Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone (LIZ)

Steel base and platform, wood
Dimensions: 18-foot dragon structure, spanning three rows of trees in the area to the right of the Asian Art Museum on Fulton Street. Includes 30-foot long gallery space, a slide for children, and a turf area.
Year Completed: 2017
Commissioning Agency: Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Public Library, SFMTA

The Art/Lit LIZ collaboration began in the summer of 2015 with architect Craig Hollow, aspiring to strengthen a sense of community and collaboration in the Civic Center. YAX architecture students were invited to create a public art experience that would engage passersby and encourage new interaction. Through frequent meetings, public events, prototyping, and a series of design-review panels, our students designed a sculptural installation evoking a dragon form with a changing mural canvas. The 18-foot dragon installation is stylized into a blocky, origami-like shape, and is decorated with a myriad of patterns found on artwork in the collections of the Asian Art Museum. The body of the dragon features a 30-foot long canvas for a changing program of mural art. Through 2021, the intended life of the project, the sculpture and area around was programmed with regular activities and new mural openings.