Note New Time this Year: 2-4 pm. Rain or Shine

The Valentine Card Party–the first community event held in the restored Conservatory–is now in its 3rd year. Like the Upcycled Holiday Card Party, we will have lots of examples and inspiration for making handmade cards using recycled, found, salvage, and everyday materials, along with some cardstock, punches, and other materials. Check out the event’s signature Envelope Bar where you can learn how to make easy origami-like envelopes (in all different styles and shapes) out of old calendar pages.

Children welcome, but must be supervised by parent or accompanying adult. As always, thanks to multimedia artists Monica Lee and Dorothy Yuki  for their vision and inspiration.

Learn more about the colorful history of the Conservatory. Curious about our custom paint palette?

Project: City + County of SF Recreation and Park Department Capital Improvements Division, and Department of Public Works. Funded by General Fund Supplemental Appropriation and Neighborhood Parks Bond. Contractor: BCCI.

Design: CCSF Department of Public Works Bureau of Architecture and Bureau of Engineering Landscape Architecture, Mechanical and Electrical Sections. Project Manager: Paulina Araica, San Francisco RPD. Architect: Andrew Maloney, Bureau of Architecture. Landscape Architect: Edward Chin, DPW. Pro-Bono Landscape Architect: Vera Gates, Arterra, San Francisco. Consultant/Palm Specialist: Kenneth Allen. Jason Dewees from Flora Grubb Gardens. Public Art Component, “Sunnyside Menagerie,” artist-team Wowhaus. Public Art Competition under San Francisco Arts Commission, Judy Moran, Senior Project Manager. Back Gate Design and Fabrication, neighbor Mary Revelli (1-Off designs), funded by San Francisco Beautiful. Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory Co-chairs since 1999: Arnold Levine and Stacy Garfinkel. Photography: Bill Wilson.

Budget: $4.2M including $2.8M for construction cost and $1.4M for project control consisting of project management, planning, design, permits and reviews by regulatory agencies and construction management fees.

8 pm. Doors open at 7.

$20 suggested donation. At the door or Brown Paper Tickets. Complimentary snacks and drinks available during intermission.

Legendary Rock violinist David LaFlamme, and vocalist wife, Linda, from the iconic 1960’s San Francisco group, It’s a Beautiful Day, join up with mandolin virtuoso Phil Lawrence and his accomplished sidemen, and fly on the wings of a White Bird into the Sunnyside Conservatory. They are playing a rare San Francisco performance, to benefit free community programs at this beautiful historic building. David’s original violin is in the Rock & Roll Hall of fame. The ensemble will be playing many It’s a Beautiful Day favorites, as well as new compositions. Don’t miss it!

Historic Chilean wine, Canary Island date, and Chinese windmill palms grace the exquisite Conservatory Garden. Jason Dewees of the Palm Broker @ Flora Grubb wrote a wonderful blog post about the Conservatory’s historic palm grove.

Shout-outs are in order to principal guardian angels of the Garden. San Francisco’s own Vera Gates, Landscape Architect/Principal, Arterra, llp, served as pro-bono landscape architect on the Conservatory restoration project, from 2000 – 2010.  We are indebted to her elegant eye, inventiveness, persistence, and willingness to teach us about large concepts and mundane details of landscape design.  Vera hand drew the original conceptual plan (approved by the Recreation and Park Commission, 2002) and then guided the Friends through the creation of the Construction documents.  We are also grateful to Edward Chin, official Project Landscape Architect, for his willingness to help us realize our vision and his patience to always find the best design solution. For over two decades, famed arborist and local neighbor Ted Kipping and his crew cared on their own for the garden—planting, pruning, and watering.  The Conservatory palms would never have survived without his care taking during the long, lean years. Thank you Ted.

Historic Palms Visible in a Print from a Glass Plate Negative (c. 1919) discovered in the attic of Merralls's home.

The Next Generation of Palms

Jason Dewees of the Palm Broker consulted with project landscape architect Edward Chin, selecting the next generation of palms planted on the Conservatory Grounds.

The new pindo palm chosen to sit to the east in the front of the Conservatory building was selected to echo the pindo palm that did not survive transplantation from the interior of the building outdoors.  You’ll also find a new group of palms located where the stone-pavers end at base of back stairs.  Imagine the grandeur of these new transplants one-hundred years from now. Really Like Palms? Here’s a link to the Bay Area Palm Map Bay Area Palm Map (including the Conservatory), prepared by Jason.

Coming soon… Captioned slider with glass plate negative of historic palms–point out palms that are visible, planting plans, and plant id of most spectacular plants in new conservatory.

Find out about a Friends’ Docent-Led Tour of the Conservatory and Gardens.

Coming Soon!  Download Mp3 Audio Tour for a self-guided tour of Conservatory and grounds.

Note: No dogs allowed in Conservatory or on grounds per SFRPD ordinance.

Featured Post Photo Credit: Jenifer Lake.

Travis Wernet, aka Outlaw Dervish, opened with an energetic, meditative solo didgeridoo set, drawing on Australian Aboriginal musical traditions in a contemporary fashion.  Thanks to our wonderful musicians and the great crowd that turned out.

Friday, November 4, 2011, Concert @ 7:00 pm, Doors Open @ 6:00.  Suggested Donation $15-20. Tickets at the Door. Part of our Live @ the Conservatory Concert Series.

If you missed the concert, you can still check out their fabulous music!

Listen to Eliyahu on his most recent CD.

Listen to Travis on his new CD.

Concert is co-sponsored by Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory and San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.  All proceeds benefit future art, music, and community programming at the Conservatory.

