The use of Art in reclaiming the Public Realm

Columbus Avenue, San Francisco.

The Use of Art in Reclaiming the Public Realm

Copyright 2008

by Berta Lรกzaro Corcuera

Columbus Avenue, San Francisco The Use of Art in reclaiming the Public Realm by Berta Lรกzaro Corcuera Bachelor of Architecture Universidad de Navarra 2002 A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirement for the degree of Master of Urban Design in the Graduation of Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Peter C. Bosselmann, Chair Professor Marcia McNally Professor Anthony Dubovsky Professor Walter Hood

Spring 2009

The thesis of Berta Lรกzaro Corcuera is approved:

Chair ________________________________________

Date

________________________________________

Date

________________________________________

Date

________________________________________

Date

University of California, Berkeley Spring 2009

Columbus Avenue, San Francisco.

The Use of Art in Reclaiming the Public Realm

Copyright 2008

by Berta Lรกzaro Corcuera

“Art is the only possibility for evolution.”

--Joseph Beuys 1974

“I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists” --Marcel Duchamp 1923

“Just the experience of Art is already a social function” --Richard Serra

“Everything directly experienced has become a representation” --Guy Debord. La Societe de l´Espectacle 1967

“Art is a cultural phenomenon. It’s not autonomous, isolated from the contemporary world” --Francisco Jarauta. Philosophy Professor Murcia University

i

ABSTRACT This thesis presents an argument about the importance of public art in urban design. The relevance of public art in public spaces, in the context of building new infrastructures, might be overwhelmed by the engineering project, but the inclusion of art is required by law and should address elements of the living culture within cities. Art must connect to and reflect human needs, and it is challenged by dealing with the ephemeral and unpredicted in cities: aspects of Life in cities.

This project explores the practice of art and design in urban public spaces, and considers integration of art and design in the process of urban transformation. It will demonstrate how to enact a collaborative plan for the art process with a revitalization of the street; how to reclaim public spaces for pedestrians; how to enhance vitality and culture in the public realm; and how to propose and envision San Francisco as a creative and diverse North American city.

This research project considers the urban transformation of an important cultural and vibrant San Francisco neighbourhood -- Columbus Avenue.

ii

ACKNOLEDGMENTS This research about Columbus Avenue has taken me many different places that I would never have visit. A lot of them were in my mind, in my struggle to write about things I believe in. In this almost 2 years of my learning process, I’ve been really lucky to walk with some people. Now it’s time to tell them they’ve been important. Most of them, I hope they know already: Thank you Caja Madrid for investing in my professional and personal career. I promise I won’t misuse it.

Thank you to Skype to bring my Family close enough to keep me going, without them I will have to learn how to walk again.

Thank you Marcia for your dedication, support and never ending encouragement. Thank you Rod and Renew SF for sharing your ideas, and transmitting the passion for your community with me. Thank you John Kriken for making me believe in the relevance of this work. Thank you Tony for letting me visit your world. Thank you Stephan for your always kind and intelligent guide. Thank you Peter for your academic support.

Thank you Julian, Janey and Nina for your immense patience with my “foreign-hood”; your friendship has made me English improve (now I can make jokes). Thank you MUD class mates for making this experience beautiful and unforgettable, Eric and Yeon Tae for supporting me even when they didn’t know what I was doing.

Thank you to all my friends and family (any kind of format). I feel lucky, I have a long list, close and far away, but always with me…

Thank you to the Hearst Pool, my sacred refuge.

iii

INDEX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.

What is Public Art? 1.2.

Why is related to Urban Design?

1.3.

Why is Columbus Avenue a design research example?

1.4.

Proposal Objectives and significance

p.3 p.4 p.5 p.6

CHAPTER 2: METHODS 2.1.

General Methodology 2.2.

Literature Review 2.3.

San Francisco Regulatory Analysis 2.3.1.

San Francisco Art Policy 2.3.2.

San Francisco Urban Design Plan 2.4.

Case Study Analysis 2.4.1.

Diagonal Urban Form 2.4.2.

City Public Art Program and Art Institutions 2.5.

Site Selection: Columbus Avenue San Francisco 2.6.

Site Analysis 2.7.

Citizen Involvement and Public Participation 2.7.1.

Interview nยบ1 2.7.2.

Interview nยบ2 2.7.3.

Street Game 2.7.4.

Vessel Game 2.7.5.

Widening of the sidewalks demonstration 2.8.

Design and Public Art Program

p.7 p.8 p.9 p.9 p.11 p.12 p.13 p.13 p.17 p.18 p.20 p.22 p.23 p.24 p.25 p.27 p.28

CHAPTER 3: PUBLIC ART 3.1.

Definitions 3.2.

History: Cultural Evolution of Art 3.3.

Economic Benefits. Limitation and Social Potential of Public Art. 3.4.

Public Art Public Policies 3.5.

Typology 3.6.

Fusing Art with Urban Design 3.7.

Conclusions

p.50 p.31 p.33 p.35 p.39 p.41 p.47

CHAPTER 4: PRECEDENT OF ART 4.1.

Planning the Art 4.2.

History of Community Development for the Arts 4.3.

Artivism: Reclaim Public Space through Art. Parking Day 4.4.

Conclusions

p.50 p.52 p.54 p.57

CHAPTER 5: THE SITE ANALYSIS 5.1.

Site Research 5.1.1.

Social History 5.1.2.

Demographics 5.1.3.

Zoning 5.1.4.

Transportation 5.1.5.

Public Art

p.59 p.62 p.62 p.64 p.66 p.67 p.69 iv

5.2.

5.3.

Site Analysis 5.2.1.

Urban Vitality Analysis 5.2.2.

Urban Form Analysis 5.2.3.

Identity Analysis 5.2.4.

Power Map Conclusion

p.72 p.72 p.81 p.84 p.85 p.86

CHAPTER 6: GOALS AND STRATEGY 6.1.

Reclaim public space for Pedestrians 6.2.

Connect Natural systems and social networks 6.3.

Enhance Culture in the Public Realm 6.4.

Phasing of the Project 6.5.

Site Strategies and Conclusions

p.88 p.90 p.92 p.93 p.94 p.96

CHAPTER 7: DESIGN PROPOSAL 7.1.

Green Connectors and Activity Connectors 7.2.

Sidewalks 7.3.

Flex Use 7.4.

Mid-block Crosswalk 7.5.

Landscape and Tree Planting Implementation Plan 7.6.

Specific Study Areas 7.7.

Conclusions

p.97 p.106 p.107 p.109 p.113 p.115 p.115 p.127

CHAPTER 8: THE BANQUET, PUBLIC ART PROGRAM 8.1.

Methodology: Toolkit 8.2.

Who is coming? INVITATION 8.3.

What to eat? MENU 8.4.

How to eat? RECIPE 8.5.

The Vessel 8.6.

Application 8.7.

Actions 8.8.

Conclusion: Programming the Unexpected

p.128 p.130 p.134 p.136 p.138 p.139 p.141 p.146 p.150

CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION

p.151

BIBLIOGRAPHY

p.154

v

LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1: 1.1 Figure: Columbus Avenue Perspective 1.2 Figure: Columbus Avenue and Broadway Intersection. Condor Club.

1.3 Figure: Mark Jenkins Installation (no localisation) 1.4 Figure: “Hearts in San Francisco” at Union Square 1.5 Figure: Jack Kerouac Alley 1.6 Figure: “Language of the Birds” by Brian Gogging Opening. Photograph by Lea Suzuki from “The Chronicle”.

1.7 Figure: “Stravinsky Fountain” by Niki Phalle and Jean Tinguely in Paris 1.8 Figure: “Cloud Gate” by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago 1.9 Figure: “Third Line Project” View Dogpatch District, San Francisco 1.10 Figure: Columbus Avenue Perspective 1.11 Figure: Columbus Avenue sidewalk 1.12 Figure: San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf Aerial View 1.13 Figure: Street Art by Ari Kletzky 1.14 Figure: UrBanquet website Logo

CHAPTER 2: 2.1 Figure: Washington Monument by Dusk Jan in Washington D.C, USA 2.2 Figure: “Dream Seeds” by Kyota Takahashi in Awara city, Fukui, Japan, 2005 2.3 Figure: Fête de la Lumière in Lyon, France 2008 2.4 Figure: “Boston’s Women’s Memorial” featuring Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone and Phillis Wheatley, by Meredith Bergmann in Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 2.5 Figure: “Fluids” by Allan Kaprow at theTate Modern Museum, London,1967 2.6 Figure: Quote on “The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Memorial” by Ann Chamberlain and Walter Hood in San Francisco, 2008 2.7 Figure: Vaillancourt Fountain by Armand Vaillancourt in San Francisco, 1971 2.8 Figure: Clarion Alley Mural, Mission District, San Francisco. Photo by Ingrid Taylar 2.9 Figure: Critical Mass, San Francisco vi

2.10 Figure: Telegraph Hill View from the San Francisco Art Institute 2.11 Figure: Filbert Street View from Telegraph Hill, San Francisco 2.12 Figure: Downtown View from Telegraph Hill, San Francisco 2.13 Figure: Urban Form Geometry Case Studies 2.14 Figure: Representation of Working Zones and Systems of Public Art Program Phoenix by William R. Morrish 2.15 Figure: ”#2 Arizona Double Headed Fossil” Michael Maglich, 1992 2.16 Figure: Hollywood Highland Station by Dworsky Associated architects and artist Sheila Klein 2.17 Figure: Los Angeles Metro ArtWalk 2.18 Figure: Central Subway Public Art Program, San Francisco 2.19 Figure: “I shop the line” Campaign for Cambie Street, Vancouver, Canada 2.20-0 Figure: Bird Eye View Drawing of Columbus Avenue from Fishermann’s Wharf to Financial District.

2.20 Figure: Street Game Localisation Map, Columbus Avenue 2.21 Figure: Maia Garcia doing surveys in the street 2.22 Figure: Transportation Workshop with Nelson Nynegaard 2.23 Figure: Interview nº1. Appendix A 2.24 Figure: Interview nº2. Appendix A 2.25 Figure: Street Game Hand Out. Appendix A 2.26 Figure: Walking Tour Hand Out. Appendix A 2.27 Figure: Vessel Game. Plate. Appendix A 2.28 Figure: Vessel Game. Glass. Appendix A 2.29 Figure: Vessel Game. Knife. Appendix A 2.30 Figure: Vessel Game. Spoon. Appendix A 2.31 Figure: WCCTAC Program in Urban Design. Students from the Richmond High School. Professors: Alissa Kronovet and Berta Lázaro.

2.32 Figure: Widening of the Sidewalk Design. Café Puccini. Columbus Avenue 401.

2.33 Figure: Widening of the Sidewalk Photomontage. Café Puccini.

vii

CHAPTER 3: 3.1 Figure: “Esto no es Arte” Street Stencil. Madrid. Spain 3.2 Figure: Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C, 1922 3.3 Figure: Vietnam Memorial by Maya Lin, Washington D.C, 1982 3.4 Figure: Happening in Allan Kaprow’s Yard, 1961 3.5 Figure: “Real Life is Here” Street Stencil. London. United Kingdom.

3.6 Figure: Cow Parade, Chicago, 1999 3.7 Figure: “Apples” De Young Museum outdoor Sculpture, San Francisco 3.8 Figure: Sunday Outdoor Event, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 3.9 Figure: Hayes Street View, Bay to Breakers Race, San Francisco, 2008 3.10 Figure: “Illusions”, Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, 2008.

Photo by Carlos B. Cordova.

3.11 Figure: Factors of Continuity during Urban Transformation. Banquet Proposal.

3.12 Figure: Chalk Art Competition, Columbus Avenue, 2008 3.13 Figure: Spontaneous Performance, Columbus Avenue, 2007 3.14 Figure: “Gazebo” for the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge by Siah Armajani, Loring Park, Minneapolis, 1993 3.15 Figure: “Crouching Spider” by Louise Bourgeois, Embarcadero Waterfront San Francisco, 2007 3.16 Figure: Kevin Haurman, London Festival of Architecture, 2008 3.17 Figure: “The Suitcase Pavilion” by Virginia Tech undergrads students, London Festival of Architecture, 2008 3.18 Figure: Photomontage of Washington Square, San Francisco, 2008 3.19 Figure: Matrix: Public Art purposes relation with Urban Design Goals.

Columbus Avenue Proposal 3.20 Figure: Street Art by Joshua Callaghan 3.21 Figure: “Beukelsblauw” by Florentijn Hofman, Rotterdam, 2004-2006 3.22 Figure: “Defenestration” by Brian Goggin, Howard Street, San Francisco 3.23 Figure: Street Sharon Arts Studio, San Francisco 3.24 Figure: “Gateway Arch Riverfront” by Eero Saarinen, St Louis, Missouri, 1965 viii

3.25 Figure: Barbary Coast Emblem embedded in the sidewalks of the District, San Francisco.

3.26 Figure: “Skipwaste Project” by Oliver Bishop-Young, Goldsmiths University England, 2008 3.27 Figure: Installation by Krystian Czaplicki alias TruthTag, Polland, 2007 3.28 Figure: Street Art, Anonymous, London, 2008 3.29 Figure: “Flamingo” by Alexander Calder, Federal Plaza, Chicago, 1974 3.30 Figure: “Titled Arc” by Richard Serra, Federal Plaza, New York, 1981 3.31 Figure: Project of “Foot” by Buster Simpson for the Rincon Park Embarcadero Waterfront, San Francisco, 2002 3.32 Figure: “Repas Hongrois” by Daniel Spoerri, 1963 3.33 Figure: Wayne Thiebaud- Hill Street, 1987

CHAPTER 4: 5.1. Figure:

“Mes etoiles” by Hernando Barragan, Andres Aitken, DesignBoom, 2008

5.2. Figure:

“Mes etoiles” by Hernando Barragan, Andres Aitken, DesignBoom, 2008

5.3. Figure:

“Eskalera Caracola” Center, Lavapiés, Madrid, Spain

5.4. Figure:

“La Casa Encendida”, Lavapiés, Madrid, Spain

5.5. Figure:

“Natividad” by Guillermo Vargas Habacuc,2007

5.6. Figure:

“I dream of love” by Daniel A. Norman in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2007

5.7. Figure:

Community Film shortage, Lavapiés, Madrid

5.8. Figure:

“The New York City Waterfalls” by Olafur Eliasson, 2008

5.9. Figure:

Personal findings I: Painted Wall, Columbus Avenue, San Francisco

5.10. Figure:

“Monumento a los muertos de la Guerra Civil”, Bilbao, Spain, 2008

5.11. Figure:

Marcus Ortner, at West Bank Barrier, in Bethlehem, Palestine

5.12. Figure:

Mark Jenkins Installation

5.13. Figure:

Park(ing) Day 2007, Valencia Street, San Francisco

ix

CHAPTER 5: 5.1. Figure:

Google Earth aerial image from the study area: Columbus Avenue.

5.2. Figure:

City of San Francisco and its Vicinity Map. U.S. Coast Survey 1853

5.3. Figure:

Columbus Avenue 1930. California Archive. Circa.

5.4. Figure:

Historic Shoreline Diagram of the North East Waterfront, San Francisco.

5.5. Figure:

Topography Diagram of the creation of Columbus Avenue between hills.

5.5.1 Figure:

Topography District Map

5.5.2 Figure:

Urban Form Avenue Map

5.6. Figure:

Montgomery Avenue: land condemned, buildings destroyed, and frontage of each block to

be assessed to build Columbus Avenue corridor.

5.7. Figure:

Calzone Italian Restaurant, touristic Italian cuisine in Columbus Avenue.

5.8. Figure:

The Beat Generation. Larry Keenan’s picture of Michael McClure, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg,

North Beach, San Francisco, 1965.

5.9. Figure:

Grant Avenue going through Chinatown District.

5.10. Figure:

“The Store with beautiful things”. This Chinatown Mural expresses the Commercial Zoning

of the CBD. 5.11. Figure:

Chinatown Commercial District Community.

5.12. Figure:

“Sourdough in stream panning for gold skinner” Alaska State Library (photo-pca-44-3-15).

5.13. Figure:

Fisherman’s Wharf District symbolic Logo.

5.14. Figure:

General Demographics Statistics, Census 2000. Source: RenewSF.

5.15. Figure:

Compiled Demographics Data: Asian Population, White Population, Median Age Population,

Below Poverty and Median Travel Time data. 2008.

5.16. Figure:

Zoning Map of the City and County of San Francisco, 2008.

5.17. Figure:

Journey to Work Statistics, Census 2000. Source: RenewSF.

5.17.1 Figure:

Public Transit District Diagram.

5.18. Figure:

Public Art and its Design Settings Analysis. Columbus Avenue.

5.19. Figure:

“The Language of the Birds” Brian Goggin sculpture. Lea Suzuki photo.

5.20. Figure:

“The Language of the Birds” Brian Goggin sculpture. Lea Suzuki photo.

5.21. Figure:

“The Language of the Birds” Brian Goggin sculpture. Lea Suzuki photo.

5.22. Figure:

Interaction around Goggin´s sculpture at Broadway and Columbus. x

5.23. Figure:

Washington Square perspective drawing.

5.24. Figure:

User Type District Diagrams (parts)

5.25. Figure:

User Type District Diagram

5.26. Figure:

Time Use District Diagram: 12am-12pm

5.27. Figure:

Time Use District Diagram: 12pm-12am

5.28. Figure:

Time Use District Diagram: 24 hours

5.29. Figure:

Activity Type District Diagram (parts)

5.30. Figure:

Activity Type District Diagram

5.31. Figure:

Business Type District Diagram and Lighting District Diagram

5.32. Figure:

-

5.33. Figure:

Green and Stockton Intersection Perspective Drawing

5.34. Figure:

Broadway, Grant and Columbus Avenue Axonometric Drawing

5.35. Figure:

Existent Section Types Drawing

5.36. Figure:

Sidewalk Sketch

5.37. Figure:

Geometry Study

5.38. Figure:

Correspondence of Building Faรงades Calculus

5.39. Figure:

Correspondence of Building Faรงades Diagram

5.40. Figure:

Intersection Geometry Types

5.41. Figure:

Block between Broadway and Vallejo Street Axonometric Drawing.

5.42. Figure:

Block between Green and Vallejo Street Faรงade Diagram

5.43. Figure:

Street Correspondence Diagram

5.44. Figure:

Photograph Intersection Broadway and Columbus Avenue looking West.

5.45. Figure:

Identity District Analysis

5.46. Figure:

Power District Map

5.47. Figure:

Photograph Stockton and Vallejo Street, Chinatown District.

5.48. Figure:

Photograph East Faรงade. Block Green and Union Street.

xi

CHAPTER 6: 6.1. Figure:

Google Earth aerial image from the study area: Columbus Avenue.

6.2. Figure:

Continuity Diagram through Urban Transformation

6.3. Figure:

Parcelazation and Topography District Map

6.4. Figure:

Photograph Columbus Avenue (crowded) Sidewalk Cafés

6.5. Figure:

Jan Gehl’s Activity in Pubic Spaces Diagram

6.6. Figure:

Green Connectors District Map.

6.7. Figure:

Pedestrian versus Cars Diagram

6.8. Figure:

Landmarks Connectors District Map.

6.9. Figure:

Community Diversity Diagram. The Brocheta.

6.10. Figure:

Temporariness District Map.

6.11. Figure:

Urban Form Strategy

6.12. Figure:

Vitality Strategy

6.13. Figure:

Identity Strategy

6.14. Figure:

“District Living Room”. Proposed Performance in Washington Square.

CHAPTER 7: 7.1. Figure:

Central Rail Corridor. Future Proposal.

7.2. Figure:

SFCTA Prop K Five-Year Prioritization Program.

7.3. Figure:

Section Type Reference Map

7.4. Figure:

Section Type 1. From Montgomery Street to Broadway

7.5. Figure:

Section Type 2. From Broadway to Union Street

7.6. Figure:

Section Type 3. From Union Street to Filbert Street

7.7. Figure:

Section Type 4. From Greenwich Street to Mason Street

7.8. Figure:

Section Type 5. From Mason Street to Taylor Street

7.9. Figure:

Section Type 6. From Taylor Street to Beach Street.

7.10. Figure:

Green Connectors and Open Space Proposal District Map

7.11. Figure:

District Proposal Map

7.12. Figure:

Horizontal Multilayered Section Diagram

7.13. Figure:

Columbus Day. Street Photograph xii

7.14. Figure:

Columbus Day. Sidewalk Photograph

7.15. Figure:

Corner Typologies in Columbus Avenue Diagram

7.16. Figure:

Columbus Day Parade.

7.17. Figure:

Belden Place. Downtown San Francisco

7.18. Figure:

Temporary Terrace. Commercial Street. Downtown San Francisco

7.19. Figure:

Temporary Terrace. Commercial Street. Downtown San Francisco

7.20. Figure:

Columbus Day. Parking Space Terrace.

7.21. Figure:

Circulation Proposal District Map

7.22. Figure:

Photograph. Mountain View Sidewalk Cafés. Corner Detail

7.23. Figure:

Photograph. Mountain View Sidewalk Cafés.

