Deep Listening was our proposal for a 14 ft sculpture of mirror and rainbow panels, with an 18 ft mouth, in Cityside Park. It didn’t win the commission. These six studies, built from the proposal drawings and measured site data, show what the design missed.
The mirrored mouth faces the winter sunset and throws up to 2.2× sunlight at head height.
Sun rays traced through the sculpture for the date and time on the right. Drag to orbit.
sunlight inreflected by mirror panels0 to 2× sun
Glare calendar: the brightest reflected spot at head height through the year. Amber is 1× sun, red 2×; blue dots mark 2× or more on the pad. Click to jump to a moment.
High severity
The open lawn is already windy, and the throat pushes it past San Francisco's comfort yardstick about half of daytime hours.
Plan slice at 4 ft (1.2 m). Wind enters from the left. 1 m grid.Section along the wind through the pad, ground at the bottom.
under 11 mph, comfortable walking11–26 mph26–36 mph, past the SF hazard levelover 36 mph
Medium severity
The walk-through throat is 2 in short of ADA headroom, and its rim overhangs the walking line.
Section through the throat, looking along the axis, in inches.Side elevation: slopes people can climb.
Medium severity
The pad sits on loose sand that liquefied in 1989, on a slab never designed as a foundation.
What's under the pad, and the pad against flood levels. Not to scale below 10 m.
Medium severity
Rain never reaches the inside, so salt from the Bay sits on the mirrors and stains them.
Front section: where rain rinses salt off, and where it never does.
Medium severity
The two in-grade uplights conflict with San Francisco's bird-safe rule for parks near water.
Side elevation through the axis: the two uplights and where the mirror strips send their light.