By Jessie Laura
January 13, 2020
KOHEI NAWA
Japanese. b. 1975
Ether
Painted Aluminum, 2019
The Grand Hyatt at SFO welcomes visitors to the Bay Area and offers travelers a world-class airport hotel experience, memorable for its architecture, art, and guest accommodation. The hotel strives to capture the unique essence of the place we call the Bay Area and through the hotel’s public art program this relationship to the region is explored and established.
Grand Hyatt at SFO’s public art enrichment program, provided by the San Francisco Arts Commission, offers visitors to the hotel a permanent collection of paintings, sculptures, and mosaics that reflect San Francisco and the Bay Area’s vibrant and diverse culture. The collection is comprised of a varied group of works in a range of styles and media by artists of local, national, and international acclaim.
From the Grand Hyatt’s inception, the team behind the project developed a carefully considered art program with the collective goal to make the Grand Hyatt at SFO an example of how arts and architecture can be beautifully integrated.
The Grand Hyatt at SFO is a memorable and uplifting destination for world travelers, set within the San Francisco International Airport campus, at the center of a region known for its creative expression, diversity, and innovation. The architectural design of the hotel combines memorable building form with light-filled interior spaces. The hotel stands as an architectural contributor to the airport campus and sits harmoniously beside the airport’s other icons.
TAHITI PEHRSON
American, b. 1972
Circadian Transit
Painted Aluminum, 2019
ELLEN HARVEY
American, b. The United Kingdom 1967
Green Map
Hand-cut glass and stone mosaic, 2019
JACOB HASHIMOTO
American, b. 1973
This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance
Paper, UV ink, resin, bamboo, Spectra, acrylic, stainless steel, 2019
Supporting public art and fostering an artistic community is an essential component of San Francisco’s urban fabric. The San Francisco Art’s Commission (SFAC) is a city agency that was established with the founding principle that a creative cultural environment is essential to the city’s well-being. As a government organization dedicated to promoting the arts; they achieve this through various avenues, one of which is the Public Art Program, which involves providing art enrichment to important and large-scale public and private building projects, such as this program established for the Grand Hyatt at SFO.
For all the three-dimensional art in the hotel, there was a similar level of complex planning and interfacing between members of a dedicated team of artists, architects, SFAC staff, fabricators, installers, engineers, SFO project managers and the contractor, all with the shared goal of realizing the ambitions of the art program. The following set of photos document this process, showing some of the key early site meetings between artists and architects, right up until the final installation of the art pieces.
Press
Grand Hyatt at SFO Public Art - San Francisco International Airport Official Website
Major Site-Specific Works Land at San Francisco International Airport - San Francisco Arts Commission
Media
Ellen Harvey's Green Map Installation Video - SFO Museum
Kohei Nawa's Ether Installation Video - SFO Museum