San Francisco
If you're like me and see life as a weird balance of the tragic and the comic, I have a couple stories tailor-made for you. First the comic - and forgive me for its reference to a component of male anatomy: "When the Dutch city of Leeuwarden
i don't get to san francisco as often once did and that's a shame because there so much see do. on the plus side, however, when do make one of my infrequent trips bay area, there's always lot brand new me, even if it has been around for while. monument i'll discuss here example since 1998 or but i'd never come across until had reason visit moscone center downtown in 2007 convention centers go, is both modern imposing, real highlight me was yerba buena gardens,two-city-block= park situated such way that part actually over center. it's wonderful space highlighted by martin luther king jr memorial, set glass panels celebrating his life legacy. those engraved are mounted granite behind waterfall measuring 20 feet tall 50 long devised artist sculptor houston conwill collaboration with poet estella majoza architect joseph de pace.
And as you move away, you appreciate the fact that the sound of the waterfalls also masks a great deal of traffic noise. And the same can be said for the perimeter-overflow fountain on the terrace just above the waterfalls: It's hard to get a break from general urban clattering in a place like downtown San Francisco, and these watershapes succeed at it to a wonderfully welcome degree.
We have a trip to San Francisco planned for this summer: This will definitely make it to my short list of stops while we're there - provided I don't get distracted by something new!
For a video that puts the waterfall on full display, click here. For a look at the watershape on the upper terrace, click here. For a glimpse inside the memorial, click here.
I haven't called attention to many of what you might call "conventional" fountains in my Travelogues. You know what I mean: the standard sort of bowl fountains with modest flows, bronze sculptures and lots of patina. It's not that I haven't come across many that I like and admire during my travels; it's just that most of their stories seem a bit too similar.
In the case I'll discuss here, however, there's an odd tale of déjà vu to tell: Back in July of 1978, while I was in Rome, I sought out fountains just about wherever I walked around the city because it was so unbelievably hot. Even small fountains were islands of coolness under the intense Italian sun.
One of the fountains I encountered looked familiar when I crossed its path: The Fontana delle Tartarughe (seen above) wasn't s show-stopper by any means, but it was charming and cooling - and challenged me with the nagging sense that I'd seen it before.
Set where there had once been a fountainhead for the Roman aqueduct system, this one had been built in the 1580s as the collaboration of an architect, Giacomo della Porta, and a sculptor, Taddeo Landini. The creatures that lent the fountain its name were added about 80 years later during a restoration project; they were by either Gian Lorenzo Bernini (which would be exciting, as he was a truly great artist and architect) or by Andrea Sacchi, a renowned painter (but not anywhere close to Bernini's league).
My guidebook, long gone, doubtless told me all of this, and I'm certain the Bernini connection would've caught my eye. But what really grabbed me was the translation of tartarughe it offered: This was the "Fountain of the Tortoises" - and I had indeed seen it before, only the last time it had been in a small park on Nob Hill in San Francisco.
About four years before my visit to Rome, I'd spent a week in San Francisco, walking up and down hills and exploring everything I could reach on my happy 18-year-old feet. I'd been to Nob Hill and had walked through Huntington Park and had seen what turned out to be a reproduction (seen just above) of the Fontana delle Tartarughe that had graced the space since 1954.
It was all about the tortoises, both times. They looked a bit silly hanging out over the edge of the large fountain bowl, so when I saw them again in the same absurd posture in Rome years later, it triggered the memories and kicked up a curiosity that made me linger long enough that I checked my guidebook and saw that tartarughe translated to tortoise - and I knew in a flash where I'd see this before.
You can go to Rome to see the original, but to me the San Francisco version has almost as much going for it - other that 450 years of art history atop 2,000 years of Roman hydrological history, of course. Cool in either place, I'd say.
For weeks now, I’ve been following the news about a prominent San Francisco fountain that, until recently, seemed on the express train to oblivion. It’s a tale of a changing cityscape and the desire of a company known for rigidly controlling its visual image to remake a retail space in a way that suited its corporate design sensibilities. It’s the story of an artist who recently passed away – one who spent her early years confined in
