Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: colonnade

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."

After the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was anxious to show the world that it had risen from the ashes. So in 1910, business and civic leaders gathered to discuss making San Francisco the site of the century’s first great world’s fair. Built on 635 acres reclaimed from San Francisco Bay, the exposition featured 11 great exhibit palaces showcasing objects from every corner of the globe, more than 1,500 sculptures commissioned from artists all over the world, 65 acres of amusement concessions, an d an aviation field. Twenty-one countries, 48 U.S. states, and 50 California counties mounted displays in the exhibition’s grand pavilions. When creating the Palace of Fine Arts, architect Bernard Maybeck believed it would be "the water and the trees" that people would come to see. Today, Australian eucalyptus trees fringe the eastern shore of the lagoon. The natural scenery was integral to his design, and swans were part of his original drawings for the Palace. There’s nothing more relaxing than sitting by the Palace of Fine Arts on a sunny day and watching the swans gracefully floating by on the lagoon. Long a symbol of the Palace, the whooper swans draw nature lovers, birdwatchers and shutterbugs alike. A vibrant part of the Palace’s romantic setting, the swans and the lagoon are captured year round in photos of family outings, engagements, and weddings. But the swans aren’t the only wildlife that the lagoon supports. A remnant of an ancient tidal wetland, the lagoon is an important environmental resource in the midst of a dense urban setting. As the closest freshwater habitat to the San Francisco Bay, the lagoon offers food and shelter to birds migrating the Pacific Flyway. Its little island provides a safe place for black-crowned night herons, ducks, and songbirds that breed and rest on its protected shores. Sea gulls fly over from the bay’s nearby shoreline to look for tasty tidbits. Many other forms of wildlife have made their home here including turtles, frogs, and raccoons. And of course, it wouldn’t be a city park without pigeons!

While most of the exposition was demolished when the exposition ended, the Palace was so beloved that a Palace Preservation League, founded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst, was founded while the fair was still in progress. While the Palace had been saved from demolition, its structure was not stable. Originally intended to only stand for the duration of the Exhibition, the colonnade and rotunda were not built of durable materials, and thus framed in wood and then covered with staff, a mixture of plaster and burlap-type fiber. As a result of the construction and vandalism, by the 1950s the simulated ruin was in fact a crumbling ruin. In 1964, the original Palace was completely demolished, with only the steel structure of the exhibit hall left standing. The buildings were then reconstructed in permanent, light-weight, poured-in-place concrete, and steel I-beams were hoisted into place for the dome of the rotunda. All the decorations and sculpture were constructed anew. The only changes were the absence of the murals in the dome, two end pylons of the colonnade, and the original ornamentation of the exhibit hall. In 2003, the City of San Francisco along with the Maybeck Foundation created a public-private partnership to restore the Palace and by 2010 work was done to further restore and seismically retrofit the dome, rotunda, colonnades and lagoon.