Seal Point Park
Seal Point Park
On Saturday D. and I went to Seal Point Shoreline Park in San Mateo to enjoy the sunny, early spring day. On the shore of San Francisco Bay close to the airport, the location experiences constant winds, which were a driving force for a series of site-specific environmental sculptures commissioned for the park.
We started out on the Wind Walk Trail, which offered opportunities to explore how wind gives life to the sculptures by making them create different sounds, move in different directions and at different speeds, and cast dynamic shadows. Here are some of the pics I took.
Bench groupings are placed on the hillside.
A brewer's blackbird investigates the area near a bench.
Mallow in bloom.
Two sculptures: parabolic dishes by sonic architects Bill + Mary Buchen, and Flocks by Reed-Madden Designs.
Flocks depicts the movement of a thousand Western Sandpipers as they fly across the mudflats at Seal Slough.
A wind organ called Slapped Pipes is 17 feet tall and consists of pipes tuned to a 2-octave pentatonic scale that resonates with the wind blowing across their openings.
A China Airlines cargo jet approaches San Francisco International Airport for a landing.
Looking back up at the sculptures on the hilltop.
A red-winged blackbird rests in the grasses by the trail.
A couple of bugs cavort on a yellow cosmos.
One of the Wind Instruments along the trail.
Farther along is a trio of more Wind Instruments, each one moving at a different rate.
The park is built atop a former landfill. The hillside is awash in flowers.
A California gull on the mudflats offshore.
Wild radish, and lupine.
A muddy-footed willet looks for things to eat at low tide
Looking northwest from the shoreline at Seal Point Park.
.
On Saturday D. and I went to Seal Point Shoreline Park in San Mateo to enjoy the sunny, early spring day. On the shore of San Francisco Bay close to the airport, the location experiences constant winds, which were a driving force for a series of site-specific environmental sculptures commissioned for the park.
We started out on the Wind Walk Trail, which offered opportunities to explore how wind gives life to the sculptures by making them create different sounds, move in different directions and at different speeds, and cast dynamic shadows. Here are some of the pics I took.
Bench groupings are placed on the hillside.
A brewer's blackbird investigates the area near a bench.
Mallow in bloom.
Two sculptures: parabolic dishes by sonic architects Bill + Mary Buchen, and Flocks by Reed-Madden Designs.
Flocks depicts the movement of a thousand Western Sandpipers as they fly across the mudflats at Seal Slough.
A wind organ called Slapped Pipes is 17 feet tall and consists of pipes tuned to a 2-octave pentatonic scale that resonates with the wind blowing across their openings.
A China Airlines cargo jet approaches San Francisco International Airport for a landing.
Looking back up at the sculptures on the hilltop.
A red-winged blackbird rests in the grasses by the trail.
A couple of bugs cavort on a yellow cosmos.
One of the Wind Instruments along the trail.
Farther along is a trio of more Wind Instruments, each one moving at a different rate.
The park is built atop a former landfill. The hillside is awash in flowers.
A California gull on the mudflats offshore.
Wild radish, and lupine.
A muddy-footed willet looks for things to eat at low tide
Looking northwest from the shoreline at Seal Point Park.
.