While it is not at the tippy top of anyone's essential guide to San Francisco, a walk around the Rincon Center has a good number of treats in store. And for those who have waited more than 20 years since their last visit to the area (why would anyone do that?) there are reasons to smile. Head for the square block surrounded by Howard, Mission, Spear and Steuart Streets.
After Loma Prieta
Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, this corner of SOMA (South of Market) had a rebuild and revitalization. The Rincon Center itself has expanded from an old post office to a complex of shops, restaurants, offices and apartments. The Rincon Annex is well worth a look for its WPA funded 400 feet of interior murals depicting California history, created in 1941 by Anton Refregier in Diego Rivera-inspired style.
Waterfall
Grab some lunch while listening to a pianist in the central lobby and resist jumping into the atrium's tempting showery 85-foot waterfall spilling 55 gallons of water a minute, "Rain Column", by Doug Hollis. The sound of the water alone produces a smile.
Bull's-eye
In the shadow of the Bay Bridge on the Embarcardero is the striking bow and arrow public art installation, "Cupid's Span". While hesitatingly received initially ten years ago, the 60-foot design has now hit the mark as symbolizing San Francisco's famous "I Left My Heart" theme, which just reached its own 50 year anniversary.
Pier 22-1/2
Under the bridge, two cheerfully painted red 1950s fireboats await the call of duty, the Phoenix and the Guardian. Note that the Phoenix played an important role during the Loma Prieta earthquake after which the Guardian was donated by private residents in gratitude.
Rocketship
Of course, every city needs a monumental raygun gothic rocketship sculpture and San Francisco is no exception. Ours is 40 feet tall, sheathed in silvery aluminum skin reflecting the sunset. Installed at Pier 14 temporarily in 2010 for 14 months, she's on loan from the Black Rock Arts Foundation, the group associated with Burning Man. Latest news is that the installation will remain on site longer, extending through October 2012.
"Smile"
Nearby at 201 Spear Street, tucked away in an office pocket park, one stumbles upon this bronze gentleman about to snap your picture. Approaching the statue, so realistic and with its feet on the ground rather than on a pedestal, one does have a strange sensation that it is about to snap to life itself.
J. Seward Johnson, the "Smile"artist, is known for creating life-size statues of ordinary people engaged in everyday activities. Johnson's public art is found in Chicago where, exceptionally, a very large and famous 26-foot Marilyn Monroe anchors her skirt over a gusty subway grate. Returning to the everyday theme, other examples are in Manhattan's Liberty Park where a businessman checking his briefcase was salvaged after 9/11 to be re-positioned in nearby Zuccotti Park, in Sydney where a man sits on a bench with his newspaper waiting eternally for someone or for a train, perhaps. There's a hitchhiker, a busker, a whittler, a knitter, a newspaper boy, a lawn chair recliner, a jogger and many more amusing lifelike sculptures.
Comments