7.24. Figure:

Plan Typology. Mountain View Sidewalk Cafés.

7.25. Figure:

Section Type. Mountain View Sidewalk Cafés.

7.26. Figure:

Commercial Visibility Perspective Diagrams

7.27. Figure:

Mid-crosswalk Goals Analysis

7.28. Figure:

Mid-crosswalk Plan Detail. Block between Vallejo and Green Street.

7.29. Figure:

Mid-crosswalk Analysis. Axonometric.

7.30. Figure:

Diversity and Discontinuity Vegetation Diagram

7.31. Figure:

-

7.32. Figure:

Proposal Plan I

7.33. Figure:

Proposal Plan II

7.34. Figure:

Proposal Plan III

7.35. Figure:

Proposal Plan IV

7.36. Figure:

Proposal Plan V

7.37. Figure:

Proposal Plan VI

7.38. Figure:

Proposal Plan VII

7.39. Figure:

Proposal Plan VIII

7.40. Figure:

Phasing Proposal District Map

7.41. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section I

7.42. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section II

7.43. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section III xiii

7.44. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section IV

7.45. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section V

7.46. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section VI

7.47. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section VII

7.48. Figure:

East Longitudinal Section VIII

7.49. Figure:

Perspective Montage of Flex-use area. Columbus Avenue

CHAPTER 8: 8.1. Figure:

“The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet Album” by Michael Joseph, 1968.

8.2. Figure:

Painting Series “Electoral Cycle” Scene: The Banquet, by Hogarth William. Rococo

Period.

8.3. Figure:

“The banquet Hall in King Sahla Sellases palace” Photograph from J.M.

8.4. Figure:

Clan Mcauliffe Rally Photo Archive 2000.

8.5. Figure:

“The Banquet”.

8.6. Figure:

Interaction dimensions Diagram

8.7. Figure:

Perception dimensions Diagram

8.8. Figure:

Columbus Perspective Background Diagram

8.9. Figure:

Columbus Perspective Background Map and Diagram

8.10. Figure:

Art Opportunity Sites District Map`

8.11. Figure:

UrBanquet Invitation Layout

8.12. Figure:

UrBanquet Menu Layout

8.13. Figure:

UrBanquet Recipe Layout

8.14. Figure:

Photograph Joseph Conrad Square

8.14.1 Figure: Triangular Geometry Diagram 8.15. Figure:

Human Interaction and Perception Radius Diagram

8.16. Figure:

Triangular Street shapes Analysis

8.17. Figure:

Public Art Program

8.18. Figure:

Art Program for February 2nd 2020.

8.19. Figure:

Relationship: Art and Institutions Diagram

8.20. Figure:

Plan View I: February 2nd 2020. xiv

8.21. Figure:

Plan View II: February 2nd 2020.

8.22. Figure:

Plan View III: February 2nd 2020.

8.23. Figure:

Plan View VI: February 2nd 2020.

8.24. Figure:

Plan View V: February 2nd 2020.

8.25. Figure:

Plan View VI: February 2nd 2020.

8.26. Figure:

Plan View VII: February 2nd 2020.

8.27. Figure:

Plan View VIII: February 2nd 2020.

8.28. Figure:

West Longitudinal Section I: February 2nd 2020.

8.29. Figure:

West Longitudinal Section II: February 2nd 2020.

8.30. Figure:

West Longitudinal Section III: February 2nd 2020.

8.31. Figure:

West Longitudinal Section IV: February 2nd 2020.

8.32. Figure:

Construction Phase Montage

8.33. Figure:

Plate Installation

8.34. Figure:

Participatory Public Action

8.35. Figure:

Fork Installation

8.36. Figure:

Asphalt Doll: Greenwich and Mason Street

8.37. Figure:

Asphalt Doll: Broadway and Columbus Avenue. Looking North West.

8.38. Figure:

Asphalt Doll: Broadway and Columbus Avenue. Looking South West.

8.39. Figure:

Asphalt Doll: Filbert and Columbus Avenue

xv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” Henry Miller Cities are shaped by people who live and lived in them. They are written by History, by stories, and by relationships. They are made of complexity, of overlapped layers of time and life in space.

The sociologist Henri LeFebvre says: “one thing is the city and another thing is the urban”. The city is a stable structure than can be designed, but it is also constituted by a set of relationships that establish our way of living in the urban environment, those are unstable and ephemeral.

Manuel Delgado uses the term “Practiced City” (La ciudad practicada), or “The City without its figure 1.1

architecture” (la ciudad menos su arquitectura), the city that exists unpredictably.

This thesis focuses on the challenge that urban design has in influencing the inner tissue of cities, LIFE. This thesis is intended to examine how art and the urban design process enhance public space. I will investigate which properties

figure 1.2

of the art-making process can be used to solve problems of urban experience, and the types of art that could be used for that purpose.

My research includes a methodology to identify and locate places where art will help with sitespecific urban design goals.

Currently, the City of San Francisco approves art

figure 1.3

Chapter 1: Introduction

projects through a public review process. Public 1

and private sponsors of projects are required to justify their processes and projects. Artists are commissioned to produce art for designated locations. The Civic Arts Commission reviews the proposals via public hearings. Comments from the public are heard and discussed. After a decision is rendered, the project sponsor is free to implement the art project.

The current process deals with art on a case-tocase basis, no comprehensive plan exists that addresses public art on an urban district or citywide scale. If such a plan were to exist it would address public art as a way to strengthen the identity of places and increase the vitality of urban districts. The intention for such a comprehensive Civic Art Plan might exist but the current case-tocase review process does not link together the figure 1.4

various art projects, nor does the current process allow urban design to guide the projects toward specific locations and content.

This thesis has proposed a Public Action Plan. It seeks to develop an objective Program for Public Art and a tool for applying with the minimum number of constraints, with the ultimate goal

figure 1.5

of building the meaning of a place that also maintains the expressive intensions of the artist.

This first chapter provides an overview of the project. The second chapter describes the project methodology and the researcher’s personal involvement in the project. Chapters 3 and 4 present the theoretical context in which the figure 1.6

Chapter 1: Introduction

2

proposal is included and from which it takes its understanding on current issues. Chapter 5 is the interpretative written analysis of the site data and exploration. It sets the goals, strategies and principles for Chapter 6. The next two chapters explain the proposal in two parts (respective to the two disciplines examined): urban design in Chapter 7, and the public art in Chapter 8. This work concludes in Chapter 9 with a discussion of the findings of the research along with the implications and recommendations to the field of art practice and design in public spaces.

1.1 WHAT IS PUBLIC ART? One of my first memories travelling with my parents was the Stravinsky Fountain situated in front of the centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. This piece, completed by Niki de SaintPhalle and Jean Tinguely in 1982, presents 16 mobile gargoyles dancing to the sound of the homage “Le Sacre du Printemps” Ballet. I was 7 years old and was unable to move from the Stravinsky Plaza for 4 hours (as were my parents and sisters).

Through the years, as a citizen or a visitor exploring cities, art has proven to me that it enriches the experience of environment. I have come to believe that art is one with life, and life´s everyday events.

As urban designers who shape the environment, figure 1.7

we know that public space is at a premium in most cities. It is thus increasingly important that we use it well -- that we bring together and manipulate both the physical and symbolic image of the city for their human qualities, for the people.

“Art brings a spiritual dimension to the discipline because art seeks meaning in everyday life” Peter Bosselman, 2008

figure 1.8

Chapter 1: Introduction

3

This thesis expresses the importance of the practice of art in designing public space. It stays in the general topic of public art and raises the questions of Art FOR the public? Art OF the public? Art BY the public? Such questions are concerned with the ownership of the space, the quality of urban places, and the relationship between public art and public policies, urban growth, and public infrastructure.

1.2 WHY IS IT RELATED WITH URBAN DESIGN? The study of Art and Urban Design are inextricable.

The urban form is increasingly linked to culture: urban developments are connected to cultural programs to promote the image of cities.

The great challenge of Urban Design is to increase figure 1.9

the potential of cities to create liveable, walkable, healthy and sustainable communities. Our work in public spaces of cities and villages (streets, roads, parks, plazas, waterfronts and commercial districts) is mainly important to support, build and inspire identity of communities.

This proposal established the possibility of the coexistence of a macro infrastructural project

figure 1.10

of a regional scale (the North Shore Subway Line), an urbanization project in a urban scale (Columbus Avenue Revitalization Project), and a public art project of a social scale (The Banquet Public Art Program for Columbus Avenue), all taking place within the city of San Francisco.

figure 1.11

Chapter 1: Introduction

4

1.3 WHY COLUMBUS AVENUE AS A DESIGN RESEARCH EXAMPLE? Columbus Avenue is been the example, the experimental case in which I have applied my methodology. This street is normally associated with the North Beach Neighborhood, but Columbus Avenue is a 1.2 mile diagonal that goes from the Financial District in downtown to the Fisherman’s Wharf slicing through San Francisco’s rectangular grid. North Beach is but one of the neighbourhoods through which this street runs. Chinatown, with the highest population density in San Francisco; the Barbary Coast, with the oldest nightclubs of the City; the valley that holds the San Francisco Art Institute and the iconic Lombard Street; and Fisherman’s Wharf, these are all communities identify neighborhoods and that landmark this street as a tourist attraction famous for its beauty, culture, creativity, and social authenticity.

On the other hand, the affluence of sub-districts adjacent to Columbus Avenue and the important role of the city’s transportation system relate to a critical debate: car-oriented streets versus humanizing and pedestrianizing streetscapes. figure 1.12

Chapter 1: Introduction

5

The opportunity that Columbus Avenue has to rethink its role in the city’s transportation system and proposed a pedestrian system to improve its neighbours and visitors urban experience is the potential of this location to introduce art as a major constituent element of the process and the future project.

1.4 PROPOSAL OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE This thesis highlights the major importance that art has on the urban environment and relates it to the Urban Design and Planning processes, providing art with a key role in linking the urban process: the continuity of the space, time and life over urban transformation.

The proposed Banquet Public Art Master Plan combined with the Urban Design Plan for Columbus Avenue addresses infrastructural, urban design issues that are also elevated into cultural and social issues. It combines transportation, urban design and public art interventions and builds a citywide cultural setting and a “new� public realm.

It reconceptualises the process, by changing the order of public art in the urban design and construction process, it will become a constituent part of the space both physically and psychologically, instead of a cosmetic addition.

Both plans consider the overall process of design construction and completion in the phasing proposal, from the analysis of the site to the final product, to engage citizens of the City and figure 1.13

the community in decision-making processes of their future public spaces. This Public Action Comprehensive Plan research creates dialogues about the urban transformation of neighbourhoods.

figure 1.14

Chapter 1: Introduction

6

CHAPTER 2: METHODS This chapter explores the integration of the practice of public art and design in public spaces.

It considers what has been written, what is already been done, how it could

be applied to a specific site, and what could be done next. I first review the literature on Public Art and its relationship to design in public spaces. The review explores each of the main points introduced later in this thesis: that Public Art is an important feature of the streetscape of the City; that it can engage citizens to give places a meaningful character and vitality; that it should be programmed in a comprehensive way in order to take advantage of its unique features; and contributes to achieving coherence for the pieces of artwork that exist within cities.

2.1 GENERAL METHODOLOGY figure 2.1

The primary way in which I have gathered the data underlying this project has been to generate it through firsthand activities -- through direct observation of the site, my research of both theory and the site itself, personal surveys, and shared, interactive experiences with the site and people passing through the site. figure 2.2

The secondary data used in the thesis came from various sources (see bibliography): the UCB Library, the GIS SF Maps, targeted Internet searches, and consultations with professionals in the field. Some of the sources and links come from a blog created for the thesis. (http:// columbusavenuesfo.blogspot.com/). This blog

figure 2.3

Chapter 2: Methods

tool has become a forum in which professors, 7

classmates, and other interested users could share their opinion on the updated findings.

It may also become a future tool during the continuation of the real (non-virtual) project on Columbus Avenue. These twenty-first century’s diaries are increasingly part of the new format and dialog for public and democratic participation, and as a researcher I’m interested in testing them too.

Within the umbrella topic of “Public Art” there are numerous subfields worth exploring.

There are many different fields in which the theoretical context and actual issues are explained: Art (Sculpture, New Media…), Community Development, Culture, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Urbanism, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture…

My intention was to review all the disciplines, all the references to related them all in this thesis in order to justify the need for comprehensive Public Art Program: beautiful, meaningful, creative and coherent (with the urban environment and the community around it).

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW This bibliographical review explores a range of topics, including: the ownership of public spaces, the democratic generation of public space, and controversies within public art… These sources can be classified according to medium (libraries, magazines, journals, websites, blogs) and content (general theory sources and site figure 2.4

research sources).

The general theory is divided in four parts related to the different disciplines that I focus on: Urban Design, Urban Planning, Public Art, and Community Design. The Site context resources are classified according to: Social and Cultural History; Urban Design History; previous studies

figure 2.5

Chapter 2: Methods

(the vegetation survey, the transportation report 8

and the surveys conducted by the SF Transportation Department); institutions and programs involved in the site area; and the community groups that could give the everyday street users a voice on the proposal.

A number of references, while not quoted directly in this manuscript, have been a clear inspiration through the writing process. They will be also useful for future research, data updates, and citizen feedback on the topic and the site. They include literature review in various disciplines that is really interesting for a broader understanding of the topic but don’t fit in the speech of this thesis.

2.3 SAN FRANCISCO REGULATORY ANALYSIS 2.3.1 SAN FRANCISCO ARTS POLICY To establish the regulatory context of the site, I provide a brief background on the political, economic and cultural legislation of San Francisco.

I have studied the arts policy for the City and County of San Francisco that was adopted in the Master Plan [what master plan is this? The arts master plan?] in May 1991 by the Arts Commission and the Planning Commission. The quoted objectives below demonstrate local support for the arts through city leadership, and explain the relevance of the arts in the essence and character of San Francisco, a city nationally and internationally acclaimed as a cultural centre, as said in goal I of the Arts Elements: “Recognize the arts as necessary to the quality of life for all segments of San Francisco, as noted by the National League of Cities: The arts are a critical element in the survival of cities. If we are to achieve an improved quality of life for the nation’s urban population, all levels of government must recognize the arts as an essential service. All men, women, and children should have the opportunity to experience the arts in their daily lives. Within the urban environment every citizen should have available accessible avenues of cultural development, expression and involvement.”

The master plan goals also underscore the intentions of this thesis in that they match my first intuitions about the importance of arts in quality of life in the city: Chapter 2: Methods

9

“Goal I: Support and nurture the arts through city Leadership.

Goal II: Recognize and sustain the diversity of the cultural expressions of art in San Francisco.

Goal III: Recognize and support individual artists and arts organizations, a combination that is vital figure 2.6

to a thriving arts environment.

Goal IV: Increase opportunities for quality arts education Goal V: Increase funding support for the arts in SF Goal

VI:

Enhance,

develop,

and

protect

the physical environment of the arts in San Francisco.” figure 2.7

In Chapter VI, the master plan describes the public art programs designed to preserve and expand arts facilities throughout the City.

“There are four public art programs in the City of San Francisco, the Art in Public Places program administered by the Arts Commission, the Percent for Art programs of the Planning figure 2.8

Commission and Redevelopment Agency, and the public art program of the Airports Commission.

Those programs function independently, each responsible for a specific jurisdiction - the Arts Commission to projects on or adjacent to the site of public construction including the Airport; the Airports Commission program which deals solely

figure 2.9

Chapter 2: Methods

with rotating exhibitions on the airport premises; 10

the Redevelopment Agency, to art in major private development in redevelopment areas; and the Planning Department, whose public art program is restricted to the downtown area.”

All this legal support for the arts in San Francisco sets the base for choosing this City to address art as a possible solution to create a vibrant community environment along urban transformation.

2.3.1 SAN FRANCISCO URBAN DESIGN PLAN The Urban Design Plan of San Francisco is a mayor achievement of the professionals in the Planning Department of San Francisco FOR the citizens of San Francisco. It will be studied in Chapter 6 to compare and highlight its goals with the proposed ones for Columbus Avenue.

To understand the effect of the current planning tools that the city has, it is interesting to read Allan Jacobs’ comments on the role of the San Francisco’s Department of City Planning in his book Making City Planning Worka. As Jacobs notes, there is a disconnect between mandate and reality, “[the department] has a charter mandate to secure understanding and a systematic effectuation of the master plan…but it has few direct powers that would enable it to carry out the plans it produces…the department has difficulty “making things happen”.

Yet in this same book, Jacobs points out where the San Francisco’s Urban Beautification program has an exemplary case in which the City Planning Department was effective within figure 2.10

Chapter 2: Methods

11

governmental context. “The Department used its knowledge of government, its informal powers, and the interests of its staff to help carry out a plan and to deal successfully with community issues. (…)It shows that one program with modest objectives can help address other, more significant problems. It also suggests that local government can usually adapt its organizational structure to take advantage of federal programs that it considers desirable (…).”

The case of the Urban Beautification Program is for me a hopeful example to explain the possibility of local government to use the current legal structures to address the arts. The Public Art program proposed in this thesis is based in a federal program, the percentfor-art;. It is based on the idea of reconceptualising the order of the economic support of art in urban projects. It believes in the power that a simple move in addressing the questions about urban issues to citizens will make great changes in community identity, neighbourhood vitality and the City quality of Life.

2.4 CASE STUDY ANALYSIS This section focuses on precedent examples that have informed the conceptual design of the Urban Design project and Public Art Program along Columbus Avenue, San Francisco. ((They haven’t been explored in detail so I will just mention them for future deeper research)). I figure 2.11

will categorize and analyze the case studies - first those that consider Columbus Avenue a diagonal feature to study the geometry in a city urban form; and then those that study specific locations and programs to examine the process and implementation strategies of public art programs.

figure 2.12

Chapter 2: Methods

12

2.4.1 Diagonal Urban Form The first three examples are studies of designed diagonal streets as transportation connectors: L´Avinguda Diagonal in the Barcelona’s 1859 rationalist grid, l’ Exaimple, created by the urban planner Ildefons Cerdá; Baron Haussmann’s Plan for Paris in 1852, and finally, Washington DC [the whole city?] that Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed in 1791 for President Washington using baroque influences that later were influential in City Beautiful design, which used street dimensions as a social control device and a health solution.

These examples becomes the base for the urban form analysis, solutions for diagonal corners in the city grid, they established a reference that investigates what other cities have done with triangular blocks, lots and islands.

2.4.2 City Public art Program and Arts Institutions Arizona Public Art Plan.

The most compelling case study for this thesis would be the innovative William Moorish’sb urban design plan for the City of Phoenix, the Arizona’s public art plan which unites artists and public work engineers in the transformation of city utilities. The plan recommends how to place and integrate public art into the design figure 2.13

Chapter 2: Methods

of urban infrastructure, to enhance Phoenix’s 13

sense of place and identity.

In 1987, using the Phoenix Arts Commission plan as a modelc, the Arizona Commission on the Arts initiated a state-wide program called “Arizona: The Look of Communities”. This program looked at community-wide planning that would include strategies for art placement and landscaping, parks, open spaces, streetscapes and gateways.

These were visual quality master plans.

To enact this Master Plan they put together a Team to prepare the base map for the potential art sites; to develop criteria to select the sites; and to review the municipal properties to be acquired for those sites. This Team was made of two figure 2.14

urban designers consultants, William R. Moorish and the late Catherine R. Brown, experienced in public sector urban planning and design, and an artist, Grover Mouton, to consider the “correct” (from an artist’s point of view) placement of artwork in public spaces.

figure 2.15

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro Art Department.

The MTA Metro Artd is a department of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for Los Angeles County. Established in 1989, it is in charge of administering the art program that has become an integral part of every transit project it builds. As a result the County has managed to unite transit and art in its new system, including the Metro Rail and Metro Bus systems.

Metro Art commissions artists to incorporate art into a wide array of projects. From bus Chapter 2: Methods

14

stops to rail stations, streetscapes to bus interiors, construction fences to poetry works, art creates a sense of place and engages transit riders. This program has been described as one of the most imaginative public art programs in the country by the media. figure 2.16

Among the projects, the Metro Walk Project included in the construction of the Golden Line Extension and directed by Diego Cardoso and James Rojas is a great example of a public art projects relate to transportation, by applying artistic ideas in functional transit systems for a unique representation of each community and

figure 2.17

station, and adding a walk tour through the artwork when finished to help the community ego and economy.

The Central Subway Line Public Art Program, San Francisco. California.

This program is the most current and directly figure 2.18

related program to the project in Columbus

Avenue. As proposed, it will enliven San Francisco’s new transit corridor with a vital public art collection and, during the nine year design and construction phase of the project, involve temporary art projects and community programs.

