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19. Seabirds and Bay Area Map
| Otis Oldfield | oil on canvas in lunettes over doorways In addition to 16, Oldfield also decorated the two small semi-circular arches over doors in the elevator lobby with bird scenes of native sea gulls and pelicans. To complete the interior he painted a stylized map of the San Francisco Bay area as the background for the elevator floor-indicator, whose pointer forms a compass arm, superimposed on the water-land swirls of blue, brown, and beige to represent the San Francisco Peninsula, the Marin headlands, various islands, and in the foreground, the East Bay flats where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers empty into the Bay. Preferring oil on canvas to fresco, Oldfield, Moya del Pino, and Cuneo treated color, texture, scale, and subject matter quite differently from the manner of the frescoists. However, these paintings serve as a quiet transition to the vibrant murals which lead the viewer up the staircase to the second floor of Coit Tower. |
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