Osaka mayor lobbies Breed on ‘comfort women’ art
The controversial “Women’s Column of Strength” statue in Chinatown has now been in place for nearly a year, but the fight over whether it should stay remains as heated as ever.
The statue — three Asian girls standing on a pedestal holding hands and a grandmother standing down below — represents “comfort women,” the 200,000 women from China, Korea and the Philippines who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.
Unidentified assailants clearly aren’t happy about the statue. First, somebody scratched up the panel describing it. That was replaced, but it was scratched up again.
Then somebody splattered green and white paint on the grandmother’s dress and colored her eyes white, making her look like a creepy ghost. I asked a spokeswoman for the Arts Commission on Monday morning if the statue would be repaired; she said later it was cleaned up by late Monday afternoon.
Lillian Sing and Julie Tang, retired San Francisco Superior Court judges who spearheaded the installation of the statue, noticed the defacement a few weeks ago while taking visi-
plant garden laced by walkways. The interior has been repackaged in response to everything from new trends in teaching to the need to improve access for people with disabilities.
Finally, in 2011, the city’s Recreation and Park Department secured a $5.5 million state grant to seismically strengthen the building and upgrade the educational offerings. The Randall’s leadership used that grant to embark on an extensive makeover of the threelevel interior, at a final cost of $9 million.
“Basically, we tried to turn everything we could into a learning space,” says Peter Pfau of Pfau Long Architecture, which collaborated with Kuth Ranieri Architects. “With projects like this, you want to find the highest and best use for all the spaces and functions.”
Take the space called Wild in California, a perennial favorite for the preschool set where kids can “meet” several dozen animals that, because of injuries or other conditions, cannot fend for themselves in nature.
They’re behind glass, but now in larger and more naturalistic habitats. For instance, the quail reside in a 20-footlong enclosure that replicates a chaparral environment, complete with stony nooks where the birds can retreat when viewers get too enthusiastic.
A desert habitat, meanwhile, holds a tortoise and a hare and is open at the top. But the glass walls are designed to be tall enough to keep eager hands from reaching in — and the hare from jumping out.
The wall that encloses Wild in California is the closest thing to an architectural flourish in the makeover, with laminated timber inspired by tree trunks. Between several of the trunk-like portions are glassed-in slots along the hallway that double as exhibit cases. This includes three that pop out above you and provide refuge for raptors, including a white barn owl.
At the end of the corridor, a ground-floor conference room was removed to insert a small cafe. Not only does this provide a convenient option for parents who before had to pack in refreshment for the target audience; it also created a door out to a patio that before could be reached only circuitously.
Another small smart touch: The southeast end of the ground floor, which held a ceramics studio, has been retooled as an event space that can be rented for birthday parties or other small events. Patrons get a comfortable room with a view of the city beyond, while the Randall gets needed revenue. The ceramic studio has larger digs in the basement.
Other tweaks are less obvious, such as the expanded lobby. This not only allows extra room for teachers to count heads or parents to free their toddlers from strollers, it also features a display of native Californian baskets that before had been hidden in storage.
The exhibit design throughout is by Sibbett Group. The Wild in California wall was built by Roebuck Construction. But the disciplined imagination of Kuth Ranieri and Pfau Long working together is what sparks the transformation.
Another factor, of course, is the relentless prosperity that fuels San Francisco’s debate over economic stratification. The state grant was augmented by a $2.5 million fundraising campaign by the nonprofit Randall Museum Friends and $1 million from the city’s general fund. The donor wall has plenty of names you’ll know, from Google on down.
But remember: This is an outpost of Rec and Park. It is free to the public, open to stir the curiosity of young minds from across the city and region.
In a city where there’s so much contested terrain, whether the cause is gentrification or street crime or income disparity, Randall Museum is common ground.
Every older city has buildings like this. To the extent that they can be refreshed and revived, with nimble design in the equation from the start, residents will receive benefits for generations to come.
“We tried to turn everything we could into a learning space.” Peter Pfau of Pfau Long Architecture