My Role

Start to finish, Whorl Whirl: Our Circular Nature was nine years in the making. For this project I worked with the artist and the SF Arts Commission to establish site and project context by facilitating tours, and conversations with subject matter experts. This was one of the SFPUC’s first large-scale, architecturally integrated artworks and required carefully building executive and project team alignment. I provided creative review and approval throughout the development of the artwork, from full-scale mock-up to final installation. This ambitious artwork serves as the exterior facade of the treatment plant and supports a pipe-gallery which transports up to 250 million gallons of wastewater per day. 

The Artwork

Whorl Whirl: Our Circular Nature by Norie Sato is hard to miss. Rising 35 feet high and extending 335 feet down Evans Ave this monumental artwork visually interprets the invisible process of wastewater delivery and treatment. Through layered circular forms and shifting colors, the artwork evokes the whirlpools which connect households to the treatment plant, inviting viewers to reflect on often unseen but critical wastewater infrastructure.

Press

• How SFPUC’s Art Installations Embody Our Mission

• Art and Innovation at the New Headworks Facility

• SFPUC Modernizes San Francisco’s Oldest Wastewater Plant with New $717 Million Headworks Facility

Project Team

• Artwork Client Representative: Blair Randall, SFPUC

• Capital Project Management: Jignesh Desai & Victor Shih, SFPUC

• Artwork Project Manager: Mary Chou, SF Arts Commission

• Artwork Fabrication: Zahner