The Central Subway will provide a range of opportunities for public art and related arts programming in adjacent neighbourhoods. The Arts Commission will be working with local communities, including local arts and other community-based organizations, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, to develop a Central Subway Arts Master Plan over the end of 2008. It is responsible for management of the public art funding Chapter 2: Methods

15

generated by each eligible city capital improvement project. As with all new City and County capital improvement projects, the city allocates 2% of the eligible construction costs for public art programming directly associated with the Central Subway Project, as required by the City’s Administrative Codee.

The Department of Neighborhoods. Seattle. Washington.

As an example of Public Initiatives in Community Design using Cultural and Artistic Proposals, I examined Seattle’s innovative Department of Neighborhoods guided by Jim Diersf. As a city staff member Diers pushed for neighbourhood empowerment against ill-conceived development projects asking for community feedback regarding approaches to updating plans. This institutional department structure added to the “Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs” has created a government based funding model that has made the nonprofit arts and culture a significant industry in Seattle.

The Intersection for the Arts. San Francisco. California.

San Francisco’s oldest alternative non-profit art space (est. 1965) Intersection for the Artsg has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theatre, music and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area’s cultural community through service, technical support, and

mentorship

programs.

“Intersection

provides

a

place

where

provocative

ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect with one another.”

Intersection for the Arts is an example of community research process that explores experimentation and risk, debate and critical inquiry, the essential role of community, the democratization of resources and experience, and how today’s issues are thrashed about in the heat and immediacy of live art.

“By blurring the boundaries between art and life, and bringing the neighbourhood of the outlying Mission District community into the gallery year-round, Intersection fulfils its populist mission as well as anyone.” – Artweek Magazine.

Chapter 2: Methods

16

“I shop the line” campaign for Cambie Street, Vancouver, Canada.

This case studyh does not easily fit into any clear category but provides a justification for the need to think about the economic and cultural issues that an urbanization project can provoke in an figure 2.19

urban area.

Cambie Street in Vancouver is a living experience of how a business community suffering from an urban transformation project has been able, through a publicity campaign, to survive the chaos induced by construction. The street was torn apart for the future Light Train and the businesses along the strip were suffering from economic inactivity due to the lingering presence of unsightly, hulking construction equipment. The business community developed a public announcement campaign to make the citizens aware that the street was still operating, that the shops were still open. The “I shop the line” campaign received big investments from the government, from businesses, and from the community-. This example illustrates the potential for social damage in liveability, comfort, and interaction in the construction phase of any public project.

2.5 SITE SELECTION: COLUMBUS AVENUE, SAN FRANCISCO. The introduction of the Arts Policy for San Francisco underscores the reason for focusing my thesis on San Francisco: “San Francisco is nationally and internationally acclaimed as a cultural center where the arts are central to the essence and character of the City. It hosts a flourishing cultural environment in which a profusion of art is created, performed and exhibited in adventure some, creative and often ground breaking ways. The breadth of artistic achievement in San Francisco encompasses many disciplines, cultures, individuals and organizations of all sizes.”

This famous creative character of the city attracts numerous tourists, many of whom flock to Columbus Avenue, which is the spine of North Beach and Chinatown. Because both of these neighbourhoods have a culturally iconic history, my proposed project for Columbus Chapter 2: Methods

17

which deals with the link between them, is a great opportunity to rethink the role of arts in the city. Furthermore, these communities could benefit greatly from a better civic and open space network.

For that matter, the Columbus Avenue Revitalization Master Plan was born to study the opportunity for the street to play a major role in the city transportation system. The recommendations contemplated in it address transit connections, streetscape improvements and economic growth initiatives that art to be developed with the participation of residents, merchants, local organizations and government agencies. They will be led by Renew SF, a coalition of concerned citizens committed to the planning and implementing of programs for the improvement of the North East sector of the city. This influential group has been an enormous help in my thesis. They have shared their insights about the area, helping to make the proposal a desirable future project (to be revaluated). Their passion has always been a motivation for me.

2.6 SITE ANALYSIS Columbus Avenue is a diagonal that was planned in 1872 to be a collector diagonal. The historical maps that I used for this thesis come from the Map Library of the University of California, Berkeley. The maps showing topography, zoning, land use, building bulk and height information were downloaded from the San Francisco Government website so as to have consistent base data. All the analysis diagrams related to either the city, district or block scales (Built Form, Topography, Circulation Networks, Pedestrian Transit Access Systems, Land Use, Open Space Natural Systems, and Demographic Data.) are based on those official sources.

The site analysis parts of this thesis are based primarily on my experience of the site: my notes, pictures, and own perceptions of the space. The Vitality Analysis was created by repeated working visits to the site, and it is divided into: economic (related to physical features) and the social (studying social behaviours) analyses. I marked the types of activities, the types of users, the types of business, their activity (vacant or occupied) and their shop fronts (transparent or opaque). I followed human interaction activities in the different spaces: open spaces, corners, sidewalks, and intersections.

Chapter 2: Methods

18

figure 2.20-0 .Sketch Bird Eye View from Fisherman’s Wharf to Financial District.

Chapter 2: Methods

19

2.7 CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION This research thesis focuses on the characteristics of public art to make meaningful places, to make community-building places, and to make places that are attractive to all people.

The great challenge of urban design is to develop the potential of cities to create liveable, walkable, healthy and sustainable communities. This discipline works in public spaces (streets, roads, parks, plazas, waterfronts and commercial districts) and is important to support, build and inspire the identity of communities.

William R. Morrish’s explanation for his project in Phoenix can be applied to this proposed thesis project. “The project seeks to approach infrastructure as a cultural landscape, the connective safety net that knits citizens, public spaces, social institutions, cultural expression and the natural environment into multi-operational urban landscape networks.” The need to incorporate people in our projects as urban designers is critical.

Humanity, known as much for its capacity for construction as its ability to manipulate objects and its extensive use of non metabolic energy, has initiated its own evolution, characterised by an intense reorganization of its natural environment. This accelerated and excessive encroachment of the environment, along with a great change in the structure and values of presentday society, has motivated a necessary evolution in the theoretical definition of some disciplines like architecture, science, art, culture and technology.

Professor Randy Hester combines concepts from different fields in the title of his new book Design for Ecological Democracy to explain “the best possible life we can achieve. … it (ecological democracy) offers a path for a long journey… democracy is government by the people. It is exercised directly through active involvement in a locality and indirectly through elections, following principles of equality and attending to individuals’ needs and broader community goods. figure 2.20

Ecology is a science of the relationships between organisms, including our

Chapter 2: Methods

20

environments and us. It encompasses the study of natural processes, ecosystems, and interactions of humans with each other, other species, and the cities we occupy. It includes principles of social and environmental function and interconnection. It is also a comprehensive figure 2.21

long-term way to think creatively.” i In this way, my participatory design proposal is an on-going creative process that will need to be revaluated. This thesis sets a theoretical frame for a dialogue to happen in the real world.

The theoretical, academic part of the thesis will inform the practical, future design. This context permits the use of some participatory tools as

figure 2.22

surveys, questionnaires, personal interviews, and group discussions, in this phase: the analysis of the study area.

In the first phase of the project, there were two groups of important subjects that informed the research: the government officials, advocates and professionals; and peers and citizens who were anonymous users of public space. The first group was a panel of knowledgeable informants, people who were uniquely able to be informative because they are privileged witnesses of current studies and processes related to the planning and design of the corridor. They included representatives of Renew SF and SFCTA (San Francisco City Transportation Authority).

The second group consisted of the people who live along Columbus Avenue, people who walk on the avenue, and those who visit the places along the avenue. They are the ones affected by changes in transportation and urban design. Those participants of the process were approached and interviewed on site. They were asked their opinion about their perception of and feelings on the streets’ design settings.

Interview nº1.

Chapter 2: Methods

21

For the participatory part of this project I conducted two surveys, designed two analysis games and a standard walk tour, and proposed an action to test the space (see Appendix A).

On the 27th April 2008, I conducted the first survey by distributing an anonymous questionnaire (see Appendix 1) in a UC Berkeley classroom, LA 252A. This questionnaire focused on getting an idea of what designers-in-training think about public art: what are the characteristics of the arts that help the public realm, what are the qualities figure 2.23

that could enhance public projects, what are the virtues of a collaborative process with artists, and envisioning ideals for public twenty-first century

monuments.

I learned from their feedback that some of their impressions were simple opinions as streets users: “Public Art encourages thoughts in mundane life” or “Public Art is anything that makes me pause. Take consideration. Stop and Think.” I mostly shared their point of view; the purpose for the arts in public spaces is to increase mental awareness with the environment; to link individuals with the present, the space and the collective; and to put people in time, place and social milieu. Their input also opened the discussion to the breadth of the term when someone wrote poetically “The spectrum of Art is from big to small; muted to loud, short to tall”. Another one contributes to the discussion by giving the arts great power and a major social role in his/her definition:

“Public Art is a civic and

democratic expression in the urban fabric”.

From the outset the collaborative idea of the application of arts in this thesis was the main issue. The big question has been how to bring the artist to the urban design process, how to make an effective design team with reciprocal relationships between the members, and how to synchronize the discipline into a cohesive process. Hearing a statement such as “We need them to get an unorthodox interpretation of space” from a colleague underscores Chapter 2: Methods

22

the relevance of this common belief.

Interview nº2.

The second interview was conducted on the 4th May of 2008 along Columbus Avenue. (see Apendix 2). Two persons, Maia Garcia Vergniory and I, started that Sunday walking from Washington Square on opposite sides of the avenue. Maia went south to the Financial District and I went north to the Fisherman’s Wharf. We needed to cover the whole strip to gain a better understanding of the streetscape but we were figure 2.24

primarily interested in who uses the avenue. We spoke to passers-by to find out the type of users in a range of age and gender, but we were particularly interested in their origin -- if they were neighbours (from the district), locals (from San Francisco), or tourists, either national or international. The selection of people was random -- whoever we passed -- this way we captured a more diverse population and therefore obtained more balanced results from these interviews. As one worker in the area put it: “Columbus Avenue: It’s a perfect mixed of locals and tourists”.

The quest to understand the uniqueness of a place is important for any design; we want to avoid designing for stereotypes. To that end we observed the activity patterns of the street users which I then developed into a classification of street users: “Users”; who use the space and people, the pedestrians and park enjoyers; versus “Consumers,” or people who consume the space, the shoppers, and the café “seaters”.

In answering questions about personal routines (rituals) or space preferences we found that 80% of users come to the street with someone, with whom they talk about the restaurants, or cafés; 30% of users mentioned City Lights Bookstore as a symbol of art and culture.

One person responded, “It feels like I’m on vacation. It’s the closest feeling of being in Italy but in SF.” This level of social interaction is an attraction that makes this area one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in San Francisco.

Chapter 2: Methods

23

The transportation questions revealed a set of important findings on the massive use of the street – indeed what is intended as a transit corridor becomes a pedestrian strip. Our data suggests that at most of the intersections the pedestrian flow is larger than the vehicular flow (4 times more in the Green and Stockton intersection). Notably, the problems addressed in the interviews involved pedestrian safety and comfort: “less cars, more accessible for pedestrians”. On the other hand, some people figure 2.25

also want “more parking facilities, more car space”. Designers have to create a proposal that deals with human needs, but also makes a statement about the change that this car-oriented society will undergo. This future can flourish with “landscaping, building reparation…” even though there are nostalgic souls that “wouldn’t change anything,” a challenge for innovative solutions and those who promote change.

Street Game.

This type of interview was folded into the Street Game I designed for this project. The game was a playful tool intended to locate users on a space, at a specific time. The game participants had to choose a coloured dot indicating of where they were from: yellow = neighbourhood, blue = Bay Area, green = US, or red = abroad. Each subject also had to write a number describing their activity: 1 = working, 2 = shopping, 3 = tourism or 4 = other activities. Those marks were placed on a printed map and a day schedule that located the type of users, their activities and the times and space in which they developed such actions. The combination of all data created a unique map, a visual, fun and easy measurement of these four urban variables.

It was a very successful experience. The great revelation was to find that Columbus Avenue served as both a neighbourhood street and a citywide main street – and to observe that most of the people did not think about it as just one isolated element. A Chapter 2: Methods

24

simple answer like “I’m going here and here, and later I will go there� (pointing at the boards) suggests a pedestrian flow along the different landmarks. Pedestrians normally program their routes through the neighbourhood, walking along Columbus Avenue, but many more cross it transversally.

The Vessel Game.

This game was also played with students from the Richmond High School for the WCCTAC Program in Urban Design. The purpose of this figure 2.26

game was to educate the students about how to look at the street, in addition to serving as a research device to better understand the characteristics of a place.

Each student was asked to place a vessel in different location that associated spatial elements with sensory factors, and then take a creative photograph that could later be incorporated into his or her art portfolio. They each had a plate to place on a textured surface, a fork on a colored

figure 2.27

surface, a spoon in a smelly space, a knife in a symbolic space, and a glass in a noisy space.

The selected location was to relate to a sense: touch, sight, smell, hearing, and the perception of culture in the city. The outcome was a set of photographs that were divided depending on the vessel element that they were using to find

figure 2.28

Chapter 2: Methods

the physical features related to the perception 25

sense. Even though they were confused at the beginning by the abstract assignment, while playing they figure out that they knew how to do it, they jus had to be more aware, very awake.

It is always an amazing experience to work with teenagers, walk with them and know what figure 2.29

they look at; how they look at the world not as a juvenile, but as an �outsider,� as someone who has never been in San Francisco before. They studied the small scale details of the Columbus corridor, at the margin limits of streets, and they had an intuitive understanding about the issues of the street, such as the noise of cars, and the dirtiness of some corners. Those corners

figure 2.30

and sites that they pointed at will be explored as potential opportunity sites for art, social interaction, or points of mental awareness. figure 2.31

Chapter 2: Methods

26

Widening of the Sidewalks Demonstration with Community In order to demonstrate that public art can be a tool to engage citizens and incorporate their opinion in urban design processes, Renew SF and I were planning to do a widening of the sidewalk demonstration.

The appropriation of the parking space was planned in front of the Café Puccini on Columbus Avenue nº405. By displaying three more tables in each parking spaces and create temporary terraces, pedestrians would test the decongestion of the sidewalk, the possibility of stopping; and district businesses will be convinced about the economic benefits of the street improvement.

This event has not happened yet. The reasons why are a manifestation of the businesses engagement (minimum) in the modification of the street –most of them are tenants. I couldn’t agree about the details of the action with the owner of the café in which we were planning it. The strong sense of ownership of the restaurants for the parking spaces and pieces of sidewalk in front of their business is a tested problem in the street. It raises the figure 2.32

Chapter 2: Methods

27

questions of how public is the space if we have to pay to sit in it?

This demonstration will happen, and will be the first banquet of the Public art Program proposed in this thesis. It will be the first dialogue, a moment for a participatory charette on the future steps of the project (if we finally can obtain the participation of the restaurant owners, the city, and the area’s police officers).

2.8 DESIGN AND PUBLIC ART PROGRAM The final method of this thesis was to make a combined proposal: an Urban Design Plan and a Public Art Program for Columbus Avenue. It is a first proposal for the street design, community involvement, phasing and implementation method for the project. It has been developed with the help of professionals and community members that are currently involved in the ongoing studies.

figure 2.33

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28

NOTES CHAPTER 2 1

Chapter 4. pº79 “Making City Planning Work” Allan B. Jacobs, 1978

American Society of Planning Officials, Chicago.

2

William Morrish wm2c@virginia.edu

3

“Public Art Works: The Arizona Models” Phoenix Arts Commission 1992

4

http://www.metro.net/about_us/metroart/default.htm

Marc Pally. Director of Art in Public Places Program for Los Angeles. mpally@earthlink. net Alan Nakagawa, Senior Public Art Officer, Metro Art, LA MTA. NakagawaA@metro.net http://www.metrogoldline.org/art/index.html Diego Cardoso and James Rojas from Los Angeles Metro Walk Project. cardosod@ mta.net, RojasJ@metro.net 5

www.sfartscommission.org/pubart

San Francisco Arts Commission Public Art Project Manager: who managed the Central Subway and Third Street Light Rail public art programs: judy.moran@sfgov.org 6

http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/npi/

“Neighbor Power: Building community the Seattle Way” Jim Diers 2004 7

www.theintersection.org

8

http://www.shoptheline.ca

9

Pag.4. “Design for Ecological Democracy” Randy T. Hester. MIT Press 2006

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29

CHAPTER 3: PUBLIC ART In this chapter, I will introduce the topic of Public Art from definitions and typologies to the theoretical context, the relationship with urban design; and the current debate that this type of art arises in cities.

3.1 DEFINITIONS Taken together the above list constitutes my definition of Public Art and Culture. These terms are very broad. By giving them meaning together, I state some of the key points of this thesis.

Culture Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be understood as “systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another.”1 Culture has been called “the way of life for an entire society”. Culture also can be defined as “the arts collectively: Art, music, literature, and related intellectual activities”, or the “Knowledge, Enlightenment and Sophistication acquired through education and exposure to the arts”.2 Public Art The term “public art”3 properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. The term is especially significant within the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies and practitioners of public art. It signifies a particular working practice, often with implications of site specific, community involvement and collaboration.

The broadest use of the word art, then, is that “All art is public,” or that art which is dedicated figure 3.1

Chapter 3: Public Art

to a public. What is Public Art? This question 30

could have an unending answer. Suffice to say it is a matter of multitudinous disciplines: Anthropology, Sociology, Art, Psychology, Sculpture, Urban Design, Planning. The abstract and open-endedness of the word art, with the adjective “public” affixed to it, provides this thesis an intellectual challenge with infinite possibilities of application in the public realm.

3.2 HISTORY: CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC ART The first questions raised were about the synergy between art and society, between artistic processes and social processes. These raise another set of questions: How can or could art have been the transmitter of knowledge, today or in a historic period?

How can art reflect the sensibility and the interpretation of a particular reality?

Can art contribute to the growth of the societies that create it?

Can art enhance quality of life?

To what extent was or can art be a transforming element, in a historic period or today?

Public Art was easily defined before the 1960’s: It was commonly called “civic art” in the days of Beaux Arts architecture, when architects designed pediments to be filled with allegory, architraves to be punctuated with reliefs, and plazas to boast uplifting symbols perched high atop pedestals. Art in architecture was considered de rigeur, indispensable.

It was associated with Monuments, Memorials, Murals and Mimes located in public spaces for in praise of a common cause.

There were two causes that expanded the public practice of art in the United States, one related to artists and the other related to public policies that supported artists and their work. In the 1970’s artists moved out of the studios and expanded their creative expressions out of the museums and galleries. With the city as a gallery, the figure 3.2

Chapter 3: Public Art

different programs, commissions and CETA 31

(Comprehensive Employment Training Act – a remake of the WPA job program in which artists were put to work in the community), the circumstances were ideal for the emerging community-arts movement.

Arising from the same time period was the notion of “site-specific” art. As part of the New Deal Roosevelt’s policy, works were designed for a particular place, taking into account the site’s physical surroundings as well as other environmental or social factors. They began to consider the context for their work, incorporating the wind, the sun, the change of seasons, the audience demographics, the history of the site, and all the social forces that can shape a place.

An example of powerful and expressive place-making was the “Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial” by Maya Lin in Washington, D.C that liberated memorials from the monoliths or personage.

This new interest in artists creating outside their studios not only bound them to the practice of design of places for people, but it grounded art in the daily environment. Allan Kaprow coined the term “Un-art”, “the Art that can’t be Art” to describe this new fusion. He saw Art as Life blurring the separation between life and art, artist and audience. Suddenly the daily became a valued guideline that broke the impermeable sequence

between

author-object-museum-

spectator, therefore the artist was a citizen, and figure 3.3

the citizen was an artist. “[Kaprow’s] Happenings remove people from the illusory world which, swathed in abstractions, is their everyday life, and put people into the actual world through devices which freshen perception.”d The happenings linked people to the space, to the physical environment providing them the opportunity to

figure 3.4

Chapter 3: Public Art

exchange experience and their implications.

32

By incorporating this type of art in pubic programs, the world will become a living laboratory in which individuals assumed roles and responsibilities with a common creative goal. The artistic process will become a living theatre, and therefore: the art will be a knowledge and communication tool, figure 3.5

3.3 THE

a transforming process of reality.

ECONOMICS BENEFITS, LIMITATIONS AND SOCIAL POTENTIAL OF

PUBLIC ART Public Art is a discipline in which the money invested in it has both direct economic and social benefits. With one source of money you can reinforce two main urban objectives: cultural diversity and social creativity (Identity) on the one hand, and economy improvement on the other.

Public Art provides access to the creative process and cultural resources for all neighbourhoods, cultural communities, and segments of the city and its population.

“An average of 55 million viewers experience public art firsthand every day, approximately 1000 times the audience experiencing art galleries, museums and theatres combined.

