Client: San Francisco Arts Commission

Overview

Bayview Rise is an illuminated mural by artists Haddad|Drugan. The 187′-tall artwork is located on a grain elevator and silos at the north entry to San Francisco’s Bayview Neighborhood. Its geometric pattern weaves together symbols of the neighborhood’s changing economy, ecology, and community. At night, different light colors cause parts of the mural of that same color to be highlighted while other colors recede into the dark background. As the light colors shift, images appear to float in and out of the scene. This striking effect results in the appearance of an animated graphic abstractly representing a neighborhood in transformation, or Bayview Rising. Bayview Rise won recognition at 2015’s Public Art Network Year in Review and has been featured in many publications.

Goals

This project was initiated by the Port of San Francisco in order to create a landmark and mark a gateway into the Bayview District, as well as meet its goals for neighborhood beautification. The artwork succeeded in meeting this goal by incorporating symbols that are important to the community. Its large-scale iconography is recognizable from distant hilltops. Bayview Rise created a "place" in a part of the city that was previously placeless. Residents of the Bayview District routinely use images of the artwork on community bulletins and websites, as a representation of their neighborhood.

Process

Haddad|Drugan met with community representatives to hear their stories when they started conceptualizing the Bayview Rise mural imagery. The mural’s red balloons are inspired by words of 96-year old activist Essie Webb, who likened the Bayview neighborhood to a balloon waiting to inflate and rise. The cow references historic Butchertown, once situated on wharves at the location of the current artwork. The birds and water allude current environmental restoration projects being undertaken by the Port of San Francisco. Together, this collage of overlapping images transposes the past and future of the Bayview. Following completion of the design, Haddad|Drugan worked through a complicated permitting process with the Port and hired a painting company and a lighting company as subcontractors to install the two components of the artwork.