Mission Bay, San Francisco, California

Hulls

Hulls, a sculpture created for San Francisco’s new Mission Bay development, commemorates a waterfront steeped in maritime history. During the 16th century, Ohlone Indians, sustained by hunting and fishing, built boats from the reeds of the bay’s shallow waters. The 1800s saw a vibrant industry of wooden schooners and ferryboat builders, which later lead to the fabrication of large metal World War I and World War II submarines and battleships.

In conceptualizing this sculpture, Richard Deutsch was drawn to the concentration of wooden-boat builders who worked along the Mission Bay waterfront in the mid-1800s. As a symbolic form, the graceful hulls of these vessels not only contain the humanity of this historic time, but they continue to captivate those who gaze out to sea.