The Women’s Building in the Mission District of San Francisco is a community center whose facade is covered by a mural designed and painted by Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez. It’s a multicultural homage to iconic women and women’s history, and its scale is incredible.
I really appreciated the mix of flesh tones with stucco tones, and the intricate patterns of the mural with the repetition of the facade’s architectural elements:
Here, the mural has its own meta moment:
Even from a distance, you can see that the mural is impactful:
That is some mural. This is the kind of thing that makes cities unique in my opinion compared to their suburban counterparts. The unexpected is what you come to expect from great cities.
Comment by Randy Simes — February 16, 2009 @ 11:28 am
My photos really don’t do justice to the awesome scale and impact of this mural. The one part that seems a bit grotesque is the overjoyed woman in a wheelchair, but I shouldn’t nitpick. The faces and hands in the first few photos are especially impactful and really speak to the strength of women. Because of the narrow streets, you have to really look up to see the mural, which enhances the effect.
I have so many more photos from this trip! I don’t know that I’ll ever get around to posting all the amazing public art projects I saw.
Comment by visualingual — February 17, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
[...] activities. In a neighborhood that’s practically covered in murals, including its alleys and other institutional buildings, this building, with its single, narrow, mural-covered facade, seems almost [...]
Pingback by Bethany Center in San Francisco « Visualingual — March 10, 2009 @ 8:06 am
beautiful mural… i used to live down the street from this building, and i always loved walking past it. thank you for these photos and memories.
Comment by f. johnson — March 10, 2009 @ 8:53 pm