Trio of Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures + the San Diego County Administration Building

By mid day, we had already achieved 8,000 steps!

(view overlooking the SD Trolley line on Cedar St.)

After our excellent breakfast at Herb & Eatery...

we walked over to the Waterfront Park area. While it's been around for several years already, we've never really checked it out up close. We've also never seen the water fountains on either. Sadly, because it was not yet 10:30 (we were a good 40 minutes ahead), the large areas of concrete which should have been shooting off water, was empty and dry. Therefore, no photos since it looks kind of boring that way.

I was excited to see this Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture from afar. In fact, there are three in this park. This first one is called "Arbre de serpentes (Serpent Tree), 1988". All of her sculptures are on loan.  If you look closely at the snake heads, there are hoses in their mouths.  It would have been cool to see this spraying water, but no.

All of her sculptures are so joyful and whimsical.



This interesting piece is near the children's play area. This one is called "Large seal (element of seals), 1999".  There are hollow area where small children can peer through.

This was "#19 Baseball player (1999) and it's located on the south side of the San Diego County Administration building.

which is this historic building here, built in the Beaux Arts/Spanish Revival style. It was meant to complement similar buildings in Balboa Park.  Since this was a federal holiday, the building was closed, but it was still neat for us to see the building up close.

The front lawn of the the building has a fountain with a woman holding a vessel. This piece, entitled "Guardian of Waters" (1939) is the work of Donal Hord. You may have seen a similar sculpture in a fountain in the courtyard of the Prado restaurant, which happens to be "Woman of Tehuantepec", also by Donal Hord.  At SDSU, his bust, "Aztec" (nicknamed "Monty Montezuma") used to be at the front of the school and is now housed inside an office building on campus. These projects were funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Depression.

This statue is the same age as my parents, 78 (going on 79 this year). It was really cool seeing it up close and admiring the details.


We also liked seeing the beautiful tilework up close.

While the architects gave the building a Spanish Colonial foundation, the red Mission tile roof and the glazed inlaid tiles in the arched doors and window openings were of Southwestern style.




Beautiful tile work!

Articles:
"Three stunning Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures unveiled downtown" Times of San Diego, May 10, 2015
Fun sculptures at San Diego Waterfront Park" CoolSanDiegoSights, May 20, 2015

Links:
History of the County Administration Center and the Guardian of Water sculpture + info about the architectural details

Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures located at Waterfront Park
1600 Pacific Hwy
San Diego, CA 92101

www.sdparks.org/Waterfront

Around 10:30 we walked back near the water park in the hopes of seeing the water turned on.  No such luck.  We will have to see it another time I suppose.

The San Diego City County Administration Building
1600 Pacific Hwy, Suite 260
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 238-8158

We had one last stop before heading back home. and I wanted to make sure we were there before it opened so we wouldn't be waiting in a long line!