Not Your Average Garden Planters – Palace of Fine Arts, Marina District, San Francisco, California

These very large "flower boxes" (to quote the official guidebook to the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition) once bore masses of luxuriant California shrubs. They are located in the Peristyle Walk in the Fine Arts Colonnade of the Palace of Fine Arts. The friezes are by Ulric H. Ellerhusen, who made also the Weeping Figures and the heroic "Guardians of Arts" already described. The guidebook continues: "It is interesting to note that the precision of handling has given this design, in spite of its size, an exquisite delicacy. Standing at charmingly balanced intervals, a circle of maidens bear a heavy rope-garland. This rope makes a gratifying line that has given pleasure to connoisseurs. The frieze is so successful largely because, though frankly decorative as suits its purpose, its personality and charm distinguish it from the pattern-like or conventional. The landscape planting in the boxes, in the flower beds and above, is one of the enduring attractions of this colonnade and walk. The green is architecturally massed and the relief of flowers bright and delicate, never intrusive."