Support grows to save UCSF murals
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has initiated the landmarking process for 10 Depressionera frescoes that could be destroyed as part of UCSF’s 1.5 millionsquarefoot expansion at its Parnassus Heights campus.
The series, “History of Medicine in California,” was painted in 1935 by radical artist Bernard Zakheim, a Polishborn muralist who studied with Diego Rivera and contributed to the murals inside Coit Tower. It was one of more than 220,000 works of art partly funded by the Works Project Administration.
In June, The Chronicle first reported that the murals likely would be a victim of the UCSF expansion unless an individual or group came forward with a plan and
money to move the works, which weigh 2,500 pounds apiece. UCSF said it had consulted with two preservation architecture groups that concluded it would cost $8 million to preserve and move the artwork, and that some of the panels could be damaged in the process.
“UCSF has decided not to use public funds to physically preserve the murals, especially at a time when the UC system faces financial challenges in the wake of COVID19,” the university said in a statement at the time. “This decision in no way has to do with any complaints about the murals.”
On Monday, however, UCSF Vice Chancellor Brian Newman told the supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee that the university would like to see the artwork preserved.
“We understand how passionate people are, including our own community and alumni, to preserve these murals,” Newman said. “Time will tell, based on the work we are doing now, if they can be saved.”
Peskin described the landmarking as “honorific” because UCSF, as a branch of state government, is not subject to San Francisco’s zoning or planning codes. That means that even if the murals are designated a city landmark, UCSF could destroy them.
“(UCSF) is not subject to our local laws, but I believe that these incredible, radical 10part frescoes deserve that level of honor and deserve that protection,” Peskin said.
Newman said UCSF is “neutral” on the landmarking proposal, but “my colleagues and I are certainly sympathetic with its goals.”
The murals are in Toland Hall, a lecture auditorium within UC Hall, a 103yearold building Newman called “seismically deficient and functionally obsolete.”
The building is scheduled to be razed in 2022 and replaced with a new, 16story research and academic building on the same footprint. UCSF is hoping the UC Board of Regents will approve the plan in January.
Newman said UCSF is soliciting proposals from art conservation groups interested in moving and preserving the frescoes. In the meantime, UCSF is documenting the artwork digitally.
Destroying the artwork is “the worst case scenario that we are assuming, but it’s certainly not a worst case scenario that we are hoping for,” Newman said.
Zakhiem’s son, Nathan Zakheim, an art conservator based in Los Angeles, disputed the $8 million price tag to move and preserve the artwork. He told The Chronicle he could move and restore the collection for about $1 million.
There’s local support for preserving the murals, too.
“The frescoes are the work of a master and represent his largest and perhaps most significant work,” said Woody LaBounty, deputy director of the preservation group San Francisco Heritage.
Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes part of the Parnassus campus, said the possibility the murals could be destroyed is “a reminder of what is sometimes lost when we are moving forward with these developments.”
The city landmarking process requires the Planning Department to prepare a “designation report,” which would be subject to votes at the Historic Preservation Commission, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.