For example, the Vietnam Memorial alone is visited by more than 10,000 people daily, and artworks in airports or subways are seen daily by over five million travellers. An average public art project provides 50 times the economic impact of arts events in traditional venues, yet the cost to the public for public art is less than 50 cents per taxpayer per year, based on the amount of public funding used to fund public art. The case of Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” generated more than $200 million for that city, and no taxpayer’s dollars were used.” e San Francisco embodies these statistics – it has one of the largest concentrated populations of artists in the country and a per capita audience attendance at art events that far surpasses the national average. Local multicultural artists and arts organizations play a major role in promoting cross-cultural fertilization. In San Francisco, the arts are a major industry, with a significant impact on the city’s economy. They generate tax revenues Chapter 3: Public Art

33

and a wide variety of jobs, goods, and services.

The arts bring visitors and tourists and visitor spending to San Francisco.

But is this enough? There are more ways in which San Francisco’s public art program could benefit the city and its citizens. Public funds raised by figure 3.6

the Public Art Programs could be a solution to community-design in forgotten low-income urban areas where there is no private investment. It seems possible to apply public art programs to urban revitalization, and community- arts projects to blighted urban areas that fail to attract private investment, since public art programs are normally applied, via the percent-for-art national

figure 3.7

program, to urban growth and public construction (buildings, infrastructure, or parks) and lowincome communities are not targets for urban reconstruction. Thus the initial concept for public art, i.e. cosmetic addition to urban development, limits our thinking about its potential and prevents us from thinking about public art being a rooted figure 3.8

tool to help communities’ revitalization physically and sociologically.

The mistake is the belief that one does not need the other -- that low-income urban areas do not need public art, and that wealthy communities do not need community art. This thesis stands in the faith that “poor people” need beauty and “wealthy

figure 3.9

Chapter 3: Public Art

people” need community/ common identity (and 34

not merely a common economic value).

To that end the public art program proposed in this research seeks a comprehensive, large scale program that will link diverse communities’ to the site, link the different development projects to the communities; and link the art projects throughout figure 3.10

the transformation of the city (See Chapter 6).

3.4 PUBLIC ART PUBLIC POLICIES Percent for Art Program The tipping point in the history of public art was in the 1970’s. It was provoked by the appearance of public policies that emphasized the role of the art in public space and the need to give citizens a major, public, creative and engaging experience in order to create a better public realm.

Starting in Philadelphia in 1959, percent-for-art programs in the United States proliferated rapidly in the 1970’s and now include 30 states and 300 cities. The National Percent for Art program, which locally often became a city ordinance, was a fee, usually some percentage of the project cost, placed on large scale development projects in order to fund and install public art. Today the details of such programs vary from area-to-area. Similar programs, such as Art in Public Places, attempt to achieve like goals by requiring that public art be part of a project, yet they often allow developers to pay in-lieu fees to a public art fund as an alternative. They are used to fund public art where private or specialized funding of public art is unavailable.

As John Wetenhall describes in his article “A Brief History of Percent-for-Art in America,” this program dates back to the New Deal and the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (established in 1934). The program set aside one percent of the cost of a federal building’s for artistic decoration. Artists were chosen by anonymous competition. The main intention was to encourage and publicize the development of American art, following the European tradition of patronage.

On the other hand, this selection of artists instead of architects made the big difference in Chapter 3: Public Art

35

the future evolution of the art, separating art from the architectural language and given it the freedom of expression that it has today.

During the Depression Era, the Treasury Section expanded their interests beyond high quality of art in public buildings and began to commit to stimulating public art appreciation writ large. The Treasury sponsored competitions that were given a specific narrative theme to assure that the final work would please the local community. This practice led juries to favour styles of “contemporary realism”. In concentrating on recognizable, local themes, the Treasury hoped to inspire an essentially “democratic” appreciation of fine art at the grass-roots level. As stated in the definition of murals: “a mural painting which immortalizes a portion of the history of the community in which the building stands, or work of sculpture which delights the eye and does not interfere with the general architectural scheme.”

San Francisco Public Art Program The hope of the Art in Public Places program for the City of San Francisco was that it would articulate the city-wide vision for public art and provide guidance to the various public art programs. The enabling legislation did not affect the autonomy of existing programs, but rather enabled each program to draw guidance from policy statements regarding, for example, the desired mix of media, or whether or how many projects should be undertaken by Bay Area artists. In particular, the plan indicated opportunities for collaborative projects.

San Francisco’s Public Art Program was one of the first in the country. It was established by City ordinance in 1969. The public art ordinance, included in the San Francisco Administrative Code, Section 3.19, is titled “Appropriation for Art. It calls for the enrichment of proposed public buildings, above-ground structures, parks and transportation improvements projects”, and it sets aside two percent of the construction cost of civic buildings, transportation improvement projects, new parks, and other above-ground structures such as bridges for public art. It also provides an allowance for artwork conservation funds and allows for the pooling of art enrichment funds for interdepartmental projects. Circumstances that would allow construction projects to be exempt from public art allocations are also defined.

The goals of the plan are set in the belief expressed in the 1991 Arts Policy (Objective Chapter 3: Public Art

36

VI-2) that states: “Public art enhances a city’s visual aesthetic, provides citizens with the opportunity to experience creative expressions and beauty; provides cities and neighbourhoods with identity and focus; provokes and promotes community dialogue; brings economic benefits in the form of tourism; provides jobs for artists, fabricators, shippers, suppliers; and changes attitudes about places and visual environment.” The Arts Policy is created to increase opportunities throughout the city, and demands the encouragement of a diversity of art forms to ensure that art in public places truly represents all segments of the public.

Today San Francisco’s Public Art Program seeks to promote a diverse and stimulating cultural environment to enrich the lives of the city’s residents, visitors and employees.

The Program “encourages the creative interaction of artists, designers, city staff, officials and community members during the design of City projects, in order to develop public art that is specific and meaningful to the site and to the community. Public art is developed and implemented in conjunction with the overall design and construction of each project.

Each project’s life span from the design phase through completion of construction is approximately three to seven years.”

The Banquet Public Art Program is based on this existent public policy. It proposes that an urban design project, a larger scale project could be attached to a public art program and then create a compelling comprehensive process, along the Project (place), the Process (time) and the Community (people).

figure 3.11

Factors of Continuity during Urban Transformation. Banquet Public Art Program Proposal.

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37

Chapter 3: Public Art

38

Sense required:

Dimensions:

“The Bear and the drinking man”

situated in the middleeast odf the plaza. excentric to the main entrance of the post office.

Space Reference:

Private space given to the public.

Space Ownership:

% of the post office building. required in the public art program of chicago city. spontaneous “amateur”/ institutional comissioned/ artist initiative/ elitist

Project Initiative:

City

World

Piece of work

Movile

Permanent

view ear smell touch taste legibility: physical social political cultural vitality: social economical cultural memory: collective individual historical present reflexion of future identity: community not participatory dialogue: yes no

Human

Scale:

steel painted in red, and assembled eith tornillos and soldadura.

Medium:

Passive

Esthatic

Movement: Active

Ephimeral

Time:

Categorization:

scale reference to the public social interaction

Design settings:

Public:

Post office. Chicago. USA.

Location

“Flamingo”. Alexander Calder. 1972.

Title. Author. Date:

a

b

CATALOGUE OF ART IN PUBLIC SPACE

babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba blablabalablablablabalbalbalbalbala babalbalbalbalbalbalblablablabalba

“Flamingo”. Alexander Calder. 1972.

Observation: Phenomenology

s.01= sculpture m.01= mural p.01= paintings i.01= installations a.01= actions

s.01

3.5 TYPOLOGY This thesis develops a template that helps describe and classify a catalogue of artwork in public spaces. It is meant to clarify with examples the enormous range of possibilities for deploying public art in cities. The research focuses on the characteristics of public art to make meaningful places, to make community-building places, and to make places that are attractive to all people. In this way, the factors of categorizing the art are not only related to perception, to physical tangible factors related to the art object, time, space, and people, but also to the policies attached to the existence of the art and the purposes for which they are located.

This typology of public art, if you will, helps relate the physical features and the design settings of the artwork in any public space.

The typology lays out as follows: figure 3.12

Medium: Sculpture, Paintings, Installations, Actions/ Happenings/ Performances, Urban Furniture and Decoration Design; Location: Street Art, Media Art, Site-specific Art (versus Plop Art), Environmental Art; Time: Of the Temporary Ephemeral or Permanent.

Temporary that becomes permanent, accepted, figure 3.13

beloved; Scale: Related to dimension, but also with the scope of the art -- “small” being considered human scale, one that can be experienced in person, “medium” being the city-scale intervention, and large the regional or world-wide scale projects.

Artistic Purpose: Purpose is spontaneous; it

figure 3.14

Chapter 3: Public Art

describes innate social creativity and the human 39

need to express oneself. It has no abstract or heroic purpose, it is about daily space.

Funding Purpose: Commissioned art involves a long process led by public institutions, non-profit organizations, and/or the artist’s own initiative.

The artist’s purpose and funding method are a figure 3.15

function of the artist’s aesthetic, the functional or political intent of the piece and the degree the artist’s construction supervision. Purposes can sometimes be related to whether the piece is for fee or for free. If a piece is paid for by public money, it has to be agreed upon by some body other than the artist, the result often being more “mainstream” depending on the time period and

figure 3.16

culture of its context. Conversely, unpaid art tends to be more political and freer of economic chains.

It assists with the reflection of urban

circumstances.

Movement: The artwork can be static or dynamic.

The performance of the piece is related to the interactions around it, either with the piece or figure 3.17

among the audience.

The Public: There can be no public to consume this art; there can be a passive audience or an interactive public; or the audience can be the maker of the art. The audience can perform as a receptor, it may need to interact with the art in order for it to perform as intended, or the audience may be the maker/creator of the piece of art. This exists primarily in performance and actions in pubic spaces.

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40

figure 3.18

3.6 FUSING ART WITH URBAN DESIGN Although this is not an art thesis, I must be clear about the assumptions I make as a designer in the art field. Like the critic Patricia Phillips I believe in the utility of art. I believe in the taboo among artists that art is “useful”. I believe that “Public Art needs to pursue and support strategies that encourage artists, critics, and audiences to accept the instrumentality of art”. In the public realm, the artwork is not an object anymore but an instrument.

Urban design connects people and places physically. In Chapter 2.3.2, the 1972 Urban Design Master Plan for San Francisco describes the discipline almost defensively: “Urban Design is not just an academic discipline or a pastime for visionary planners and architects.

Neither is it coldly oriented to physical things rather than people and their experience. It has to do, above all, with the visual and other environment, with their feeling of time and place and their sense of well-being...Urban Design is a response to Human Needs. It is part of the process of defining quality of environment, and quality for based upon human needs.”

Whereas art connects people emotionally, psychologically and philosophically, as well as in other ways, urban design deals with the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities; in particular, the shaping and uses of urban public space. For this purpose and for the purpose of fitting both disciplines together, I use this next section to formulate a list of physical factors that inform the setting of the artwork in public spaces; the purposes in so doing; and explain some issues that artwork confronts in the public urban context.

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41

figure 3.19

3.6.1 MATRIX OF ART As described in the first section of this chapter, artwork in public space can be classified in the following typology: medium, location, scale, artistic purpose, funding purpose, movement, and the public.

These features are related to a specific type of art medium but they can also be related to physical variables, to dimensions: distances of perception and distances of human interaction. In this project I established a set of fundamental purposes for which art can be placed in urban spaces. These are things that can already be found in our cities, whether they were put there intentionally or not: 1-Beautification; 2-Legibility of urban context; 3-Increase Vitality; 4- Memory; 5- Identity- Cultural Diversity; 6- Dialogue; and 7- Happiness.

1. BEAUTIFICATION. The aesthetics artworks are used to improve the built environment, to envision a place, typically visually. The artist becomes involved with the site or the community to design the streetscape, the public realm. We typically associate artwork with the experience of Chapter 3: Public Art

42

beauty, such as in sculpture, but in public art our experience should be extended to functional way-finding systems, signage, urban furniture and lighting, and community markers… It sparks beauty (for some) in the urban ugliness of the asphalt. figure 3.20

2. LEGIBILITY OF THE URBAN CONTEXT. “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”f Knowing about the complexity of cities and the difficulty people have in understanding the environment that they inhabit, I believe that art plays a major role in the awareness of people. It places them in their context, in their surrounding

figure 3.21

physical, social, cultural, political or economical circumstances. Art plays a critical role in the expression of tension. It signals the problems that have been defining the world‘s transformations: from the cultural identity or difference, power expressions or uses, emergencies and conflicts.

It causes viewers to reflect and becomes a critical figure 3.22

contribution to society. As Bosselman notes, “…

the mutual reinforcement between detailed observation and the knowledge of causes, the influence art as a form of seeing, expressing, interpreting…”

3. URBAN VITALITY: “The question of financing art in new construction is not a matter of can we afford the expense of art in our new buildings, but rather can we afford not to finance art…It is art in the form of sculpture, paintings, mosaics, fountains and the like, that turns sterile new buildings into living things that attract people. People, in turn, are what a city needs to Chapter 3: Public Art

43

live.” g Art has a strong capacity to attract the public and create vibrant and interactive spaces and experiences. I called this value “social vitality” because it increases social interaction. There is also economic vitality which can be enhanced figure 3.23

by increasing social vitality. Increasing social life in the public realm can increase the value of the private land. It becomes an economic attraction for private investments. Indeed art has sometimes been a major instrument for gentrification in unrecalled areas.

4. MEMORY: “Memory is the possibility to be in the future”

figure 3.24

Art captures history. It creates collective memory. Every city has a story to tell, whether it is a story of evolving industrial, geological, social or demographic history. Working with artists, musicians and writers is an excellent way to explore that history and make it part of the community’s visual identity. This is mainly used figure 3.25

for preservation strategies of districts, and for

building monuments and memorials.

5. IDENTITY: Art can gather broad communities together. It can create a cultural space where people come together to look at issues in different ways; they can voice opinions and contribute to make a statement that is connected with a time period. (even though there is art that is timeless).

Public art efforts offer many rewards and give meaning to art that reaches the hearts Chapter 3: Public Art

44

and minds of people where they live, work or play. In this matter, the youth are one of the great underused resources in our society.

Involving them in art projects, historical research, performance and creation of art projects is an excellent way to promote cross-generational figure 3.26

communication and help young people feel like respected members of a community. Being part of the process, they will always be rooted to the place.

6. DIALOGUE “Art

is

a

potent

tool

of

communication

and communication can cross all sorts of boundaries.”h figure 3.27

Cross-cultural

and

cross-generational

communications will open the door for community dialogue on a variety of social issues relating to urban processes. Public art is as much about the dialogue that occurs among those engaged in a process as it is about the finished product.

figure 3.28

7. RICHNESS OF EXPERIENCE, SOCIAL HAPPINESS “Happiness is contagious: The happiness of an individual is associated with the happiness of people up to three degrees removed in the social network. Happiness, in other words, is not merely a function of individual experience or individual choice but is also a property of groups of people.”i Art refreshes people’s life from their tedious (hopefully not always) routines. It makes them happy. It makes them feel alive.

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45

3.6.2 PUBLIC ART ISSUES IN URBAN CONTEXT:

Timeless

Appeal,

Public

Acceptance and Temporariness “The primacy of style over substance is what contemporary society is all about”.

Public art has to endure not just physically but figure 3.29

also in its appeal. The public needs to want to maintain it after 20 years. In traditional societies, public art imagery was used to invoke perpetuity.

Today, style speaks to a society in continual search for something new. Style has always been an elitist idea. The answer to finding timelessness lies in appealing to popular taste.

This will likely never happen, and I do not believe

figure 3.30

it is necessary. The public’s acceptance and the art critic’s opinion can differ. The renowned first modern commissioned sculpture “Flamingo”

by Alexander Calder was originally ridiculed by Chicagoans, who called it “The Mosquito”. But I believe the nature of art is to be controversial, to be ambiguous, and to be (for some) figure 3.31

incomprehensible. I do not think that all art in

public spaces needs always to be understood by consensus.

There is a need for residents to like the art pieces of the city every day; a perfect example of where this did not happen was with “Titled Arc” in New York when workers of the Federal Building after eight years removed at great expense the 112-foot curved steel arc sculpture of Richard Serra. I believe in the power of people to disagree. It is thrilling when it happens and people can actually practice the ownership of the space, but it is a shame also when the artist’s creativity is stopped by the public process, like Buster Simpson’s Chapter 3: Public Art

46

18 foot high art piece for the Embarcadero that was voted against unanimously. The controversy is all set: public plus art equals controversy.

On the other hand, controversy could be resolved with the understanding that art in public places may be temporary, it can be tested. People seemed more amenable to a piece of art when they do not fear that it will be with them forever. This characteristic of art plays a major role in this proposal. I work with movable, nomadic, or ephemeral installations to deal with the unpredictable and movable pieces of cities, people, and life.

3.7 CONCLUSIONS In his book An Anecdoted Topography of Chance Daniel Spoerri mapped every object located on his kitchen table, describing each with his personal recollections evoked by the object. It is the analogy of his “snare-pictures� which are a type of assemblage or object of art in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by individuals, including the plates, silverware and glasses, all of which are fixed to the table or board, which is then displayed on a wall. It is a perfect illustrative example in how art can be a way of explaining complexity, by an apparently simple action of freezing a particular moment in time and place.

figure 3.32

Chapter 3: Public Art

47

When I look at cities, I like to read them, to listen to storytellers in the form of people, maps, buildings, drawings, conversations, and songs. I like to know their public stories and their private secrets (which ultimately are nearly always related). In these wonderful trips exploring the city, I understood that in reality there is no frame; that the world is a continuous system the one depicted in Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, which evolves through scales, and in each scale, in each frame there is a distinct yet linked narrative.

This isolation of frames, of layers is always used in design to understand the systems that create cities. We make diagrams that simply explain the physical configuration of space to be able to understand the interrelationship between them.

In the same way, this thesis is trying to explain two different disciplines to understand the issues they share, the hierarchy hidden in the socio-political system of their institutional structures, and their competences, ultimately to recombine them in this proposal.

I conclude this section with an example. One method that succeeded in the public art program for Phoenix was to conceive of those disciplines in one project with a creation of a interdisciplinary design team. It seems that we have to give a reason for why we, designers, would include artists in the urban design process. Artists take away the figure ground, they take away the territory, they don’t have boundaries, they don’t have parameters, they don’t have a specific medium, they can think purely in aesthetics, and create a united concept that decreases the complexity of the city. They can bring a performative aspect, as opposed to urban design, which is largely animated. They don’t think about fixing or solving, they can think in more temporary structures or installations in public spaces.We need the arts to let us figure 3.33

Chapter 3: Public Art

understand the complexity of a City.

48

NOTES CHAPTER 3: 1 2

Wikipedia.org definition.

(Encarta. World English dictionary. Ed Bloomsbury)

3

Wikipedia.org definition.

4

“Beyond Brecht: The Happenings” (1966), Lee Baxandall

5

6

7

“Public Art’s Cultural Evolution” Article by Jack Becker George Orwell Document “% for Art,” p. 29 (NEA Library, Art in Public Places notebook #2).

8

“Dialogues in Public Art” Tom Finkelpearl MIT Press

9

Karen Kaplan. Los Angeles Times. 5th December 2008.

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49

CHAPTER 4: PRECEDENT “The limits between art and architecture blur when attitudes and objectives converge. Mutual respect and similar aspirations have started a debate about the boundaries in the discipline.

There is a need for collaboration between them, figure 4.1

because both are united by their fundamentally creative function, and their commitment to society.”1 This overlapping of disciplines makes institutional work complex. There are problems of hierarchy and overlapping competencies that need to be clarified when discussing public art.

To understand the application of theory and

figure 4.2

public policies, I divided the study in the three ways that describe how art intervenes in public spaces, depending on which institutions are involved (or commissioning the art): the case when the City forms a partnership with private development to create an art district; non-profit arts organization involvement in community development strategies; and individual spontaneous initiatives by artists and one-day artists (known as citizens).

4.1 PLANNING THE ART This thesis believes in the capacity for the arts and the artists to increase vitality in a neighbourhood and therefore to provide value to a space but both social, cultural, aesthethical and economic value. The government also know about this virtue of the arts, and take advantage of it. They play with these ideas within their cities: they detect isolated or abandoned districts in the urban form and by planning its “artistic” character, they arts to make them become vibrant neighborhoods.

In their work for the Center for Community Innovation, Anja Wodsak and Kimberly Chapter 4: Precedents

50

Suczynski explained two types of arts districts related to neighborhood change: unplanned and planned. Both relied on the fact that arts organizations have an enormous economic impact on nation-wide activity. Both involve the same historical pattern: investments raise land figure 4.3

values, which increase tax revenues, and cause the displacement of the previous population.

This mobilisation has serious consequences for neighbourhood character and identity, and often results in gentrification.

The difference is the starting point. Abandoned urban areas, low-value lands and disinvested neighbourhoods are the target of urban growth

figure 4.4

lead by city policy and public investment.

Designated art districts in neighbourhoods often come under the banner of revitalisation.

One type of art district is based in cultural tourism. It uses cultural institutions as “bait” for developers, designers and planners. Esther Leslie says that: “Culture has been instrumentalized because of its effects in generating of value. To maximise and exploit the benefits of this production it is important that culture is produced industrially.” In post industrial cities this production of culture has been the biggest cause for “famous” 21st century “gentrification”.