Eliyahu Sills on Middle Eastern Flute

Travis Wernet on Didgeridoo

We’re thrilled with our Menagerie in the Conservatory garden.  When the Friends asked for “inventive delights” and “wonder, whimsy, and the stubbornly quirky and daring,” Wowhaus understood us.  It was a joy to work with Scott + Ene during the process.  Visitors always comment on the “fabulous,” “wonderfully odd,” “weird and groovy” sculptures, and the “elegant” design choices.

Sunnyside Menagerie is a collection of 23 fantastical bronze creatures designed by the artist team of Wowhaus. Commissioned by the SFAC’s Public Art Program specifically for the 1898 Sunnyside Conservatory and Gardens, the suite of sculptures was inspired by the Victorian notion of a conservatory as a living cabinet of curiosities filled with rare flora and fauna that hint at the possibility of still unknown worlds. The textured artworks, each with an intricately carved skin, are nestled at various locations along the walkways and in the garden to be discovered and handled by visitors of all ages as they wander the grounds.

Here’s an account of the Menagerie’s creation by artists Scott Constable + Ene Osteras-Constable.

Ene Osteras-Constable and Scott Constable at Opening.

Featured Post Photo of Menagerie Creature: Bobby Chin

Thanks to everyone who shared the holiday spirit—and evergreen bounty from your garden—in our restored Conservatory.  It was a great day of wreath and garland making with a hyper-local twist.  Through a foliage exchange, participants created a holiday treasure—and tradition—in which the uniqueness and generosity of neighborhood shines through. A big thank you to loyal Friend Sally Ross for organizing us once again.

Our 4th annual event was held on a crisp Sunday, December 18, 2011, 12-3, Free.

A variety of greens provided, some with red berries, variegated foliage, as well as blue juniper, Queen Ann box, pine, wire, a few coat hangers and pruning shears.  Please bring: own pruning shears (so you don’t have to wait for others), your frame, ribbons, cones, and any clippings to share from your yard.

This event is part of the Friends’ desire to promote the ideals of sustainability in our own backyards: wreath making, seed swaps, or growing backyard fruit trees and produce. All that is old is new again.

A first-time addition to our Live @ the Conservatory Concert Series and what we hope to be a new holiday tradition.

Join us on Friday December 9th at 8:00 p.m. for a heartwarming Winter Choral Concert celebrating the season of peace, light, and community, performed by the Old First Church Choir under the direction of Dr. Jay A. Pierson.

The choir will feature professional Bay Area soloists and will be accompanied by Ron Valentino, pianist. Come early and hear the lovely sounds of the orchestral harp as a prelude to the concert. Yuletide refreshments will be served at intermission.

Repertoire includes familiar sacred and secular Holiday Music, including old favorites and traditions from all over the world. The evening will include a fun-filled sing-a-long.

$10 suggested donation. No worries about a winter chill; our heated system is warm and toasty in the restored Conservatory.

Co-sponsored by Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory and San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.

Featured Post Photo: WhoWatches on Flickr via Creative Commons License.

Baritone and Harpist, Dr. Jay A. Pierson, Music Director of Old First Church Choir

Here’s a three-minute video of Mayor Newsom saluting the Friends and the restored Conservatory.

William Augustus Merralls, a British engineer and inventor, built this Victorian oasis next to his home on an old dairy farm, in the new Sunnyside District in 1898. Merralls’s original vision was to gather up exotic treasures for his own private delight.  His home (now 258 Monterey) still stands today.  A serial entrepreneur, Merralls made his money in the invention and sale of power mining equipment; he also had shipping interests and shopped proposals for flying engines.

The octagonal Conservatory originally had two wings and was set within a carriage turn around. Key architectural features in the restored Conservatory include: original skylights (daylighted during renovation), bentwood truss arches, glazed concrete floor that mimics original planting areas, double-glazed, double-height row of operable windows, and interior trimmed out in salvaged old growth redwood from Sonoma.

Merralls not only wanted to gather up rare earthly plant specimens for his private delight; he also wanted bring celestial wonders closer to home in his companion Observatory. A Historical Interpretive Exhibit greets visitors as they pass through the Conservatory’s porte-cochere.

The story of the Restoration interweaves the Friends’ decade of advocacy with the Merralls’s original vision.

Sunnyside Conservatory West Elevation. Architectural Drawing by Andrew Maloney.

Project: City + County of SF Recreation and Park Department Capital Improvements Division, and Department of Public Works. Funded by General Fund Supplemental Appropriation and Neighborhood Parks Bond. Contractor: BCCI.

Design: CCSF Department of Public Works Bureau of Architecture and Bureau of Engineering Landscape Architecture, Mechanical and Electrical Sections. Project Manager: Paulina Araica, San Francisco RPD. Architect: Andrew Maloney, Bureau of Architecture. Landscape Architect: Edward Chin, DPW. Pro-Bono Landscape Architect: Vera Gates, Arterra, San Francisco. Consultant/Palm Specialist: Kenneth Allen. Jason Dewees from Flora Grubb Gardens. Public Art Component, “Sunnyside Menagerie,” artist-team Wowhaus. Public Art Competition under San Francisco Arts Commission, Judy Moran, Senior Project Manager. Back Gate Design and Fabrication, neighbor Mary Revelli (1-Off designs), funded by San Francisco Beautiful. Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory Co-chairs since 1999: Arnold Levine and Stacy Garfinkel. Photography: Bill Wilson.

Budget: $4.2M including $2.8M for construction cost and $1.4M for project control consisting of project management, planning, design, permits and reviews by regulatory agencies and construction management fees.