‘Heart SF' sculpture turns heads after cutting through red tape in new S.F. permit program

San Francisco Chronicle​

4 days ago

A new sculpture at a San Francisco cable car turnaround near the Embarcadero invites people to immortalize their entrance to the city by posing for photos in a giant heart-shaped frame.
Dubbed Heart SF, the artwork at Robert Frost Plaza has been an instant magnet for tourists — and a crucial first test of a new program that aims to vastly expedite the city's notoriously slow approval process for neighborhood improvement projects.
When the Dibona family of Buenos Aires, Argentina, saw the big metal heart, sandwiched between the giant letters S and F, on Wednesday, they walked up and climbed into the frame, handing a bystander an iPhone to photograph the four of them with the California Street cable car in the background.
'We will post it on Instagram' said Franco Dibona, 18, the family interpreter, adding that they had no idea the new sculpture was there until they passed by it on Market Street, en route to the Ferry Building. 'Every important city should have this.'
But the interactive public art would still be stuck in planning, a year or two away, if it were not for the new Love Our Neighborhoods program, which is dedicated toward fast-tracking any project on city property or in the public right of way — including neighborhood Little Free Libraries, sidewalk benches and planters, tiled staircases and murals.
The Chronicle wrote in 2023 about the Meyers family, whose Little Free Library effort was thwarted by a complaint that triggered an encroachment citation from the city — and public outrage over red tape. Susan and Joe Meyers supported the legislation that created the Love our Neighborhoods program.
Heart SF is the first major project to take advantage of it, the centerpiece of an effort by the Downtown SF Partnership to spruce up the plaza in front of the Hyatt Regency, as a destination branded as the Downtown Gateway.
'The pilot project'
'We were the guinea pig, the pilot project,' said Claude Imbault, vice president of Planning and Economic Development for the Downtown SF Partnership, a community benefit district that oversees 43 blocks of the Financial District and Jackson Square. 'It would have taken two or three years without (Love Our Neighborhoods) and I don't think the end product would have been as good. We were all aligned.'
That alignment included three separate city agencies — the Planning Department, Public Works and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency — which in times past might have meant three separate applications and three separate opportunities for frustrating and costly delay.
Love Our Neighborhoods has streamlined that into a single dedicated website with staff standing by to help push it through as quickly as possible, including coordinating with other city agencies. The application is touted as taking 45 minutes for most projects.
'While safety and accessibility remain a priority for us as stewards of the public right of way, we want to help guide and support people in their efforts to improve and beautify our shared public spaces,' said Public Works Director Carla Short in a news release.
Previously, Heart SF Project would also have required a major encroachment permit, which meant a hearing and approval by the Board of Supervisors, a process that would take a year in and of itself. Now that is covered in the Love Our Neighborhoods application.
Three-tiered program
The program has three tiers:
Tier One, the smallest, requires registration only, no permit and no fee.
Tier Two involves larger projects such as murals on bridges or sidewalks, commemorative plaques, and minor landscaping. Groups like nonprofits, community benefit districts or merchants associations submit applications, which may require reviews.
Tier Three projects include major projects like lighting, new stairways or retaining walls, and sculptures such as Heart SF.
Projects at the third level take longer and require permitting and review, but the Heart SF application was filed Feb. 8 and the permit issued April 11. It took twice that long to get the piece designed and fabricated. It was installed July 24.
'That heart is like a magnet,' said Olajuwon Mitchell, who has run a nearby shoeshine stand for 40 years and never seen anything like the crowds that spontaneously form at the new photo op. 'People come here every three minutes to take a picture. This is going to bring a lot of business, I can promise you that.'
Revitalizing Robert Frost Plaza
The concept for the installation was developed by Imbault, as a way to revitalize Robert Frost Plaza, a downtown transit hub where the 1-California cable car line meets Muni Metro and BART at the Embarcadero Station. It is an irregular strip of city property on a brick pad.
Operating on a $160,000 grant from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Imbault hired SITELAB Urban Studio to develop a plan.
'We wanted a formal gateway that says you've arrived in downtown San Francisco,' said Imbault, 'a place for visitors to sit and get their bearings that tells them this is a place that matters.'
The Southern California fabrication firm AD/S did the design and fabrication out of metal and steel for the 2,400-pound piece. The art itself was budgeted at $80,000.
It was Imbault who had the inspiration to place it at an angle so that the heart perfectly frames the cable car as it rests at the end of the line. The F-Market streetcar line and BART also stop there, so it is being turned into a transit hub.
A Muni shed is soon to be fitted with vintage cable car ornamentation and a large information sign and map contributed by Market Street Railway, Muni's nonprofit preservation partner. Lighting elements and a plaque that brands the site as 'Downtown Gateway' are still to be installed.
'It's really a great team effort,' said Rick Laubscher, President of Market Street Railway. 'You've got city departments, a business association and nonprofits all working together to create a new hub for exploring the historic attractions in San Francisco.'
The project cost more than $200,000 overall, and was helped by a $75,000 grant from the Pisces Foundation. This paid for construction of seating areas — though visitors seem most eager to sit either on the metal platform or inside the heart itself.
'It shows the power of small improvements to make an impact,' said Imbault, who described the Gateway as 'a big hit.'
And not just for tourists, either. Brenda Dang, a retired federal worker who lives in the Gateway Apartments, walked over to take her holiday card photo with a real camera and was willing to wait her turn — which also meant waiting for the cable car to make it to the end of the line.
'Everybody knows what the cable car is,' she said, after the picture was made. 'So it gets the message across.' Asked to elaborate on the message Dang will send to everyone on her holiday card list, coast to coast and in Hawaii, she said, 'San Francisco is a great place to visit, sightsee and shop. Come on down and check us out.'