This fact is what I like to name the “sacralisation of culture”, the untouchable nature of culture attached to the strongest values of our societies. Because it is conceptually “right”, private developers and politicians can hide behind it to enact inequitable development.

On the other hand, there is an interesting thing about artists: they normally violate the objective settings. But sometimes they go too far and do things in the name of art and culture. Then, we have to be aware, and critical. An extreme example was Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. In August 2007, he tied a dog to a chain in an art gallery and let him Chapter 4: Precedents

51

die of starvation. Artists and visitors watched emotionlessly during days the dog’s agony until he eventually died. The artist defended himself by saying in an interview, ”Nobody in the exposition did anything to actually free or feed Natividad, the dog.” figure 4.5

Another type of art district, comes about organically, often when artists occupy the abandoned urban spaces in blighted communities.

The

newly

vibrant

community

creates

a

microcosm of cultural and economic activity in the neighbourhood, such as the now rehabilitated Kent Avenue Building in Williamsburg, New York state, where an estimated of $15 million in figure 4.6

annual revenue was generated. But at the end, all the creative professionals -- photographers, architects, writers, musicians, sculptors, filmmakers, designers, painters, and printmakers -- are at risk of being a victim of their success, their displacement leaving behind a situation in which there tension between the community and newly-attracted developers. The planning new terminology calls this phenomenon “cracks in the city”. It address spaces where tensions are generated from urban transformation in relation to social and cultural needs.

4.2 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR THE ARTS “We need to emphasize the creative process.” Deborah Cullinan. 2007.

Tom Finkelpearl explains in his book Dialogues in Public Art that, “Community- oriented public art is dedicated to a group of people who live in the same local area or share a common interest.” The art is defined as “public” in this case as opposed to the word “private” that is associated with privilege. It is art that includes people from the lower classes in its creation and consumption. This does not mean that the upper classes are Chapter 4: Precedents

52

excluded from participating in the project as well -- only that they are not the exclusive audience.

The creation of this type of art is a reaction to the long association of art with the upper classes, at least in terms of those who consume it, a condition that is not so common anymore. Now figure 4.7

art “seeks creative ways to reinvigorate the public life that is slowly eroding in the wake of increased privatisation and commercialisation of public spaces and services by interpreting the experience of places and communities through artwork:”. 2 Community development art marks the site from the inside. It is based in social creativity, all the

figure 4.8

energy, ideas and daily experiences that come from citizens. It visualizes conflict reinforcing the feeling of belonging to a community, making the creation of alternatives possible and feasible. It is necessary to value and support these initiatives affirming their role in the city’s construction and transformation.

Taking root in communities and using the voices of a variety of people, community-art ensures a diversity of art, letting the world express itself in its own diverse and complex way. It explores the profound nature of art, the creative expressions of all segments of societies.

This topic leads to the debate about how artists can involve citizens in creating participatory spaces, and what is their role in communities when actually the art created is made by non-artists. This last issue became a big internal debate in the art scene, an ethical and theoretical dilemma: High art versus Low art, artwork quality versus social engagement, exploitation versus authenticity, and commissioned versus spontaneous. Even as a tangential art debate it needs to be mentioned since it seems to be a major obstacle for this type of art to be recognized in the (“high”) artist community.

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Thus community art is attached conceptually to low income communities. But why?

Because they need to be heard? Maybe because they do not have the power or money to claim attention. But community art is not just about dialogue; it is also about creating a group identity. Is it that wealthy communities don’t need a group identity -- they do not need to know each other because they already share their status condition? I think there should be a reconceptualising of the terminology to reconceptualise the different ways of producing both Art and Community.

4.3 ARTIVISM: RECLAIMING PUBLIC SPACE THROUGH ART According to Maria Perez, an theorist blogger, the modern city has abandoned the status of a geographic entity or an administrative unit to become a space for economic and political speculation. In many cases, cities grow without any ideologically pattern. The “ideology� applied are business and strategic plans, which lead to geographic expansion by economic means. But what happened to the humanistic city?

Many people have studied the transformation phenomenon and the new concept of cities.

Sociologists, architects and the citizen movement have been critics of this view. Visual arts also deals with this debate -- even their own work methods and reflection constitute strategies of collective positioning against the economic figure 4.9

power derived from legal or media control.

Public plus Art by itself implies controversy but it is an opportunity to stem the trend of placenessness induced by speculation. The question remains, however, who is the real audience of the artwork in the public space? Who should decide what has to happen in the public realm? Who is the

figure 4.10

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final owner of the space and of the piece of art?

54

Official institutions fear having the artist community involved in programs because of artists’ freedom to voice their opinions and their power to communicate the discomfort of situations. This fear causes institutions to keep artists away from a lot of urban projects --and raise the question about whether the artist wants to be involved in urban projects.

Nonetheless, the critical artist occupies an important position in politics and works freely in public spaces to give citizens not just an aesthetic experience, but a socio-political point of view.

The research in this field is very new and it is difficult to integrate in the context of current academic work. However when I used internet resources to search for “artivism” I could navigate forever from blog to blog, websites, journals, wiki spaces and so on. Interestingly, many new contemporary “street terms” appeared as I conducted the search. I will give a couple definitions of the two terms that I found compelling.

“Artivist: is a portmanteau word combining ‘art’ and ‘activist’. Artivism developed in recent years while the anti-globalization and antiwar protests emerged and proliferated. In most of the cases artivists attempt to push political agendas by the means of art. Yet this is not political art as it was know before, in the sense of artworks being political. The artivist is often involved in Streetart, or Urban Art, Adbusting or Subvertising. Often the acts of artivists can be refereed to as part of the larger concept of figure 4.11

Culture jamming.

Culture jamming: is an individualistic turning away from all forms of herd mentality (including that of social movements), by definition is generally not treated as a movement. It is not defined by any specific political position or message, or even by any specific cultural position or message.

figure 4.12

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The common thread is mainly an urge to poke 55

fun at the homogeneous nature of popular culture, often means guerrilla communication (communication unsanctioned or opposed by government or other powers-that-be).”3 My opinion is that this new field of “un-doctrine” art brings fresh air to the arts; it brings the unexpected to the citizen and the freedom of self-expression to the artist. I have not researched further whether they have an economic independency from government public money (which is my guess), but I wonder if this is how artists keep their work authentic, free, rooted, fun and fresh. This art is starting to create “style”, and therefore you can see “incoherent” art projects, projects that take advantage of the society’s need to renovate itself, a society starving of new ideas, to actually promote anti-government positioning with public money. This is the example of PARK[ing] Day in San Francisco, which started as an artist collective proclaiming the need for green spaces in the city, and now it has spread to become an international day of reclaiming public spaces by citizens, one-day designers, promoted, in some cases, by the city planning departments.

figure 4.13

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4.4 CONCLUSIONS “Any important artwork can be considered as an historical event or like a challenged solution to a problem. It is irrelevant now if the event was original or conventional, accidental or volunteer, clumsy or agile. The question is that any solution indicates the existence of any problem for which there has been other solutions, and it is very probable that other solution will be invented for the same problem. But while solutions accumulates, problems changes. Anyhow, the chain of solutions revealed the problem.” 4 Art has a long history of addressing creatively urban issues. It is a critical tool to engage citizens in urban processes sometimes sharing methods of Consensus, Citizen Involvement, Community Design, Community Participation and Community Art Programs.

The three sections described in this chapter City-developer partnerships in art districts; non-profit involvement in community development; and individual spontaneous initiatives or artivism. I believe that if these types of art were included in the budget of an urban project -- which I think they should because they deal with urban issues (equity, social environment, community, vacant and abandoned space) -- they would be supported by public policies (such as percent-for-the-art). This would provide the same level of funding provided for the project, the difference being in the allocation of that money over time, during the urban process: the participation process, the design, the construction, and the evaluation… This approach would reduce the challenge that the Arts and the community confront in attracting investment for social issues from private investors, and would provide a consistent funding stream.

This thesis proposes this approach – a comprehensive program public art in, the right-ofway of Columbus Avenue. The form of the intervention is a Banquet Public Art Program which would create a significant impact in the city’s economy and provide income in addition to a wide variety of jobs, goods, and services by engaging the community in the process and avoiding population displacement and social neighbourhood change.

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NOTES “Art and Architecture” Julia Schulz-Dornburg 2002. Ed. Gustavo Gili.

2

“Dialogues in Public Art” Tom Finkelpearl

3

Wikipedia.org

4

“ La configuracion del tiempo” G. Kubler, 1988

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CHAPTER 5: THE SITE: COLUMBUS AVENUE In 1972, the Urban Design Plan of San Francisco pointed to Columbus Avenue as one of the most significant streets in San Francisco. It addressed its importance not just for its function of carrying traffic, but also for the perception of the city pattern, since “it makes visible the city’s outstanding features and its points of orientation.1” Columbus Avenue draws a 1.20 mile diagonal from the Financial District in downtown to the Fisherman’s Wharf. It connects the Transamerica Building at the intersection of Montgomery and Washington Street to the Cannery Building at Beach Street. The road was not in the city’s original street grid and was designed and built in the late 19th century as one of two major avenues emanating from downtown. Its original purpose was to provide a link between the commercial district, now Jackson Square, and the north east waterfront fishing industry, and further to the northern highway that connected from North to Sausalito.

Originating in the horse-drawn-cart era, Columbus Avenue was designed to present the lowest gradient roadway between adjacent hillside residential neighbourhoods on

figure 5.1

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Telegraph and Russian Hills. Today those neighbourhoods are determined by the Urban Design Plan as areas of Unique Composition because of “the individual buildings that have a special character worthy of preservation. These areas have an unusually fortunate relationship figure 5.2

of building scale, landscaping, topography and other attributes that makes them indispensable to San Francisco’s image”.2 The Columbus Avenue “collector-diagonal” intercepts the city’s street grid providing a direct route through its northeast sector. It has become a major link in the city’s transportation network with significant through-traffic and frequent

figure 5.3

transit service.

Along the way, the avenue passes through the heart of the North Beach commercial neighbourhood.

It

experiences

the

Italian

life in its small retail stores, cafes, and restaurants; it contains the picturesque spots for residents around Washington Square Park; it figure 5.4

accommodates all the uses that the high density population of adjacent Chinatown needs.

All these unique communities, the Italian, the Chinese, the Beat Generation, the Barbary Coast, the Valley, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill and Fisherman’s Wharf give Columbus Avenue the uniqueness of a vibrant street, not just

figure 5.5

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because of a strong commercial economy and 60

figure 5.5.1

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figure 5.5 .2

61

figure 5.6

activity, but also because of a daily domestic residential character and a powerful cultural and social history.

The strategic location of the Avenue between the financial district and central waterfront to the northern waterfront and the Golden Gate Bridge makes it also an important tourist destination. Its cultural activities, public life and commercial uses increase the interest of exterior visitors (foreigners, US Americans, or SF citizens), and provoke a dense pedestrian use along the street, that combined with the Avenue envisioned as a Rapid Transit corridor3 becomes one of the biggest issues in this thesis’s project area.

5.1 SITE RESEARCH As explained in the methods chapter, the site research was conducted by direct observation and the interpretative analysis of maps and graphics, historical and current data and documents. For the purposes of this project I isolated five topics: Social History, Demographics, Zoning and Land Use, Transportation System, and Public Art. 5.1.1 Social History The social history of the different parts of the neighborhood explains the interest that attracts tourist from all parts of the world to this area. The mixed and rich legends around the neighbourhood give the character that makes it a favourite for both tourists and residents.

North Beach, Italian Neighborhood: It was designated one of the American Planning Association’s top 10 Great Neighborhoods for 2007. Its European-style has evolved into one of the city’s most unique and authentic communities. Helped by planning and zoning Chapter 5: Site Analysis

62

tools, it has managed to preserve its essential character: a mix of tolerance and tradition in both the built and social environments. It has an international reputation due to the genesis of the The Beat generation, which is a term used to describe a group of American writers inform the figure 5.7

1950s who described the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired: a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality. Almost all the figures of the original Beat Generation ended up in San Francisco, where they created a poetry scene around the City Lights Bookstore, run by

figure 5.8

Lawrence Ferlinghetti. They and their literary meetings and routines in the neighbourhood developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, they celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. This attitude has stayed alive in the area, and has given the creative critical character to some spots along Columbus figure 5.9

Avenue: Jack Kerouac Alley, Vesubio Café, Café Trieste, and the Swat.

Chinatown: As a port city, San Francisco’s Chinatown business district, the largest in North America, formed in the 1850s and served as a gateway for incoming immigrants who arrived during the California gold rush and construction

figure 5.10

Chapter 5: Site Analysis

of the transcontinental railroads of the wild 63

western United States. Chinatown was later reconceptualised as a tourist attraction in the 1910s. Once a community of predominantly Taishanese Chinese-speaking inhabitants, it has remained the preeminent Chinese center in the United States. figure 5.11

Barbary Coast now overlaps with Chinatown, North Beach and the Financial District, nine blocks roughly bounded by Montgomery Street, Washington Street, and Broadway. Particularly notorious was Pacific Avenue, historically a pleasure quarter in the old port of San Francisco, which came close in before land fill created the Embarcadero shoreline. The neighbourhood

figure 5.12

quickly acquired a seedy character during the California Gold Rush (1848-1858). It was known for gambling, prostitution and crime. Today clubs still light the night in the area around Broadway Avenue. It is the focus point for international tourist and suburban kids that want to experience the flavour of “a night in San Francisco”. figure 5.13

Fisherman’s Wharf encompasses the northern waterfront of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue, to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. It is the second most visisted tourist attraction in the United States of America after Disneyworld.

5.1.2 Demographics4 At roughly one square mile in size, the neighborhoods directly adjacent to the Columbus Avenue corridor form one of the densest areas in the state of California. Approximately four percent of the city’s population lives within roughly two percent of its land area. Roughly Chapter 5: Site Analysis

64

half of the residents are of Asian descent as compared with 30% in the city as a whole.

Fewer people under the age of 25 live here than in the rest of the city, while the share of residents over the age of 65 is 50% higher. This describes a neighborhood that is aging and not producing as many young families as other parts of the city.

The gap between the “haves and have-nots� is larger here than in the rest of the city.

The share of households with incomes below $25,000 is twice as high within the corridor as can be found for the city as a whole. At the same time, the share of households with incomes over $75,000 is slightly higher here than in the rest of San Francisco. There is also a very wide range in income levels within different census tracts.

The neighborhood is particularly transit-dependent. Almost one half of the households along the Columbus Avenue corridor do not have access to an automobile, a rate that is almost twice as high as the rest of the city. The share of households with one automobile is

figure 5.14

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65

similar to that of the city as a whole, but multiplecar households occur here at a much lower rate.

It is not surprising to see that residents drive alone to work at a rate that is one-third lower than the rest of the city. In an area with such low auto ownership, however, one would expect to see a much higher rate of transit usage. The answer lies in the share of residents who walk to work, a value that is three times higher than for the city as a whole.

5.1.3 Zoning The City and County of San Francisco Municipal Code revised the official zoning maps and ordinances in May 2006. To locate any parcel I looked at the Use District Map and Height and Bulk District Map, and checked in Special District, Preservation District, Coastal Zone or Special Sign District. (See SF Planning Department Website).

figure 5.15

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figure 5.16

66

5.1.4 Transportation Systems 5 Twenty-one percent of the total daily trips within North Beach and Russian Hill are local trips, with both an origin and destination in the neighborhood. Concerns have been expressed about many potential right-of-way changes to the corridor by North Bay commuters who use Columbus Avenue to access downtown. While only 2% of the total trips that end in North Beach/Russian Hill originated in the North Bay, it is safe to assume that a much higher proportion of trips along the corridor simply pass through the study area. Some other interesting figures emerge from the tables that help to describe travel patterns in the northeast sector of the city. Fifteen percent of trips bound for the study area begin downtown. This may be due to people transferring from BART or MUNI Metro trains on Market Street. When looking at just transit trips, fully 14% of all transit riders bound for North Beach originated in the East Bay. The fact that the highest rate of transit modeshare to North Beach is from the East Bay - with almost 35% of total trips being made on transit – illustrates that visitors to the area are already using transit in high numbers. As a whole, approximately 20% of all trips bound for North Beach/Russian Hill are made on transit, as compared to an average of 5.4% for the city as a whole.

San Francisco’s Transit First Policy is the basis for MUNI’s planning “Four major corridors”.

The City’s Board of Supervisors adopted the policy in 1974 to prioritize transit improvements,

figure 5.17 Table 2- Journey to Work Statistics, 2000

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such as designated transit lanes and streets and improved signalization, to expedite the movement of public transit vehicles. Furthermore, the policy states that new transportation investment should be allocated to meet the demand for public transit generated by new public and private commercial and residential development. MUNI published A Vision for Rapid Transit in San Francisco in 2002 which proposed a vision for moving people in San Francisco along major corridors included in a Transit Priority Network. The Vision Plan lists 12 major transit corridors – of which the 30-Stockton line is included - that have high volumes of riders, but suffer from chronic capacity and reliability problems. The aim is to make improvements in all of the corridors to bring each one up to a minimum level of speed and reliability. The improvements range from relatively low-cost Transit Preferential Streets (TPS) treatments to more expensive submerged light rail. The 30-Stockton line is planned for upgrade to TPS.

figure 5.17-1

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68

5.1.5 Public Art 6 San Francisco is renowned for its beauty and culture. The artworks and monuments which adorn the streets and public buildings contribute to the city’s international appeal. The City and County of San Francisco is very proud of its public art, and the Arts Commission is striving to protect and preserve the history and richness of this collection. Along the Columbus Avenue there are three artworks that belong to this collection.

Centred in Washington Square Park, between Columbus

Avenue,

Stockton,

Filbert,

and

Union Streets, a cast iron life-size figure of the revolutionary statesman, philosopher, inventor and printer, Benjamin Franklin is placed. It was given to the city in 1879 by Henry D. Cogswelll, an excentric who made his fortune during the gold rush. It was originally located at Kearny and Market but moved to its present location in 1904.

It is the earliest San Francisco monument still in existence. It is in the middle of the square facing west and is embraced by 5 tall trees that set of the stage for his performance. It is 15 feet tall so it can be seen from a distance of at 30 feet. The statue is the entrance from Columbus Avenue to the Square, but it is also in the axis of the entrance of the St Peter’s Church. This lateral view of the semi-circle protected the statue and gives the figure 5.18

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center privilege location an odd crossed view.

69

In the northwest corner of the park, in a clearing of a dense green trees area, a heroicsize group of three firemen, one holding a supine woman, one kneeling with hose and one pointing with outstretched arm, stand on a stone pedestal with a plaque that commemorates the Volunteer Fire Department of San Francisco,1849-66. It was made in 1932 by Haig Patigian and it is 14 feet tall. This height is in proportion with the shorter distance from which you see it (walking along Columbus Avenue between Filbert and Union Street), makes a respectful looking-up gesture whenever you pass through it. It is also more perceptible since the clearing permits light at certain moments of the day, just surrounding the artwork.

The third piece is Man drinking water, a bronze work from 1902 by M. Earl Cummings. It is an over-life-size nude, bearded man crouching and drinking water from his hands, which serves as a fountain to a lagoon at his feet. It is approximately 32 ½’’h x 15’’w x 26’’d. The fanciful legend about this statue is that the model for the piece also posed for St. John the Baptistby Auguste Rodin. This statue is also located in Washington Square, but in the triangle opposite to the park, on Columbus Avenue between Union and Powell Streets.

It is now a fenced area that is not used and that actually caused the man to be hidden among the tall bushes.

Other than the artwork around Washington Square Park that creates a social gathering spot where all the sculpture seems to be located, there is one more “creative” point: the intersection of Broadway and Columbus. The proximity of the City Lights bookstore associates the place with the Beat Generation. Artist Bill Weber illustrated it so in the wraparound two-sided mural speaks to both the history of North Beach and Chinatown with icons, like Emperor Norton, jazz musicians, Italian fishermen, the Imperial Dragon and Herb Caen depicted.

The Language of the Birds flying sculpture by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn was unveiled in November 2008, confirming that the neighborhood is continuously renovating and innovating. The 23 powered tomes that appeared to have let words in English, Italian and Chinese fallen from their pages, have been a innovative collaborative work of the Department of Public Works, private neighbour funding and the artists.

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Thanks to the closure of the right turn lane from Columbus to Broadway, the street gained space for pedestrians in this island transformed in to a plaza. This street design triggered the piece of permanent artwork over pedestrian heads. It was a consequence of the percent-for-art ordinance, but the innovative aspect of this project is that “it’s the first time that performance art has been part of public art�7. This example is been a great impulse for me to. I now believe that the proposal of this thesis can be feasible, can be pushed forward by a community full of life and willing to stand out for its culture and creativity.

