A new batch of public art has popped up in the breezeway between the Santa Fe Depot and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. I believe these pieces were all created by youth.
On Saturday I took a few photos after stepping off the trolley. Enjoy!
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This morning I walked past the downtown location of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. In a hurry to catch the trolley for work, I passed through the breezeway between the museum and the Santa Fe Depot. And look what I discovered! I was pleased to encounter some new art on a wall that I hadn’t seen before!
I didn’t see any plaques, signs or explanations. I assume this artwork originated at MCASD.
Take a look and interpret as you wish!
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I saw magic this evening. The spell was cast as the sun neared the horizon. I lingered a few moments near Pacific Highway downtown, spellbound.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Should you ever step inside downtown San Diego’s handsome Santa Fe Depot, there’s a small exhibit at the information booth worth checking out. Two glass display cases provide a glimpse of the train station’s fascinating history.
To read the signs, click the images and they will enlarge.
Last year the Santa Fe Depot celebrated its centennial. I blogged about that here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
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Unusual, thought-provoking works of art are currently on public display in the outdoor breezeway between the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Santa Fe Depot. I happened to see them the other day while walking through downtown to catch the trolley.
Close family members who have survived domestic and political violence appear in three large photographic portraits. The photos have been boldly augmented with paint to highlight human resilience and courage. According to a nearby description, these works are part of the FOCUS Binational Exhibition and were created by MCASD’s Teen Advisory Group. The artwork reflects an exploration of strategies for coping with violence and trauma.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of unique photos for you to enjoy!
Over two years ago, when Cool San Diego Sights was relatively new, I blogged about some amazing public art near the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. I provided just a brief glimpse, really.
The artwork, titled The Tracks We Leave Behind, created by Betsy K. Schulz in 2008, is so utterly fantastic, so absorbing, I’ve decided to blog about it once again. Whenever I walk past (which is often), I like to pause an extra few seconds beside my favorite column, which features gorgeous mosaics that depict wild nature and the Native American Kumeyaay people, who have lived around San Diego for about 12,000 years.
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When I catch the trolley at downtown San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot, I often walk through an outdoor passageway that separates the hundred year old train station’s enormous waiting room from it’s original baggage terminal. The latter building was converted years ago into an interesting space used by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD).
Recently, while strolling through the passageway, I paused to examine three eye-catching graphics created by the museum to promote one of its current exhibitions. Two of the images incorporate old train posters from San Diego history, which I find to be very cool. I thought you might enjoy a look!
MCASD’s exhibition titled “John D. Spreckels and The Impossible Railroad” concerns a railway project undertaken a century ago by one of San Diego’s most prominent entrepreneurs and benefactors. Perhaps Spreckels’ greatest accomplishment was to complete the logistically difficult San Diego & Arizona Railroad, our nation’s southernmost transcontinental railroad route. I haven’t visited the exhibition, but according to what I’ve read it utilizes interesting visual devices to demonstrate the near impossibility of building Spreckels’ railroad, which had to wind around and over deep mountain gorges. (Spreckels was also responsible for a large network of electric streetcars which traversed San Diego decades before our modern day trolleys.)
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I was walking around today when I noticed a large banner hanging above the entrance of downtown’s Santa Fe Depot. This year the historic train station and San Diego landmark turns one hundred years old!
A friendly gentleman inside the waiting room at the information booth gave me a flyer about a special event tomorrow. The public is invited to attend a celebration of the historic depot’s centennial! The festivities take place between 11 am and 1 pm. The address of the Santa Fe Depot Union Station is 1050 Kettner Boulevard, just north of Broadway in downtown San Diego. I will be working, so I’ll probably miss it.
In the past I’d thought about posting cool old photos of the depot, but now seems the appropriate time! Check out the following photographs that I found on Wikimedia Commons.
First, a little background on the depot, with a few details taken from an informative handout…
A fine example of the classic Spanish Mission-Colonial Revival style of architecture, including Moorish influences, the Santa Fe Depot is on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it lies at the southern terminus of the nation’s second-busiest Amtrak rail corridor. In addition to the Pacific Surfliner trains, it also serves as an important station for Coaster commuter trains and the San Diego Trolley.
Built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, it opened on March 7, 1915. It replaced the California Southern Railway’s smaller 1887 Victorian depot. The beautiful new depot was designed to welcome rail travelers visiting the 1915 Panama-California International Exposition, which was staged in expansive Balboa Park, just northeast of downtown. You can see dozens of fantastic photos of Balboa Park from a century ago here.
The huge Santa Fe Depot waiting room is 170 feet long and 55 feet wide. The varnished oak benches are lit by 16 bronze and glass chandeliers. You can see pics of today’s interior here.
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Early yesterday morning, I strolled for a few minutes along San Diego’s beautiful Embarcadero. I wanted to get some photographs to update last year’s blog post about the Star of India’s tattered sails.
While heading back east on Beech Street, I noticed some gigantic public art is being applied to the west side of the relatively new Ariel Luxury Apartments building. This high-rise stands between Santa Fe Depot and the Little Italy trolley station.
I’ve found no info on the internet about this new artwork. Here are some pics!
Half a century ago, San Diego was home to the world’s largest tuna fishing fleet! This image of fishermen working together is very similar to a sculpture on Shelter Island, which I have yet to blog about!
I’m not sure what the white stuff is running down the building’s side. I suppose that will be removed when all is done!
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Walking into San Diego’s Union Station, more commonly called Santa Fe Depot, is like walking into the past. Or through some airy, sacred, vaulted cathedral.
The old train station seems utterly enormous when contrasted with the actual role that it plays in modern San Diego. Sure, it’s a reasonably important transportation hub, serving two lines of the San Diego trolley, plus the Amtrak Surfliner and Coaster trains. But today it seems to me more like a living memorial to a time long ago, when trains were a central feature of American life.
Here are a few cool photos of the Santa Fe Depot’s somewhat sparse but elegant interior. I love the tile work on the walls, the huge glowing windows, the beams in the arched ceiling…but most of all the classic long polished wooden benches. Whenever I walk through I feel like sitting down with the waiting passengers and pretending I’m off on some exciting transcontinental voyage.
Many years ago the depot held a large model of the USS Midway aircraft carrier under glass; I remember seeing that it was moved over to Petco Park. If memory serves, there was also a small pinball and video game arcade off to one side, by an exit to Kettner Boulevard.
The above plaque is just outside the main entrance.
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