Jennifer Correia and Allison Cummigs
Abstract
Created by Rob Howard for the 1939 Treasure Island Exposition, Whales originally anchored the Court of Whales before moving to various locations and storage sites. The sculpture was recently installed at the new Student Success Center at San Francisco City College (CCSF) after years of collaboration, conservation, and advocacy to restore this artwork. The city’s press release opened with, “Sixteen-ton stone sculpture featuring two orca whales, once featured on Treasure Island at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, has been restored and reinstalled after two decades in storage.” This sentence concisely summarizes years of teaming between the San Francisco Arts Commission and ARG Conservation Services (ARG/CS).
Typical of complex projects, the conservation team included a cast of thousands that would be expected for a much larger structure since there were extensive requirements for seismic and safety codes to install a public artwork on a college campus. ARG/CS teamed with a structural engineer early in the design process, and the two entities worked closely with SFAC to safely shore and protect the sculpture during the conservation process.
As a product of an International Exposition, it is likely that the sculpture was planned for a fairly temporary existence on Treasure Island. Instead, the sculpture was moved to Golden Gate Park in 1958 and became a fountain that delighted many San Franciscans for decades. The fountain-slash-sculpture was moved to storage from this location in the early 2000s prior to a major re-development of the museums in the park. Unfortunately, the initial move caused damage to the sculpture. Standing roughly 10 feet tall by 14 feet wide by 18 feet deep, the sculpture features cast concrete that depict two intertwined orca whales.
This presentation will share and summarize the steps of this collaborative design-build conservation process. The team created base drawings for structural and conservation design, including mapping the individual cast concrete units that were held together with internal steel ties. The sculpture was partially filled with concrete and brick rubble that surrounded internal steel pipes for the fountain plumbing. Conservators and engineers worked together with a team of masons to decide on conservation strategies that would safely abandon the internal pipes, augment the structural integrity, and maintain the iconic aesthetic.
The city, college, and conservators were dedicated to placing the artwork at CCSF, but there were challenges with securing a site and funding that resulted in multiple starts and stops to this project. The presenters will share how they strategized to keep the sculpture safe during this process. As it usually goes, Murphy’s Law intervened, and the final construction schedule included aggressive deadlines to install the sculpture after years of waiting. The team jumped and brought the Whales back to life—cutting, drilling, grinding, shoring, pouring, filling, injecting, and coating 16 hollow cast-concrete pieces in a six-month restoration process. The team grew and included everyone from artwork riggers, stainless steel fabricators, and inspectors. This project creatively integrated a cross-disciplinary team with a happy ending and home for the Whales.