During the site research I have also accumulated figure 5.19

names

and

references

of

institutions,

organizations, communities, associations and members that are now listed in my personal blog in the Internet. They could be consulted for further information about their shared objectives and competences in the project along Columbus Avenue to set a strategy for collaboration. figure 5.20

figure 5.21

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figure 5.22

71

figure 5.23

5.2 SITE ANALYSIS As I mentioned in Chapter 2, the sources of this thesis were gather by myself through interviews, and direct observation, added to the data collected from Renew SF that generously shared all the Columbus Avenue Studies and current Information. Next I will discuss the methodology I created to find urban design problems and allocate art, the analysis is divided in three categories: Vitality Analysis, Urban Form Analysis, and Identity Analysis.

URBAN VITALITY ANALYSIS: The Analysis of Urban Vitality is based on street interviews, the street game discussed in Chapter 2 and street notes documented by Maia Garcia and myself. It is divided in the detection of Social Vitality and Physical Vitality.

The first one is divided by Types of Users depending on their origin, whether they come from the neighborhood, the Bay Area, elsewhere in the U.S., or abroad; the time that the user was found in the space; and the type of activity that they developed in the space.

This third one is related with the Physical Analysis in a diagram that overlaps also: Types of businesses differentiating between: restaurants, shops, and vacant lots; the transparency or opacity of the frontage of the retail and the street lighting.

URBAN FORM ANALYSIS: We already know that Columbus Avenue is a diagonal collector in the San Francisco urban grid. This straight line route is a very legible footprint of history; we can easily understand that it was meant to connect the Financial District and Fisherman’s Wharf.

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72

figure 5.24

Figure 5.24: User Types: This diagram explains the categorisation for the users of the space about their origin. “Where do they come from” inform the type of transportation used to come to the district (as shown in Nelson Nynegaard Study), and their destination.

Chinatown is the densest neighbourhood in San Francisco and due to the culture, the use of outdoors is extremely important. The italian and North Beach Community are more related to the café outdoors. They are more attached to the consumption of space (here is where the demographic data is extremely relevant).

Bay Area users come to Columbus Avenue for shopping and eating in the European style restaurants.

National tourists do the same but they actually also visit the landmarks, monuments or institutional buildings and areas: the “purely San Francisco” locations St Peter’s Church, Lombard Street and Coit Tower.

The have-to spots are more evident for International tourist. You can find them everywhere drifting around the neighbourhood, mostly in North Beach looking for the recommendations of their day-tour guides.

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Figure 5.25: User Type: total: We have understood from the data collected that normally, the different types of users “schedule” their walk around the district, around the neighbourhood, from landmark, to landmark, from shop to shop and from restaurants to restaurants.

For international destination, as reflected in the Power Map (figure 5.46) for the influential radius of places or businesses, the walk will always include: Fishermann’s Wharf, Coit Tower, Washington Square, City Lights and the Beat Museum, and the Transamerican Tower. In the way, of course, all the North Beach shops and restaurants that characterised the area entertain the users with their transparent street level windows.

figure 5.25

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74

figure 5.26

Figure 5.26: Time Use. 12am-12pm The zoning of North Beach and Barbary Coast allows commerce in the ground level of the buildings. This regulation influences the vitality pattern of the whole Columbus Avenue project.

At night, the locals host parties, performances and entertainments shows. They are a great “bait� for the suburban population that come looking for outdoor free activities that will escape them from their boring low density, single family communities.

In the morning we have the activity that support all this parties, that will clean their waste and will feed and serve them. Delivery time brings a lot of trucks and middle size vans to the sidewalks, to the storage underneath them.

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figure 5.27

Figure 5.27: Time Use. 12pm-12am For a neighbourhood that is mainly restaurants at the street level, it seems obvious that noon is the highlight time. People come to North Beach to eat. Foods are served all day long: breakfast (that can last for hours), lunch, late lunch, dinner and late dinner again. Since a lot of the visitors are international tourists, the eating time window last all day. The shifts last until the restaurants overlap with night activities and live music bars, making this part of Columbus Avenue, an active “20 hours� Street.

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Figure 5.28: Time Use Total: The neighbourhood has demonstrated to be an active neighbourhood. The activity happens mainly around the businesses (restaurants and shops); and some of the isolated venues scattered in the Avenue (Bimbo´s…)

Fisherman’s Wharf is no doubt a daily destination; probably because of its association with the beach and the water (you don’t go see the sea lions at midnight). However, this also represents the decay, lack of maintenance or not well programmed Pier 39 venues, as well as the limited and insufficient street lighting in this area.

figure 5.28

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77

figure 5.29

Figure 5.29: Activity Type: The activity type is obviously linked to the land use of the area.

Resting areas or passive activities areas are occupying the Parks and open spaces.

The shopping and window shopping need a retail land use at the ground level.

The tourism is always considering the monuments, landmarks and cultural institutions where they gather. This landmarks and their walking between them around the neighbourhood establish the main “shopping corridors�.

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Figure 5.30: Activity Type Total: The Activity Type diagram is a clear representation of the Zoning plan for San Francisco (see figure 5.16).

Looking at these directional activity areas, it is interesting to notice the “activity corridors� that are created when following the route patterns of the space (see figure 6.7). The most popular would be the ones that are also connections of cultural destinations.

figure 5.30

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Figure 5.31: Business Type: Street Lighting: In a first analysis, and based in the urban study that students from --- made for Renew SF. The mapping of different businesses along the Avenue will be very descriptive of the activity type in it.

What was more revealing is the observation data that we collected is the number of vacant businesses (most of them for rent. They break the continuity of the economic vitality leaving gaps in some blocks. The most relevant is called the Valley and it’s also a consequence of the existent land use.

The lighting analysis was meant (just started) to relate the night life of the streets with the actual physical features of it.

It will trace street lighting: private (from the business- heat lamps, façade lights and neon advertisements) and public (from the City –street traffic lamps on the median or the sidewalk).

figure 5.31

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figure 5.33

“because all the intersections are different”.

The diagonal intersects the City’s rectangular pattern in a forty degree angle (with the eastwest direction of the street grid, the long side of the rectangle). From this analysis, it is beautiful figure 5.34

to realize (at least for those who love geometry like me) that even though they seem different – because of the car flows- the geometry marks a strict rhythm that repeats along the street. It starts in the Transamerica Building block, since it was the drawing origin of the diagonal. The modular rhythm is constituted by seven cut blocks that make seven intersections. It starts and finishes with an “x” intersection, and determines two

figure 5.35

different types of intersections, depending if the diagonal intersect the South-North or the EastWest streets.

The frequency of the intersections of the street is fairly high: in 1.2miles there are 21 intersections.

This leads to the study of the correspondence on Columbus Avenue which is much smaller figure 5.36

Chapter 5: Site Analysis

than a common San Francisco street – while 81

figure 5.37

figure 5.38

figure 5.39

in the later, the blocks occupy the 83% of the street, in Columbus the block experience and the intersection experience is almost the same, the 50% of the street is in an intersection. The amount of space for cars in these intersections is higher due to the diagonal shape. The openness of the street in the intersection in a figure 5.40

diagonal shape is probably the reason for the disorientation of pedestrian along the corridor.

This discontinuity of the street, of the pedestrian space is an example in how the car commands the space in cities, and aggravates pedestrian safety, provokes fear and causes discomfort.

The first historical map of Columbus Avenue shows the land condemned and buildings

figure 5.41

Chapter 5: Site Analysis

destroyed to execute the street. The cut through 82

figure 5.42

the small properties explain the small frontage of some of the business in Columbus Avenue. This led to not-homogenous lengths of the frontage buildings that cause a diverse and vibrant experience in the street. In contrast, the larger blocks in “the Valley�, in which unique owners can execute one unique development in one block, the richness of the street experience and social vitality along those blocks decreases.

figure 5.44

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figure 5.43

83

IDENTITY ANALYSIS: This map identifies the communities along Columbus Avenue. The boundaries of those communities are always invisible, blurry. The Planning Department has established North Beach

and

Chinatown

as

Neighbourhood

Commercial Districts in their zoning district Index, but other than land use and ordinances differentiation the identity of a place is not physically visible in the space. Normally urban design guidelines (signage, trees…) show up the identitarian features of neighbourhoods. The North Beach Neighborhood Commercial District (NBD), The Chinatown Community District (CCD) and Chinatown Residential Neighborhood Commercial (CND) have particular urban features that identify the district.

North Beach spread its Italian flags painted in the street lighting poles along the street all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf (even though the district doesn’t extend all the way there). The CBD and CND have a gateway to the district where Grant Avenue meets Bush Street, and they are now starting the process of designing a “Chinatown North Gate” that will welcome citizens coming from the North in the opposite side, where Grant Avenue hits Columbus Avenue.

The communities are attached to the site by figure 5.45

Chapter 5: Site Analysis

History. They are delimited by some historical 84

landmarks that gather an identity around them, and vice versa: Downtown Financial District around the office skyscrapers; Barbary Coast around the historic night clubs; North Beach around the restaurant frontage; Chinatown around Porthsmouth Square and the oldest Chinese Community in North America; North Beach around the Italian community with its restaurant district with great European “flavour”; and Fisherman’s Wharf along the piers. By contrast, it is interesting to notice that even though the San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest and most prestigious school of higher education in contemporary art, founded in 1871, it hasn’t influenced nor spread an artistic character to the neighbourhood that holds it: the Valley. Maybe it’s due to the location up in the hill?

The Power Map was assembled with the assistance of Rod Freebairn-Smith and lists all the influential people, business or communities along Columbus Avenue. They are evaluated for the scope of its influence whether it is local, city-wide or international recognition. This consideration comes from the interviews on the street and from Renew SF members.

This map also locates the on-going planning (active or proposed), and urban or architectural projects in the area. It highlights the need to figure 5.46

Chapter 5: Site Analysis

coordinate them all to establish the common 85

points of interests along Columbus Avenue. Whenever the Public Art Program for Columbus Avenue detect the opportunity sites for art, it will point at those projects, people or institutions to get them involved in the urban process.

5.3 CONCLUSION After the analysis it becomes evident that there is a void of identity or community life in the part of the street called “The Valley� because of the topographic condition going down Telegraph Hill, between Greenwich Street and Bay Street. This gap is a challenge that needs to be addressed in order to assure the continuity of meaningful places along Columbus Avenue. For this purpose the already mentioned Art Institute is an opportunity, a powerful starting point to generate a vibrant street life.

The biggest challenge will be to make a proposal for the Avenue that brings all the diversity of communities, meaning identities, all together. Lets them be authentically unique in a shared public space, in the same area of the City.

figure 5.47

figure 5.48

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86

NOTES Urban Design Plan. San Francisco. Planning Department. 1972. (p50).

2

Urban Design Plan. San Francisco. Planning Department. 1972. (p49).

3

MUNI Vision Plan- San Francisco Transit Priority Network. 2002. published in the Columbus

Avenue Revitalization Master Plan. P5. Fig 4 4

Analysis used from Renew SF Columbus Revitalization Plan

5

Analysis used from Renew SF Columbus Revitalization Plan

6

The source for this section is the Arts Commission Collection Guide.

7

San Francisco Chronicle Article.

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87

CHAPTER 6: GOALS AND STRATEGY Establishing the primary goals for this thesis has been like setting the principles for my future career as an urban designer. My own experience as an “urban creature” got my attention in terms of the urban issues treated, and has made me emphasize them in this research.

As any urban area that is going through a major transformation, Columbus Avenue needs to address these goals. This thesis will be an example of how to accomplish them by applying some specific strategies and principles that will be explained further on.

1.

Reclaim and “Free” public space. Obviously cars (in movement or still) are

invading our public space, taking space away from the pedestrian traffic. Reflecting on the domination of private vehicles will be the starting point to rethink our public space and increase walkability in our neighbourhoods.

Cities have a major relationship with commercial uses. Commerce has a primary economic role but still, streets and open spaces need to offer free space for citizens to live, rest and enjoy. The City needs to be balanced and focus on both Users and Consumers.

2.

Participatory Design. Cities are pure complexity, just a reflection of our more

and more complex society. Designers are serving this society. They need to get involved with the people to know what the real needs of a site are; to detect the opportunities and constraints that they will be facing.

figure 6.1

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88

3.

Alive Urbanism. Modern urban structures, patterns, and planning models are

making landscapes similar and homogeneous. There is a great need in today’s society for urban design to be mind catching, to react to the world’s apathy and make places that increase the dynamic of people, individually and collectively. In this context, art, creativity, and self expression need to be encouraged from communities, institutions or individuals.

Columbus Avenue is facing a major change; physical (North Shore Line) and therefore sociological. This thesis identifies the social frame in which the Subway proposal is landing.

It is based on belief in the importance of this analysis to diagnose the social problems that the urban project may encounter; to assure the continuity (not disruption) of vitality in space, time and users of the neighbourhoods transformed.

The thesis focuses in the importance of linking infrastructural projects throughout scales: from the city scale projects, to the social reality of neighbourhoods and the experience of their citizens. It reveals the relevance of the construction phase in urban projects to maintain and enhance the life in communities: their character and vitality throughout urban processes. The combination of an urban design and a public art program in this thesis proposal is based in the need of citizens to understand the transformation of their habitats; to raise their awareness of the urban transformation process; to mitigate and soften the uncomfortable steps of an urban change.

figure 6.2

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89

figure 6.4

6.1 RECLAIM

PUBLIC

SPACE

FOR

PEDESTRIANS The 1.2miles of Columbus Avenue have no homogeneous sidewalks. The dimensions of them vary along the Avenue. The communities served have different densities and habits in the public space.

The Columbus Avenue sidewalk used to be 15’ wide. It was narrowed to 8’-10’ for the allocation of street parking areas. This decision combined with the policies that allowed renting street surface for cafés terraces in the day time are the main reasons for the pedestrian congestion along Columbus Avenue. It is provoked by the different set of obstacles (street furniture, mobile elements or persons) in the sidewalks. It is more problematic when the Avenue runs through the North Beach District. The sidewalk terraces take 5’ from pedestrian flow leaving a path of a figure 6.3

Chapter 6: Goals and Strategy

minimum of 4´ (tree conditions) and a maximum 90

of 8’ in Lowest Columbus, the so called “The Valley”.

The intersection of Green Street and Stockton Avenue is the most crowded pedestrian point. The counts in the bus stop on Stockton scream that 24.000 persons per day pass by or gather at this intersection. These data is relevant to understand the existent conditions of the street.

In order to give back space for pedestrians.

•

Balance the activities, moving, gathering, sitting and chilling areas;

•

Balance the space given to Consumers versus Users;

•

Study the needs of vehicular traffic to make decisions about sidewalk widening and bulbout dimension, street closure (permanent or temporary pedestrianization), and flex-use parking spaces.

Jan Gehl uses a diagram that explains the changes of the activities in a place. Reinterpreting this diagram for this specific process will define the statements to follow in the thesis: minimize the traffic flow and the car invasion; increase pedestrian urban spaces (temporary or permanent); balance the passive and active recreation, and beautify and implement the features for the perfect function of the necessary activities.

figure 6.5

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91

6.2 CONNECT NATURAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS Open spaces define and identify hills, districts and recreation with their green pattern landscapes.

This pattern makes people understand the City, its logic and its mean of cohesion. They help people find their way, without inconvenience or lost time, letting them see the routes to be taken.

Travel congestion is reduced if the best routes are easily found and safety is increased.

The goals are providing the connectivity of natural systems in the City; these green connectors can overlap with the activity corridors and will create a network of vitality throughout the neighbourhood in order to allow an ecological network for a diverse natural (and human) community.

figure 6.6

Chapter 6: Goals and Strategy

figure 6.7

92

6.3 ENHANCE CULTURE IN THE PUBLIC REALM The Vitality Analysis explained in Chapter 5 relies knowing who is in the space, who owns it, what is the character of the space given by the people occupying it.

The chart in Appendix B presents the “social cost� of the different phases of the Columbus Avenue Project. It establishes the cost in hours of the affected users of the space during the construction of the Avenue. This tool will allow a better solution for enhancing the public realm (preserve or improve).

The diversity of the communities that this project faces are the basis of the goal of the thesis: Preserve the identity of the neighbourhoods, by detecting their character, their uniqueness, and suggesting visualizing their history, creating physical symbolism in the community. I always use the metaphor of the brochette, Columbus Avenue skews the different communities but it

figure 6.8

Chapter 6: Goals and Strategy

figure 6.9

93

has to remain a unique and solid street.

For this specific goal, arts will play a major role: Art as a social practice, where the work “takes social interaction as its primary medium of manufacture or investigation”. The “social” most commonly includes people: their relations to one another, their relations to their surroundings, and their relations to the structures that constitute their surroundings and themselves.

The challenge as it is explained in the Policy 3 of the Arts Elements of the San Francisco General Plan, “is to bring these two elementsthe arts and the general population- together, so that all people may create and enjoy the arts.”

The same challenge will stimulate public participation: a transparent process, citizenship involved in the decision-making process. Those differences in the design prevent opposition in the communities by engaging and empowering them in the project.

6.4 PHASING

OF

THE

URBAN

DESIGN

PROJECT The phasing of urban design projects is probably one of the most important pieces of the discipline. figure 6.10

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94

figure 6.11

figure 6.12

figure 6.13

Captions: Figure 6.11-13: In Chapter 5, the vitality, identity and urban form analysis framed the set of goals described before; it defined the specific strategies for the Columbus Avenue Project.

The areas in which vitality needs to be enhanced, maintained or created (reinvented) – see figure 6.12; in which identity needs to be enhanced, maintained (visualized) or create (fostered) – see figure 6.13 ; and the areas in which the openness and the enclosure of the street will allowed larger or smaller public spaces design proposals – see figure 6.11. In Chapter 7, the principles used in the proposal will address these intentional strategies.

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95

It is done to fit the current circumstances of the city, physical and social, with the future proposals for them. This plan prioritizes the needs of different areas for social, technical but mainly for economic reasons. It needs to assure an equitable urban development avoiding uncomfortable and unfair mobilization of the population.

In this specific case, since we are focused in the public right of way the most important goal is to avoid a negative economic impact on the business and restaurants along the Avenue.

The fact that phasing is a major goal in this thesis emphasizes the need of urban design to give temporal solutions to different spaces in different phases of urban transformation.

In this scenario art can also be tested in public spaces to confirm that it “fits� in the space and the community. This could be a new tool of approving public art so that artists will have the freedom to create without being stop by the consensus process.

6.5 CONCLUSIONS Columbus Avenue is the only diagonal street inserted in the original grid of San Francisco.

Its original character is meant to be preserved; the uniqueness of the district that surrounds the Avenue forces any proposal to promote the diversity of both people and spaces. Its urban shape also allows great opportunities to allocate art.

The challenging goal of this thesis will be to build (again?)a City as an outdoors museum; a City as an outdoor living room for the citizens (as it is currently: where everybody can enjoy, display and share their individual creativity.

figure 6.14

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96

CHAPTER 7: THE DESIGN PROPOSAL All the research in this thesis seems to agree with the Better Street Plan of San Francisco that “seeks to balance the needs of all street users, with a particular focus on the pedestrian environment and how streets can be used as public space. The Plan will reflect the understanding that the pedestrian environment is about much more than just transportation – that streets serve a multitude of social, recreational and ecological needs that must be considered when deciding on the most appropriate design.”

The Plan defines the term Pedestrian Environment as “the areas of the street where people walk, shop, sit, play, or interact –outside of moving vehicles”, and gives a set of “advices” on how to design its own categorization of streets.

If Columbus Avenue applies the Better Street Concepts, it could fit into the categorization of a Commercial Street, a Residential Street; it could even be a multi-way Boulevard and determine a Green connector. It could be established as a major through street that carries traffic for considerable distances between districts, but it would be related to local streets that serve only adjacent properties. It could. It could. It could. As seem, now, IS a great opportunity to prove the potential of Columbus Avenue and its exemplary role in the challenge of improving the City pedestrian environment.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority and Renew SF started in 2005 the Community- Based Transportation Plan for improvements to the Columbus Avenue corridor.

It was based in the Prioritization Program of SFCTA (figure 7.2). They started to show the interest in rethinking the major role of the avenue in the city’s system and the economic growth that will occur if the Plan takes place.

They’ve come up with the questions about the transportations demands, the liveability of the streets as civic open spaces, the difficult (in figure 7.1

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

terms of searching solutions for such opposite 97

purposes) traffic and pedestrian congestions, and the challenge in treating different and proximate districts/neighborhood with such different transportation and such different economic and recreational issues. This last challenge is a key point for the project: keep the neighborhood character and give adequate solutions to the many different needs along Columbus Avenue.

A more controversial debate has been to include in the project the City’s proposal for the North Shore Line Subway. This specific topic has raised a loud debate among officials, professionals and citizens due to the social consequences of the transformation of the space (a possible lack of ground level activity due to an underground infrastructure; or a high density future land use in then neighborhood –now only 40feet height limitation-) and the concepts of public transit (improved MUNI bus transportation system versus a brand new light train underground system).

