Arts and Gardens at Embarcadero Center

Lush foliage and colorful blossoms adorn every building. The subtle fragrance of seasonal blooms fills the air. Explore one of the City’s most extensive public art collections against the backdrop of the soaring towers, open plazas, and breathtaking landscape. There is so much to discover. Take it all in at Embarcadero Center!

Follow this self-guided tour for the best of the city’s artwork not behind walls. So grab your smartphone and let’s start the tour!

Self-Guided Tour Start

Le Meridien Hotel

Start in the lobby of the Le Meridien San Francisco. A focal point is Olga de Amaral’s Alquimia LXXIV, a composition of hand-woven linen tiles painted gold.

Also enlivening the lobby is Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Colonna, a cast bronze sculpture that borrows elements from illuminated manuscripts, computer chips, hieroglyphics and Florentine columns.

Commercial Street

Encircled by a spiral stairway between the Le Meridien San Francisco and the Bently Reserve on Commercial Street is a bronze sphere with black etchings, an untitled work by German artist Fritz Koenig. A few steps to the west is Dimitri Hadzi’s Creazione, a bronze sculpture with a spirited sense of movement that was inspired by the music of Mozart.

Bently Reserve

Gracing the entryway of the historic Bently Reserve is Traders of the Adriatic, a richly-colored mural created in 1915 by Jules Guerin that pays homage to the world of banking with its depiction of Venetian shipping merchants accepting receipts for goods on deposit. The building is also the magnificent backdrop for two contemporary abstract bronze sculptures, Hermes and Dyonisis, A Monument to Analysis and The University of Wisdom, both by French artist Arman.

275 Battery

Across Sansome Street at the 275 Battery plaza is Torso With Arm Raised II, a powerful, archeologically inspired bronze sculpture by noted California artist Stephen DeStaebler. In the Embarcadero Center West lobby is Bill Barrett’s Baile Merengue, an abstract work in bronze that captures the fluidity of dance rhythms.

One Embarcadero Center

One of the marvels at One Embarcadero Center is the dramatic Two Columns with Wedge, a 17-ton stainless steel sculpture by William Gutmann that was fabricated out of an 82-foot long cylinder in a San Francisco wok manufacturing company. One Embarcadero Center is also graced by two huge colorful tapestries by Françoise Grossen, both hand woven by the artist out of jute.

Two Embarcadero Center

A walk through Two Embarcadero Center reveals a couple of wonders, including Nicholas Schoffer’s Chronos XIV, a steel sculpture with 49 light projectors and 65 movable discs that creates a ballet of light and movement. At the lobby level is Anne Van Kleeck’s Blocks, a bronze sculpture reminiscent of children’s building blocks stacked as though they are about to fall.

Three Embarcadero Center

Taking center stage at Three Embarcadero Center is Louise Nevelson’s Sky Tree, a soaring structure of black Corten steel set in a reflecting pool. Nearby is Robert Russin’s Chthonodynamis, a sculpture of black laboradite depicting the Greek god of the earth’s primal energy.

Four Embarcadero Center

At Four Embarcadero Center, architect and sculptor John C. Portman, Jr. makes a statement with The Tulip, a bold concrete tulip-shaped sculpture outlined with lights that spans three levels. On the street level is Mistral, a cast bronze sculpture by Elbert Weinberg that represents the warm winds that originate in Africa and sweep upwards to southern Europe.

Embarcadero Plaza

Immediately east of Four Embarcadero Center is Embarcadero Plaza, the setting for one of the City’s most famous and controversial landmarks, the Vaillancourt Fountain. Created by Armand Vaillancourt in 1971, the fountain is 101 precast aggregate concrete boxes designed in such a way that visitors can walk over, under and through its waterfalls. Another plaza landmark is Jean Dubuffet’s La Chiffonniere, a stainless steel structure with black epoxy that represents a cartoon-like ragged woman.

Hyatt Regency

Another showcase for arresting artwork is the adjacent Hyatt Regency San Francisco, where a reflecting pool in the hotel’s soaring atrium lobby is the setting for Charles O. Perry’s Eclipse, a 40-foot-high geodesic sphere consisting of 1,400 pieces of curved metal tubing joined together in pentagons and supported by three massive steel legs. Fabulous tapestries, wall hangings and paintings by local and international artists can also be found throughout the hotel, including works by Adolph Gottleib, Françoise Grossen, Olga de Amaral, Jagoda Buic, Joseph Grau Garriga, Candace Crockett, Paul Jenkins, Pierre Clark, James Monte, Dennis Farber, Robert Motherwell, Anne Marie Rucker, and others.

For more information about the public art and gardens, contact us.
Phone 415-772-0751
Email mchui@bxp.com
Embarcadero Center Art Tour
Four Embarcadero Center
Lobby Level, Suite One
San Francisco, CA 94111

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