150 foot sequence, with its highest section at 8 feet representing the points of Twin Peaks. 

Rolling Reflection provides insight into our relationships with San Francisco, and viewers may intersect thirty-seven neighbourhoods as they walk from one end of the Forum to the other. Walking along the Forum corridor will provide participants the space to see their own figure reflected in the artwork, offering a chance to see themselves within this ever-changing representation of the city that continually shifts in color and scale. 

View a larger image of the proposal. 

Forty and Nine

Ruben Ochoa

Forty_and_Nine_Ruben_Ochoa_SM.jpgFor myself, shipping pallets function as a basic measure of the cultural economy—each one is a ubiquitous unit by which to quantify the transportation and distribution of consumer goods. I am intrigued by these constructs built from stacks of pallets and how they hinge and re-enforce a city’s existing social, racial, and economic ebb and flow. Forty and Nine brings together class, labor, history, aesthetics, and architecture to morph into a towering multilayer confection of sweat equity. Cast in stainless steel, 40 unique pallets, representing the average height of a stack of pallets found in a pallet yard would be stacked totaling 16.66 ft high, juxtaposed against the serene backdrop of the newly built 49 South Van Ness building where people would be seeking building permits. Nine additional pallets would be strategically placed throughout and within the proximity of the allocated art space. It would reflect the found quality of pallets as a remnant of its role in society, as well as the act of building, constructing, and the integral materials and supplies required in the process. Referencing the formal economy of manufacturing, distribution, and merchant class, against the informal economy of collecting and reselling pallets as a business, Forty and Nine is a nod to everyone’s role and participation in an ever expanding society. If you bought it, most likely a pallet brought it.

View a larger image of the proposal. 

Home Sweet Home

Mark Reigelman

Reigelman_Display_Board_FINAL1.jpgTwo of San Francisco’s best-known thoroughfares intersect at 49 Van Ness which is slated to become one of the area’s most transformative architectural installations. The project consists of a glass clad structure which will house the city’s planning, public works and building inspection departments as well as a massive concrete clad residential tower. Nestled between these two structures is a narrow walkway and gathering place called the forum. Because of the function and utility of the towering structures overlooking the forum the artwork needs to represent aspects of the city departments and residential structures while creating an awesome public art experience .

“Home Sweet Home” highlights the importance of home and conveys a sense of technical complexity while simultaneously exuding warmth and affection. Visually, “Home Sweet Home” manipulates traditional homestead architecture in order to create a new identity. By dissecting and reassembling a quintessential structure, “Home Sweet Home” creates a dynamic architectural shape. The seemingly precarious yet extremely technical approach balanced with the warmth of color and iconic shape connects the two sites overlooking the forum conceptually and formally while creating a powerful and memorable experience for pedestrians. There’s no place like home.

View a larger image of the proposal. 

Opportunity For Public Comment

Please take a few minutes to review these artwork proposals and provide feedback on the public comment forms below. Public comments will be considered by the Selection Panel as part of the Final Selection Panel meeting where the Panel will recommend one proposal for implementation. Please note that public comments do not constitute a vote.

The Final Selection Panel meeting will take place Tuesday, September 11, 2018, 9 a.m.–2:30 p.m. at 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 302. All Artist Selection Panel meetings are open to the public. An agenda for the meeting will be posted 72 hours in advance of the meeting on SFAC’s website under the Public Meeting section: www.sfartscommission.org.

The proposals are available online at www.sfartscommission.org/calendar, in the Public Art Proposal Display section. Comments may be emailed to sfacpublicartcomment@sfgov.org, or hand delivered/mailed to 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 325 by Monday, September 10, 2017 at 5:00 p.m.

What's Coming Up

Public Meeting

Visual Arts Committee Meeting

April 17
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3:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Hybrid: City Hall | Rm 416 and Online
Public Meeting

Executive Committee Meeting

December 18
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1:00 PM to 2:30 PM

Hybrid: 401 Van Ness | Rm 125 and Online
Public Meeting

Community Investments Committee Meeting

April 16
/
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Hybrid: City Hall | Rm 416 and Online
Public Meeting

Civic Design Review Committee Meeting

April 15
/
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Hybrid: City Hall | Rm 416 and Online