This research isn’t taking a position in the debate. Nevertheless, it assumes the future North Shore Line Subway will come to the neighborhood. It gives alternatives and studies the consequences in the urban ground level environment. It makes the statement that if it

figure 7.2

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98

has to exist (since it’s already part of the future infrastructure project of the City, and it’s been a subject of different transportation studies) it should be treated as an urban design and social issue; it should produce the least amount of inconvenience for residents and visitors, in the future and during the construction; and it should fit in the existing physical and social environment.

The cross sections described next are the solutions proposed for the multiple transportation systems

along

the

Avenue:

pedestrians,

bicycles, private cars, taxis, MUNI, cable cars, underground subway, upgraded Light Rail Train and all sort of random touristic tours transports (such as wheeled boats, electric mini-car) that need to be incorporated in this corridor.

After a good understanding of the different sections types, the overall proposal (figure 7.4- 7.9) will be explained next by the common principles applied along the Avenue. In Section 7.6, the project is divided by study areas, describing the specific details of the blocks and streets.

figure 7.3

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99

figure 7.4

Figure 7.4: Street Type 1: From Montgomery Street to Broadway Avenue: The Avenue has 13´sidewalk on both sides. The 8´parking spaces will share the space temporarily with café terraces. The total sidewalk in these cases will be 21´ wide. A 6´bike lane runs on the side of an 11´shared vehicular traffic lane (public transit –MUNI- and private cars). The median will be a 4´ wide discontinuous planter that “hides” the storm water treatment features.

“Good shape” trees will remain 9´away from the façades. The other trees (that the survey allows to move) will be replaced at 11´apart, at 20´ from the façades. Located in between parking spaces, they will help decongesting the pedestrian flow on the sidewalk.

The median will be planted with low bushes in concrete planters. The topography in this section of the Avenue, allows looking at the Transamerican Tower from the bottom to the top. Improving this view is the reason to maintain a non-planted (vertical vegetated layer).

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100

figure 7.5

Figure 7.5: Street Type 2: From Broadway to Union Street: The North Shore Line will enter Columbus Avenue at Stockton Street. It will maintain an almost constant depth at 50 feet until the Green/Stockton Station. It is planned to be a single tunnel with 2 platforms on the side. It will occupy the whole block avoiding the curve on Green Street, and will have 4 exits on both side of the tracks, and the block.

The section continues with the same dimension as in Street Type I. The one difference will be the median tree planting every 50 feet (half of the tree’s sidewalks rhythm) to allow the turns of emergency firemen trucks.

This portion of the street belongs to North Beach. The land use on the street level is commercial, so the character of the awnings and flex-use terraces has an outdoors Italian flavour.

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101

figure 7.6

Figure 7.6: Street Type 3: From Union Street to Filbert Street: This short piece of the Avenue is the one of the urban treasures of the City. It belongs to the open space block of the original San Francisco grid. When the diagonal breaks the rectangle in two pieces, it left aside a small triangle with a difficult recreational use (in terms of the dimensions). This cut modified the visual “weight” of Saint Peters’ Church in the overall design of the park.

Washington Square Park is not only a City park, but a crowded neighbourhood park.

The proposal avoids a major station in this area since the dramatic construction hole will last at least 4 years; the gap in the community will be huge, and there will be technical difficulties in allocating the station in a 15% slope.

Instead, the station in the previous block and the upgraded stop in the next one (from south to the north) will still make this plaza the epicentre of the District.

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102

figure 7.7

Figure 7.7: Street Type 4: Section from Greenwich Street to Mason Street: The portal of the North Shore Line will be located in this block. It barely has any shop or restaurants and the descendent slope of the topography permits that the length of it shorten to 125´ (instead of the 175´of the actual alternative).

The sidewalk will be 11´ on each side (same as current dimension) but the tables will be allowed only between the new vegetation edges. The shared lane is 16´ to allow a possible cyclist or delivery vehicle and to prevent accidents.

The 26´portal “hole” will be a great opportunity to do something unique an arch, a gate or any suggestive creative idea, to assure the pedestrian safety and beautify the urban element. It will have great visual presence since it’s the downhill side of the street to the Bay.

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103

figure 7.8

Figure 7.8: Street Type 5: From Mason Street to Taylor Street: The old cable car and the new Light Train will run parallel in this section, just for 2 blocks.

They will have a shared 12´ tracks´ green spaces. This green strip will have a clear signage to indicate the street users the different landmarks and destinations.

The continuous unique pavement will not be disturbed by accidental height in curb levels.

It will only be supported by the correct signage to permit pedestrians and to prevent accidents. This way, the green strip besides the paved sidewalk could be invaded by the pedestrian flow (not gathering), making it a usable public spaces.

The shared lane will be 13´ for bicycles, MUNI and cars. The median still make a continuous 4´line from Broadway to this point. The median tree will be planted every 50´ (like elsewhere). This Tree Implementation Plan will consolidate the section while the façades of the buildings correspond and will not “colonise” intersections to allow more temporary elements at these points.

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104

figure 7.9

Figure 7.9: Street Type 6: From Taylor Street to Beach Street: The proposed North Shore Line stops and the cable car stops in Fisherman’s Wharf. The Light Train will run peacefully upgraded from the portal until the final destination (waiting for more decisions to be made for future continuation of the Line to the Golden Gate Bridge).The final section type of Columbus Avenue allows a wider 13´sidewalk on the side of 8´ flex-use parking space. The residential character of this portion area will determine that the flex-use could become an effective small park, or a gathering and seating area for the neighbours to enjoy (and not have to go up hill or down to the bay to enjoy open space) The shared lane comes back to a 16´ dimension to fit bicycles, public transportation and private cars. With the actual land use, delivery spaces are not needed but the 16´ space could always avoid illegal parking on the side.

The focal end of the Avenue is Joseph Conrad Square a full pedestrianised triangular park, symbolic and essential for the final completion of the Columbus Avenue Project.

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105

7.1 GREEN CONNECTORS AND ACTIVITY CONNECTORS From the very first day that I walked on Columbus Avenue, I experience the massive pedestrian congestion of the sidewalk. I didn’t really like it, I felt uncomfortable with people pushing me to walk their way through the sidewalk while on the other side people were comfortably seated in the terrace tables drinking and eating meals and coffees that I couldn’t afford.

My personal experience intuitively confirmed what the analysis has expressed, and the goals and strategies focused on: pedestrian safety

and

comfort.

By

addressing

the

necessity of a better pedestrian network along Columbus Avenue that will connect the different interest points (landmarks, local and visitors attractions, historical architecture) through the neighborhoods, the proposal changes its scale and becomes a district solution.

Columbus Avenue will be a diagonal corridor for pedestrians and public transportation crossed transversally by green streets that connect the existing open spaces in the adjacent neighborhoods and that direct users to the civic recreational and cultural landmarks. It will no longer be a straight vehicular line. It will draw a more complex set of routes within the figure 7.10

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

neighborhood, and between the neighborhoods.

106

7.2 THE SIDEWALK A sidewalk refers to the area between the property line and the curb, and the crossing areas at intersections. Columbus Avenue sidewalks vary along the length of the street from 8´ to 11´.

Consequently, the activity that sidewalks hold varies too; sometimes there are crowded spots with 8 people standing for 10 minutes, and others will not be occupied by anyone for hours.

This proposal varies the sidewalk dimensions along the street to accommodate the needs of pedestrians and solve the congestion of people in some points, the pedestrian flood along the street going through the North Beach District, the access to private buildings, the underground restaurant storage (with determining delivery access), the valet parking use for restaurants appropriating parking spaces at night, and for sure, the transportation need for the street: bike lanes, bus lanes, shared lanes, upgraded light train, and the historical cable car.

The number of pedestrian floods on the sidewalks varies at different hours of the day (figure 5.28).

The flow stops and chaos reigns. Some people like it –they think that the bump-into-each-other experience is the charm of the European style District-- but it is actually a safety and accessibility issue for the users of the sidewalk --they have figure 7.11

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

to jump to the parking space to cross a couple 107

holding hands (no more than 3 persons in a row fit in an empty sidewalk and no more than one if there is a tree and a cafĂŠ table).

The 12th of October each year, Columbus Day, North Beach hosts a parade in the Avenue that helps demonstrate the capacity of the street to figure 7.12

be a fully pedestrianized area. Sidewalks purely receive the movement of citizens and parking spaces are colonized by packed 12 person tables. Suddenly the sense of the Avenue has another dimension, a human dimension versus a vehicle scale. I am aware of the specificity of this temporal event, but it should be a practical example for the City to be convinced about the

figure 7.13

opportunities along Columbus Avenue (also the rest of the year).

Even though this thesis deals with the design of the right-of-way and does not propose land uses changes that the Subway will produce. The proposal section types (Figures 7.4-7.9) reveal figure 7.14

figure 7.15

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108

the different character of the sidewalk moving along the street depending on the zoning attached to it.

The goal established in Chapter 6 articulate the intention of stretching the vitality in the Columbus Avenue core, North Beach, along the whole street to prevent the lack of activity elsewhere whom causes the disorientation of users, and the lost of Columbus as a boulevard that goes all the way from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Financial District.

7.3 FLEX-USE The piece of Columbus Avenue that goes through North Beach is mainly occupied by Italian restaurants, cafĂŠs and shops. The sidewalks adjacent to those businesses have tables for customers to sit down outdoors. It is a public space that can be privately rented to serve more customers. It is no doubt a recognizable feature of the District and a great economic policy for the businesses, but it is the main cause of the pedestrian congestion, and the non-free public spaces in the street.

figure 7.16

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109

Figure 7.17: Belden Place Reference: This is a small pedestrian alley is between Pine Street and Bush Street in the middle of the financial District. It only allows delivery and private vehicular traffic for the restaurants of the street. It functions with mobile structures that fold and unfold or roll and unroll to make the “eating” figure 7.17

scene and convert the alley into a charming between block terrace.

Figure 7.18-19: Downtown Alley Cafés: In weekdays, Commercial Street in Downtown San Francisco closes temporarily to vehicular traffic. Aligned with the core of the Embarcadero Centre, it establishes a pedestrian corridor and entertainment axis in the middle of a city block during lunch time, from 12pm to 2pm.

figure 7.18

This alternative is already supported by the City’s law that allows for a rental fee putting out tables for businesses. It just needs a simple, mobile, and temporary feature to notify the modification of the “normal” use of the street: a sign and a chain.

Figure 7.20: Columbus Day Parking Space: 12th October, Columbus Day, is a great demonstration of

figure 7.19

the power of people (versus cars) on the Avenue. Cars are prohibited. Just a wide line for the parade is habilitated. The rest is packed of people and food.

The restaurants are allowed to place tables outside in the parking spaces. No barriers are needed to prevent accidents. The space given to the customers become a wide, familiar new type

figure 7.20

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

of public space to enjoy the day.

110

This thesis proposed to wide the sidewalks, as I explained in the paragraph above, and to occupy the parking lanes with terraces for the cafés and temporary parks for citizens that will give the flow of users along Columbus Avenue room to breathe, and will give back some public spaces to locals and visitors. Those spots should be placed all along the street with a policy that supports the strategy needed.

The reference for this design setting of the proposal has been Mountain View, where those appropriations of the parking lanes are called sidewalk cafés. They are outdoor areas located and maintained in the “Flexible Zone” of Castro Street or in the sidewalk of any commercial street of Mountain View by an adjoining restaurant for the sale of food and beverages.

The Flexible Zone concept is applied to an area generally defined by the edge of the building face to the lip of the paved parking lane next to the street. It is comprised of two basis areas: Area 1. which extends from the edge of the building face to the edge of the step curb (sidewalk) and Area 2 which extends from the edge of the step curb to the lip of the paved area adjacent to the street (parking lane).

Although

this

proposal

will

be

a

major

decongestion tool for the sidewalks, as we can figure 7.21

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

see in the example of Mountain View (figure 111

figure 7.22

7.22-7.25). The challenge will be to distribute this flex-use type spaces along the avenue. The massive concentration of restaurants will leave no street parking in front of the business if we are not fully aware of the occupation percentage of this new typology of public spaces. Renting figure 7.23

the space yearly (around 600$ in the Mountain View example) creates exponential benefits to the cafĂŠ owners since it allows locating 20 people (5 tables) in each parking space. The policy that will lead this design along Columbus Avenue will have to be responsible for the result of the space and equitable with the businesses.

Furthermore, the real problem is the renting

figure 7.24

situation of most of the business. The renters discourage long-term investments that will stop their present economic activity for a short term (for a non-defined period of time).

figure 7.25

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112

7.4 MID-BLOCK CROSSWALK The triangular geometry of Columbus Avenue produces a 50% (Figure 5.43) of space given to the intersections, mainly given to cars.

The project proposes midblock crosswalks in the blocks that are large enough to allocate them. figure 7.26

There are 7 of them in the overall project. The more frequent rupture of traffic will slow down the traffic and will increase pedestrian safety without considering withdrawing vehicular lanes out of the Avenue.

This

perpendicular

path

that

measures

80´(versus the 103´ of the diagonal cut) permit the pedestrian to shorten his other routes in the figure 7.27

neighborhood. This orientation of the crossing points will also optimize the commercial visibility (therefore consumption, therefore economic vitality).

figure 7.28

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113

AXONOMETRIC THEORETICAL PROPOSAL Main Features + Commercial signage

Vegetation Elements

Urban Life: People and Mobile Elements

figure 7.29

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114

7.5 LANDSCAPE

AND

TREE

PLANTING

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN On both sides of the avenue there are ficus trees. They are static and shady. They are on average 9’ to 15’ height tall trees, planted at 9’ from the façades of the building they constitute figure 7.30

a major visual barrier for the low apartments that face the streets (most of the street frontage is 2 story-buildings).

The median trees are deciduous. They are visually more permeable even though they create a middle axis, a vertical layer between the street façades. That effect is successful according to the existent street section, the enclosure that they provide in the transversal section is helpful for the sense of the Avenue itself.

The existent tree pattern of Columbus Avenue is discontinuous. The implementation plan for the greenery will vary with the width of the sections, as explained previously. The storm water treatment will follow the tree axis and will promote ecologically beneficial landscaping, as shown in the section types figures (Figures 7.47.9).

7.6 SPECIFIC STUDY AREAS The description of the specific study areas will follow in figures 7.32 to 7.39.

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115

Figure 7.32: Proposal Plan I:

•

Joseph Conrad Square Design. The end of the 1,2 miles diagonal. A great opportunity for identity and memory art and design.

•

Final stop of the North Shore Line at Hyde Street.

•

Pedestrian connection with Jan Gehl’s “Jefferson street Pedestrianisation Project” highlighting Bay views by tearing down the fishing industrial building at the end of Leavenworth Street.

•

Private owned Opportunity parcel in the corner of Leavenworth Street and North Point Street.

figure 7.32

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116

Figure 7.33: Proposal Plan II: •

Enlarged triangle opportunity at North Point and Columbus Avenue reduces Jones Street to a one way street going opposite direction from Columbus Avenue.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Bay Street and North Point Street, matching it up with the current hotel entrance.

•

Green scattered flex-use (approved by the community) in this residential portion of the Avenue.

•

Private property opportunity for a symbolic building (40´to 60´) with an Median Canvas welcoming commuters entering the City through the Bay Corridor (old Tower Records building)

•

Private owned parking lot opportunity.

figure 7.33

Chapter 7: Design Proposal

117

Figure 7.34: Proposal Plan III: •

Joe Di Maggio Playground Extension closes Mason Street permanently to traffic between Lombard Street and Columbus Avenue.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Lombard Street and Chestnut Street.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Chestnut Street and Francisco Street as a continuation of Houston Street to Jones Street, and the Bimbo’s Plaza.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Greenwich Street and Lombard Street connecting the commercial ground level of the buildings.

•

Lombard Street Green Connector that aligns Telegraph Hill, the Joe Di Maggio Playground and the well know steepest road of the word.

•

Corner privately own property connecting with a non-end alley at Lombard Street and Columbus Avenue intersection.

figure 7.34

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Figure 7.35: Proposal Plan IV: •

Joe Di Maggio Playground Extension closes Mason Street permanently to traffic between Lombard Street and Columbus Avenue.

•

Triangular public space in front of Public Library (with immediate crosswalk access) for outdoors exposition or performances.

•

Pedestrian Improvements in Jansen Street.

•

North Shore Line Portal. Centered in the street section type it will become a symbol of the City.

•

Private parking lot opportunity at Filbert Street and Powel. It will enlarge the space in front of the portal and communicate Columbus Avenue directly through the alley to the Greenwich Pedestrianisation.

•

Greenwich

Street

Pedestrianisation.between

Powell Street and Columbus Avenue besides Joe Di Maggio Playground.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Greenwich Street and Lombard Street connecting the commercial ground level of the buildings.

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Figure 7.36: Proposal Plan V: •

Private parking lot opportunity at Filbert Street and Columbus intersection. In front of the enlarged triangular piece of the park. Ideal for outdoors performances (it could be a stage or a seating courtyard).

•

Pedestrianisation of Powell Street from Columbus Avenue to Union Street as a exterior hall for the Pagoda Theatre Cultural Centre.

•

Mid-crosswalk in Washington Square Park

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Green Street and Union Street connecting the commercial ground level of the buildings.

•

Four subway exits of the Green/Stockton Station platform 2 at each side of the sidewalk in each side of the block.

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Figure 7.37: Proposal Plan VI: •

Green and Stockton enlargement of corner bulbs allocate Subway exits

•

Gathering free public spaces at the corners of the Intersection with bulbouts and specific designed details.

•

Green Street Connector starting at the Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard Project of temporary closure for street outdoors terraces.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Green Street and Vallejo Street connecting the commercial ground level of the buildings.

•

Vallejo Street Green Connector; Saint Francis Church Plaza (between Columbus Avenue and Grant Avenue.)

•

Pacific Avenue and Broadway that will link Jack Kerouac Alley with the Alley in the building opposite façade.

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Figure 7.38: Proposal Plan VII: •

Temporary Pedestrianisation of Upper Grant Avenue with some permanent street features and a policy of temporary closure both daily and eventual. Chinatown and Upper Grant Gateway opportunity.

•

Broadway and Grant Avenue Intersection. The Language of the Birds sculpture. .

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Pacific Avenue and Broadway that will link Jack Kerouac Alley with the Alley in the building opposite façade.

•

Kearny Street Green Corridor Street and the Kearny Plaza (between Broadway and Vallejo Street). It could be a neighbourhood plaza; the steepest park or greenway in San Francisco. It will be a great viewpoint of Portsmouth Square and Kearny Street down to the Financial District.

figure 7.38

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Figure 7.39: Proposal Plan VIII: •

Base of Transamerican Tower with Washington Street, Montgomery Street and Columbus Avenue intersection.

•

The old isolated tree in the corner is a icon at the very end (or start) of the Avenue.

•

Privately owned property that links Columbus with Washington Street enlarging the existing crossing alleys, and providing an interesting space between 60’ tall buildings.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Washington Street and Jackson Street.

•

Mid-crosswalk in block between Jackson Street and Pacific Avenue.

figure 7.39

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7.7 PROPOSAL PHASING The Phasing proposal is done “theoretically” based on the Timing chart that the Columbus Avenue will have. It serves mainly a social matter: the need for the project to fit into the neighborhood’s willing and current circumstances. It focus in the construction phase of the overall project since it could be the reason of a major crash in the economy of the district (if a lot of the businesses will have to close for some years, they will never recover –like in Market street).

The areas are divided after a traffic study of the possible closure that the Avenue will allow: Broadway, Taylor Street and Joseph Conrad Square.

The main characteristic of this plan is that business within phases will have the right to occupy the vacant (private) lots adjacent to the other phases to avoid closing down the economic vitality (therefore social) of the Avenue.

PHASE AND PROJECTS

2008

2009

2010

2011

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2013

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2015

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MEDIUM TERM

2018

2019

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2021

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PHASE 1.0 PHASE 2.1 PHASE 2.2 PHASE 3.0

EXTERNAL PROJECTS

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CENTRAL SUBWAY NORTH LINE REDWOOD PARK TRANSAMERICAN BLDG GRANT AVENUE ( NORTH) PEDESTRIANISATION GRANT AVENUE (SOUTH) PEDESTRIANISATION FILBERT STREET (EAST) PEDESTRIANISATION GREEN STREET PEDESTRIANISATION CHESNUT STREET PEDESTRIANISATION JEFFERSON STREET PEDESTRIANISATION

PUBLIC ART PROGRAM COLUMBUS AVENUE

DURATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION DAYS PER PHASE (days)

figure 7.40

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PHASE 2.1

PHASE 2.2

PHASE 3.0

2920

2190

1825

2555

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figure 7.48

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This strategy will help to create vitality in some of the areas that suffer a major social void, to make them become vibrant spots that will develop their own character among the rest of Columbus Avenue.

The longitudinal section in 7.41-7.48 describes a state of the construction in phase 2.1.

7.8 CONCLUSIONS Again, the innovative aspect of this proposal is that the project doesn’t rely in a final static figure 7.49

solution for a street, but it accepts the flexibility of the project in time and in space.

