The Puddle Jumpers

The Puddle Jumpers ... Glenna Goodacre ... 1989

For those who don't know, the TransAm Pyramid is the 48 story pointy thing at the base of Columbus street in North Beach. By its side, it has a small Redwood Park, a typical walkthrough - fountain - sit down area for use by the tenants. If you happen to visit it, bring a lighter. All the business people who aren't supposed to smoke, but do, hide their habit here. You'd be surprised who approaches when you have the matches and they have the jones. Puddle Jumpers is placed out of sight of the street, with a nice set of comfortable benches around it. It's a little hideaway with the smell of young redwoods and flowers mixing with cooking smells from the lunch places close by.

Sea Change

It's a drilling a well.
No..It's a CIA observation platform
Naw...It's scientific, you know, for whales-n-stuff
Well let's see. Welded stainless, painted in a custom color,with a sort of misshapen skirt, made of roofing material, tacked on its upper bout. It must be art.
But it's useful. The top pivots in the wind, like a weather vane, and it's placed by a marina. Useful would never get past the Arts Commission.

Sea Change is a 60'h x 30'w x 30'd stainless steel Mark di Suvero sculpture at 40 S. Beach Harbor, installed in 1995.

Smile

Smile...Trompe l'oeil bronze...J. Seward Johnson jr

Located at 201 Spear (x Howard ), this is a life-sized piece placed in a small green space next to a terraced brick office building. It works well. ( better than the arachnid grotesquery on the next block.) Part of Johnson's man-in-the-street series, it fools you until you turn to it, then it's clever and soon it becomes a comfortable presence. Well maintained, and just the right feel for the site.

Cupid's Bow

Cupid's Bow, Coated steel and fiberglass, by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. Embarcadero, S.F.

Commissioned by Donald Fisher, the work was given to the city in 2002. Erected just shy of the bridge, south of the Ferry building, its size imposes itself in a view of the bay and bridge from one direction and on a nice mix of modern and older buildings on the other. If placed next to the Power Exchange, it might have been a clever statement, but at this location it's an out of scale monument to onanism. One wonders about the maintenance costs. It's a sixty foot span of tag-ready surfaces vs. sk8ters, sea fog, gimmies, and gulls, set off by lapsed landscaping. A gift with strings.