Collaborations ​SF Community Challenge Grant(CCG) funded ArT

Local artists and business owners, J. Angel Garcia and Brandon Grimaldi, are in the final stages of completing a flagstone labyrinth on the upper hillside patio at the North end of Tunnel Top Park.  In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Ancient Greek: Λαβύρινθος labúrinthos) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the hero Theseus.  After the spring equinox, come stop by and solve the Tunnel Top Park Labyrinth.  With no pesky Minotaurs mucking about, it’s fun for all ages!

“S.P. Tunnels” is a mural reproduction rendered by Eli Lippert and Monica Magtoto of an original 1935 woodcut by painter and graphic artist Charles Surendorf.  The mural is located on the upper south wall of the CalTrain train tunnel at Tunnel Top Park. Tunnels” depicts the actual S.P. (Southern Pacific) train tunnel and surrounding Dogpatch/Potrero Hill neighborhood during  the mid 1930’s while Charles Surendorf lived in San Francisco. Charles taught art at Mills College, Oakland and served as director of the first San Francisco Art Festival. He produced more than 250 woodcuts and linocuts during this period and his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the country.  In 1959, Art Digest named Charles Surendorf one of the top twenty-five woodblock artists in the world. 

Eli Lippert and Monica Magtoto are both San Francisco born artists who  have collaborated on numerous mural projects such as “Lotus", Buddhist Temple, Sacramento and more recently “Baobob Rising” with  Mel Waters at Glide Memorial Church, and “Unexpected Places" for SOMA Pilipinas.  Eli was raised in the Mission District surrounded and inspired by the monumental murals and art in the street, his murals can be found throughout San Francisco. Eli’s lifelong passion for lettering as an art form has also brought him into the world of sign painting, you can see examples of his work all over Dog Patch and Potrero Hill in locations such as Harmonic Brewing, Pat’s Garage, McRoskey Mattress and Shopfloor.

Monica Magtoto is an artist, brujita, yoga instructor, and Usui reiki practitioner.  As an artist, Magtoto explores her connection to the city through nature and bold imagery and expresses  issues surrounding her community and heritage through dream-like, and bold, graphic imagery of women. She explores themes of life-long healing from grief through hand drawn and painted typography. Her graphic illustrations using watercolor and ink - amazing!

Undulating Landscape is a project of the Tunnel Top Steering Committee, California College of Arts and the San Francisco Planning Department.  The project designed and fabricated by students at CCA is funded by a grant by San Francisco Pavement to Parks Program.  Pavement to Parks Professional Practice Interns Fernanda Bernardes and Anh Vo, under the supervision of Meghan Dorrian (CCA) and Robin Abad (SF Pavement to Parks), led the design refinement and implementation of ‘interim amenities’ at Tunnel Top Park in the Summer of 2016. The concept design, ‘Undulating Landscape’ was selected by a Jury comprised of Tunnel Top Park community members and CCA faculty from several generated during the Spring 2016 Building Technology Seminar. During the late Spring and early Summer 2016, the Tunnel Top Park Steering Committee met routinely with the CCA / Planning Department team to refine a site-wide plan and design for ‘Undulating Landscape,’ a modular prototype that incorporates seating, fencing, and lighting for deployment across the park. The summer 2016 design-build studio fabricated and installed “Undulating Landscape” at the Park in August 2016. Design-Build Studio Students: Fernanda Bernardes, Ryan Chan, Abrar Felemban, Jonathan Frederick, Wut ‘Demi’ Htwe, Denita Irsjad, Anh Vo