The Phasing study (figure 7.40) through the process of “building up� the new street is able to absorb the obstacles and surprises that the completion could bring; the physical urban features (like the ones shown in the Mountain View example figure 7.22) support the temporality of use in streets (their enclosure and openness for cars and pedestrians indistinctively); and the public art program accompanied with public policies or civic laws will manage the complexity and allowed for both of them to get accomplished.

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CHAPTER 8: THE BANQUET: PUBLIC ART PROGRAM “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

“Through the looking glass”. Lewis Carrol. 1872.

Having justified the importance of art in human life in the context of the public realm, the last step is to explain how to create a comprehensive Public Art Program that could go hand-in-hand with an urban design process.

The idea started with finding arguments for previous research about the importance of art for human creativity. Looking for good arguments I found myself thinking that I need art to survive. I am an art consumer, a creativity addict. This visceral belief sparked the idea of the metaphor of art as food. Our body needs food to survive, our mind needs art. This was the origin of creating a BANQUET OF ART; a set of spaces, of moments that will “feed” citizens in unexpected no charge situations. The Banquet Public Art Program will bring people to the table. It will create a series of banquets along the urban design process that will facilitate the discussion around this great topic that we are dealing with: Cities.

In the same way that Plato created a dialogue about love around a table in his book The Banquet (Plato, 175 b.c) . The Banquet of Art would be a conversation between artist, professionals coming from different disciplines and backgrounds, politicians, and citizens in which a facilitator (not an actual player) would provide themes related to the urban

figure 8.1

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transformation of Columbus Avenue, much as the poet Agaton once did.

The proposal might sound humorous and philosophical but it would be mainly a practical tool of production and reflection of public places. Those “banquets” would be a set of figure 8.2

actions that would occur in different spots in the neighbourhood at different times of the urban design process in order to maintain life.

These actions would allow the area to grow and transform, maintain their structures and respond to their different environmental and socio-political circumstances.

figure 8.3

figure 8.4

figure 8.5

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8.1 METHODOLOGY- TOOLKIT The criteria that The Hidden Dimension (Edward T. Hall p113) established in its chapter about “the distances of man” for the distances of perception and interaction sets the base to draw the radius in which art can happen. To identify those distances or opportunity sites for the street, I used urban features analysis: vitality analysis: the identification of users and activities in public spaces; urban form analysis: the description of figure 8.6

the urban form; and identity and power analysis: the classification of communities, and the localization of the social and economic powerstructures. This step helped relate the physical to the character of space, giving a better understanding of the social conditions of the space.

This methodology led to the final proposal for this project. It demonstrates the use of art in the urban process, but it is a premature solution: it explains the procedure that would need to be

figure 8.7

undertaken, but it lacks an important part: the collaborative design of the street.

As an academic work, I made the decision of move forward in the design proposal to demonstrate the theoretical application of the proposed public art program. Even though it is contradictory, it was more relevant and innovative if chose to

figure 8.8

expose the idea of how to execute the design

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project in parallel with the art program through the construction transformation, better than how to get to the design project itself , and that is what I did.

In a real case scenario, the Banquet of Art phasing would incorporate art pieces created in the present to highlight urban issues, to engage the community in an urban project about to happen, to undertake a real analysis for the future design, and to create the on-going design with a participatory design strategy, as I already started with the game and survey tools.

figure 8.9

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Figure 8.10: Art Opportunity Sites: The theoretical frame for human perception and interaction that it’s been studied has helped develop an Art Opportunity Site Map. This map draws the dimensions that could be taken for the artwork. It categorises the temporary sites (blue dots), and the permanent ones (red dots).

The first one will be situated in the way of vehicular traffic flow. These spots could be temporary closed for events, performances, or static installations. The permanent places are normally allocated in the pedestrian realm, in the sidewalks, bulbs, crosswalks, medians, plazas and open spaces.

figure 8.10

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INVITATION nº0

PROJECT: COSA MARAVILLOSA

VENUE: cualquier lugar es bueno DATE: cualquier hora es adecuada 00:00am

COMMUNITY: CITY SUPERVISORS: COMMISSIONS: PROFESSIONALS: TECHNICIANS DEVELOPERS ARTIST EXTERIOR PEOPLE

figure 8.11

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8.2 WHO IS COMING? THE INVITATION “`I didn’t know it was your table,’ said Alice; `it’s laid for a great many more than three.”’

Lewis Carrol 1872 The

Banquet

contains

several

tools:

the

Invitation, the Menu and the Recipe. The process begins with the Invitation. Most of the decisions in cities are made in small tables, by a small group of people. This toolkit wants to address the importance of having all the urban agents at the table of the proposed “banquet-tool”.

For that purpose, an invitation layout has been designed to invite to each “dialogue” to the people influenced by the project. In the table we will always have to invite: the

community

organizations,

the

City

Supervisors and other politicians involved, the commissions in charge of the different aspects and areas in which the project will be located, the professionals that lead projects in the area, the developers private or public that are investing in the area, the merchants and business district organizations that work in the area, the artist that has a vision for the place, the citizens or visitors who want to join the dialogue, and the art project itself.

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MENU nº1289 MENU nº1289 12-19th August 12-19th August2020 2020 1. Joseph Conrad Statue Bronze sculpture, stone pedestal

2. Santa Maria Caravela Boat

1

Mastiles y velas clavadas en el suelo directamente en el césped. Free entrance.

2

3. Bullit Median.

3

Homage to steve Mac Queen and his famous scene in the San Francisco Hills.

4. Bay/ Taylor Street Temporary Canvas

4

SF Art Institute Awards for “Timeless Art”

5. Street Cinema.

Night projections on Bimbo’s Club building.

City Entertainment. (12pm)

5

6. Jenga bus stop Station Wooden mobile and interactive structure to accomodate public transportation passengers.

6

7. North Line Portal.

Permanent Sculpture by Eero Saarinen.

8. Weekly Event in Washington SQ. 8

“Loco Brusca” Performance in the Subway station of the North Line.

7

9. Benjamin Franklin Permanent stone statue over pedestal.

SF Art Commission Collection.

9 10

10. The Bears.

Collection of plastic California Bears filled by the Construction soil and given to other cities to evoke the consciousnessof C. in Recycling Art.

11

11. Red Balloon.

Inflable ball for the ventilaion infraestructure of the North Line Subway.

12

12. “Flying Books” by Brian Goggin Permanent sculpture over the Broadway Intersection funded by ...

13. “The Thinking Chair” by Mark 13 14

A lighting urban furniture for creative minds.

Temporary and movable in the avenue.

14. Social Filipino Center.

Temporary Architecture Structure for Citizen Participation.

15. Kissing Performance.

Monthly SFO Event in the Intimate Triangles of Columbus Avenue. figure 8.12

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8.3 WHAT TO EAT? THE MENU The Menu-tool answers the question of what is going to be served and where and when, so it serves two different phases of the project. One phase is the moment in which “the guests,” or stakeholders, meet. In this case, this tool is relevant to know what they are going to “eat,” what they are going discuss, the project, the site, the purpose for locating it The information to make these decisions would come from the phasing of the public art program in relation with the urban design plan, and the specificity of the site.

The other phase in which we would use this layout would be all along the way of the process to inform citizens and visitors what program is proposed for the street in each moment, at the time and in the future. This program would be determined by looking at the physical opportunities and the socio-political circumstances of the space.

The first phase application would come from the possible types of art that the space could hold; and the other would come from the study of the phasing schedule in figure 7.40.

In both tools the unresolved question is who is deciding which people to call to the banquet, what are the discussion topics, what are the priorities; how does the outcome fit the integral project in the street. Who is the facilitator? Who are the organisers of these “banquets”?

My first guess is that the City Planning Department and the Arts Commission should be involved in this initiative, but we should be able to create a team with artists and citizens on boards to assure public interests are covered.

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RECIPE collection 26 th August 2008

Name of the Proposal:

ARTIST: drawing.

desired location: (mark on the map)

INGREDIENTS and TOOLS: Explain the material needed for the art to happen and the machinery to make it.

PROCEDURE/ STEPS: What are the steps that should be followed to make it.

RECRUITMENT: Express who will develop the art, and how the process of selection of the artist, artists, or particpants should be done.

RESULT: Give a description of the final result. The effects that you want the artwork to pursue.

PORTIONS: How would it have to work and who would be the “best” public.

ADDITIONAL SOCIAL INFORMATION per serving: Specify any preferences or constraint.

Please contact the cooker with your proposal: bertalazaro@berkeley.edu

figure 8.13

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8.4 HOW TO EAT? THE RECIPE “`Not the same thing a bit!’ said the Hatter. `You might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”! ‘You might just as well say,’ added the March Hare, `that “I like what I get” is the same thing as “I get what I like”!’ `You might just as well say,’ added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe”!’”

Lewis Carrol. 1872.

This quote underscores what I have emphasized in this thesis all along, the importance of the order of things. This recipe-tool gives an idea of when and how can the art be deployed, and how to make it happen. Deployment requires that all the elements and circumstances are optimum, the timing in the process of doing the art it’s optimum.

The layout is created to explain the idea of the artwork, the final product, the procedure and steps that should be followed to make it, and it specifies additional constraints and preferences to “serve” the art, the favourite audience, and the materials and machinery needed to create and locate it.

The methodology followed is meant to be applicable in any number of urban cases. This recipe-tool could be distributed and filled by anybody (artist or citizen) in a not-yet-designed workshop to gather opinions about future artwork for the Columbus Avenue Banquet Program. In the case that is not the artist that proposes its artwork, there is a need to point who will develop the art, and how the selection for artists or participants should be done.

In both cases the recipe works as a survey with two applications: one would be used as a layout if everyone is present at the table and the project is underway; and the other one will be an open-ended survey.

On October 2008 I tested the recipe tool at the University of California, Berkeley with students in Anthony Dubovsky’s Visual Studies course VS280 course. I presented these tools and asked the students to fill in the recipe layout. I haven’t heard form them yet.

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8.5 THE VESSEL From this recipe tool and its recommendations, we could think of a future starting point to create a VESSEL for the setting of public art in public spaces. Designing this physical elements (auxiliary or not, for preparation or maintenance) to locate different art could be a beautiful project that the City could apply elsewhere.

This thesis has come out with strategical sites along Columbus Avenue. It proposes a special program attached to repeated urban features. Around these areas, art could happen all the time. It will actually fade with everyday life.

8.5.1 THE TRIANGULAR INTIMACY The diagonal form of Columbus Avenue cuts the rectangular San Francisco grid. That angle triangulates the intersections. These “left-over” spaces spread along the street are used depending on their architectural dimension, if they are large enough they “hold” building (2-4 stories housing, apartments, or public buildings); if not they are not, they normally become isolated minimal public spaces, pedestrian islands for pedestrian castaways.

The urban form analysis and the detection of opportunity sites for art have treated these islands as both a mayor problem and chance of the street form. They are a fair amount of the figure 8.14-0

unused spaces that needs to be addressed.

Currently, the triangular corners are solved in many different ways, as shown in figure 7.13.

There is a series of different solutions when the ground floor interacts with the built form: ineffective turns, restaurant terraces, gathering points...

This

figure 8.14-1

proposal

studies

the

possibilities

of

interaction in them. The personal distances of

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one another (figure 8.17) gives us a clue of what actions could happen in them. A larger diameter of larger social events fit into the central triangle geometry. At the corners, the geometry only allows the most intimate distance to happen. It is ironic that the smallest dimensioned spaces will be surrounded by the vehicles traffic therefore they become the most dangerous spots. What I’ve called the Triangular Intimacy is a strategy to program private gathering in those critical points, by designing safety urban features and devices that will guarantee safety to citizens.

8.5.2 SEE AND BE SEEN Among the chaos of Columbus Avenue, people are both spectators and protagonists of the scene.

If you are seated you don’t have to talk, you feel like just watching. If you are walking you watch figure 8.15

too, but you are mainly part of the scene. The multidirectional stage that this Avenue provides is one of its beautiful unique characteristics.

figure 8.16

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figure 8.17

8.6 APPLICATION The Columbus Avenue Banquet Public Art Program would be funded by the one percent of architectural and infrastructural projects along the Avenue. It would commission, purchase and install artworks in a variety of settings, along the length of the street, and along the duration of the urban transformation, to provide opportunities for individuals to encounter art in parks, islands, crosswalks, sidewalks, pavements, walls, lighting, furniture, shop frontage and other public venues. It would also be used for art installations while the street was under construction, as it came on line, and in its new configuration. The program would work in tandem with the urban design phasing proposal to describe the different forms, purposes and locations of art along Columbus Avenue.

Artworks would be commissioned through a public process. Teams of artists along with community and city representatives would evaluate the artist applicants. That said, this Chapter 8: Public Art Program, “The Banquet�

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figure 8.19

Figure 8.18: 2nd February 2020: To give an example of the program procedure I made a theoretical program for the Columbus Avenue Project.

Following the timeline that this thesis has envisioned (figure 7.40-1), the 2nd February 2020 the street will be going through Phase 3.0. The North Shore Line will still be in construction, finishing the stations; the Grant Avenue South Pedestrianisation will be starting; and Green Street Pedestrianisation will be half way trough.

In this phase 3.0, the business and shops (not many in the present, but probably more in a couple years) could be allocated in a temporary architecture in the vacant lot between Washington St. and Pacific Av. The art opportunity sites will be filled in this period of time with art serving different purposes as shown in figure 3.19: beautification, legibility, vitality, identity, memory, dialogue and social happiness.

The application of this program it’s described in the Plan figures 8.20-8.27; the designed situation is a moment on time; on the day that the menu (figure 8.12) will be also hand out. figure 8.18

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figure 8.20

figure 8.21

figure 8.22

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figure 8.24

figure 8.25

figure 8.26

figure 8.27

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figure 8.28

figure 8.29

figure 8.30

figure 8.31

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figure 8.32

Banquet needs to find ways to evolve beyond commissioned artwork. It needs to ask artists what they want to do to in the public realm and how they wish to develop their public-art careers. It needs to combine the professional satisfaction for artists and the learning opportunities for audiences. It needs more experimentation between and among artists so that that there are more effective means of delivering creative expressions or social messages with greater emotional impact and cost effectiveness.

The resulting collection of artwork would have permanently sited and integrated pieces that would appear at a certain moment of the process; temporary pieces that would test a specific public space; and portable works that would move along the Avenue, the city (or even the world) and constitute the “Nomad Gallery” for Columbus.

8.7 ACTIONS The timing for this proposal always seemed really convenient. The North Shore Line project is now being studied by the City; by Renew SF and MCTA; by the University of Berkeley Studio class Spring 2009 led by Peter Bosselmann. All this thoughts around this Chapter 8: Public Art Program, “The Banquet”

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figure 8.33

area will capture attention and will soon raise the awareness of the rest of the community.

This “intellectual movement” is the reflection that project don’t just exit n the future, they exist in the present, that’s were they start “baking”.

To prove the possibilities for art to happen in figure 8.32

the present, to start the phasing from today, I’ve collaborated in some actions and installations in the street that want to bring this proposal out of the academic world.

Figure 8.33: Plate Installation: The Richmond High School students and I covered the closed façade of the Pagoda Theatre with plates leaving human shapes among them to raise the awareness about

figure 8.32

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figure 8.33

the abandoned cultural space that could be a mayor destination for wonderful performances.

We worked as outsiders in this project, which is never a desirable situation. Nevertheless the context of the Urban Design Workshop gave another purpose for this action: prove the ownership of space. The street is everybody’s. figure 8.33

Figure 8.34: Fork Installation: Washington Square has a great large lawn that is a great canvas for any art display. In this case, we draw a fork out of forks. The purpose was just the beautification of the park.

We use the forks to have similar simbology of the banquet so that maybe it could be used as a logo or a define for the urban banquet. figure 8.33

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Figure 8.35-38: Asphalt Doll Performance: Jorge Lastra, Unchung Na and I performed in a pedestrian run over, in 8 intersection of Columbus Avenue. We wanted to reflect the lack of pedestrian safety. The photographs express the invasion of the car in the shared space at the crosswalks. They also set up the urban stage with the urban figure 8.34

structure scenario in the back. It is really powerful to see the geometry of the diagonal in the building disposition.

For the action, we needed a bag of mandarins, a camera, and a shoe. We had to study carefully the timing of each of the traffic light, and it was really revealing to feel the fear of Jorge’s safety in the middle of the road. We had to talk and warn pedestrians, and we found that people are scared and rushed by traffic. It was a good street experience.

figure 8.35

Different.

figure 8.36

figure 8.37

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8.8 PROGRAMMING THE UNEXPECTED “Ideally it should be possible to do a mail-order Happening. But responsibility for its proper execution still remains. Someone has to be in charge…”

It’s been very helpful to read this quote from Allan Kaprow (1965) while writing this thesis.

He was the pioneer in establishing concepts of performance art, and he evolved later to practice into what he called “Activities”, intimately-scaled pieces for one or several players that were devoted to the examination of everyday behaviours and habits in a way nearly indistinguishable form ordinary life.

Even though his proposals were fresh and somehow unexpected, the key elements of those “happenings” were planned, but artists retain room for improvisation. It has been very relieving to figure out that the unexpected art that I champion can happen in the context of programming art in public spaces. The unexpected is unexpected for the people, but still is planned by the artist.

This should always be the attitude in a Planning process; we shouldn’t be afraid of improvisation (we already do it everyday) if we build up the framework of the process in which we move.

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CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION “With language itself, the city remains man’s greatest work of Art” Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities, 1934.

In 1972, the Urban Design Plan of San Francisco was born from the conflicts over individual building projects, because of their size, their shape or dimension, but mainly because of the nature and pace of new development. City professionals and city staff alike felt the need to write a comprehensive plan that would preserve the physical image of the City.

Just like the physical image of cities is changing rapidly, the symbolic image of the city is too. The fact that our cities are going through an accelerated process of transformation causes a general sense of loss, or placelessness, in other words, the perception of the gradual weakening of the identity of the sites, to the point that they not only become ubiquitous, but also transmit the same sensations and offer the same poverty of possibilities for experiences.

The character of our cities, our places, our communities is transformed incredibly in a over the course of one’s life. Knowing that the place where we grow up become symbols of ourselves, this development shows the importance of other social values: the value of historic and cultural patrimony; the aesthetic value; the value of environmental quality; and the value of quality of life and experience. It shows the importance of preserving the uniqueness of every site that we (urban designers) work on.

We cannot “trust” blindly the Urban Design Plan and wait to see at the end of the day the result tells us that it “worked”. Instead we could make our own project, one that did not have to be led just by urban design, but rather led by a creative community.

We cannot let occasional budgets for public art that derive from public and private development take away the essence of the street, the people. We could find a tool that links together all the art projects and brings together artists’ visions and the community’s values, projects that will not be about any finished product but about the dialogue that occurs among those engaged in a process.

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We cannot let the planning of Art District generate land value and attractive creative city points just to displace population. We can, by programming the art in the public space right-of-way, expect the same economic and cultural benefits using public money, in public land, and INMEDIATELY with the existing community, without waiting to agree with private investors (which takes forever).

This thesis proposed a comprehensive PUBLIC ART PROGRAM that constitutes a PUBLIC ACTION PLAN for Columbus Avenue to complement the URBAN DESIGN PLAN for the area. An Art Program that will be consider exemplary for its integration of the artworks and the ideas of artists into a variety of public settings, through the transformation process of the Urban Design Project to create and enhance a cultural center for innovation and creativity in Columbus Avenue, San Francisco.

In thinking all the values of art, its aesthetical capacity, its power to call out loud the beauty of everyday objects I came to the conclusion that we have to demystify the author of the art, we have to change the focus from the object of art to the process of generating art.

This PROCESS is the most relevant statement of this thesis.

The initial idea was to change the order in which art appears in the urban design process, to make the cosmetic-addition-type art into a constituent part of the process. Now, I believe that is not just about the order of things, but the way of doing them. Sometimes “bad� or thoughtless routines are the ones that destroy us silently. There is a need to frequently rethink our disciplines, and sharing concepts with other fields is a good way of doing it.

In this way this thesis proposed a future reflection on how we do urban design (from the analysis, to the design, the construction and the implementation of ideas); how we could let the art BE the process, and then proposed an ARTFUL WAY OF BUILDING A CITY.

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Staying with the analogy of food and art, I want to finish with a quote of one great literary discovery; Alice Water speech’s The Delicious Revolution (January 2005) in which she says that “eating is a political act, but in the way the ancient Greeks used the word ’political’— not just to mean having to do with voting in an election, but to mean of, or pertaining to, all our interactions with other people—from the family to the school, to the neighbourhood, the nation, and the world. Every single choice we make about food matters, at every level.

The right choice saves the world.” This statement amplifies my belief in what public art can do for the public realm – the right choice in electing art in public spaces will also save the world.

THE END/FIN

Chapter 9: Conclusions

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Researcher’s blog: http://columbusavenuesfo.blogspot.com/

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