![]() And even before ground was broken on California Street, the building was creating a buzz. An Examiner columnist called the statues a “monumental joke.”ĭespite the one-liners and critiques, Johnson’s design was approved. “Can’t you think of anything else? A ball? An orb?” Others joked that the strange statues represented the 11 city supervisors and Mayor Dianne Feinstein. “What are they? What is their meaning, if they have meaning?” Planning Commissioner Susan Bierman remarked at a hearing in 1982. (Johnson was also responsible for the Neiman Marcus building in Union Square and the skyscraper on stilts at 101 California.) Outside of development concerns, something else in famed architect Philip Johnson’s plans was making City Hall anxious: 12 statues made by elusive New York artist Muriel Castanis that Johnson had chosen to crown his latest addition to the San Francisco skyline. It would cast a shadow over Kearny Street - “the last broad sunlit street downtown,” attorney Sue Hestor complained when planning hearings commenced in 1982. It was set to replace a four-story historic insurance building and clock tower, but planners were met with pushback from those in City Hall dismayed by the “Manhattanization” of San Francisco. The construction of the 23-story office tower on the corner of California and Kearny was controversial from the start. ![]() The rooftop at 580 California St., San Francisco. But what exactly do they mean, and who put them there? Since they were first lowered onto their lofty plinths by helicopter in 1984, the statues have been described as godly, deathly, ominous and cloudlike. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |