Before the oppressive heat hit the Bay Area, my husband & I decided to take an afternoon and explore our neighborhood, The Presidio.

The Presidio in & of itself is an interesting neighborhood.  The local magazine, 7X7, just labeled the Presidio as the safest neighborhood in the city.  Even cooler, it’s a National Park within the city of San Francisco.    In fact, it’s the only monetarily self-sustaining National park in the country.   Once a military post where soldiers and their families lived for more than a century, today the Presidio is a beautiful public park with homes available for lease.   To read more about the history of the Presidio click here.

Earlier this year as we drove home one day, we noticed that there were some odd “signs” in the woods.  We’ve been meaning to check them out to see why they’ve been placed there and if there is anything else to discover.  We spent the day hiking & along the way we stumbled across these ‘signs’ that we’d almost forgotten about.  We looked for more information & discovered an outdoor art exhibit, Presidio Habitats, that is on display until May 2011.

There are 11 outdoor installations in Presidio Habitats.  We only got to see the seven listed below.  I would highly recommend gathering a map & some information at the Exhibition Pavilion, located at Storey & Ralston Ave in the Presidio.  It’s a good place to start & finish your hike.

We found the cell tour to be really valuable.  At each installation dial 415.226.2583 (followed by the installation number & “#”) to get more information on each artist, exhibit and the natural habitat.

1)  Where is the Hare? by Nathan Lynch

This is essentially a banner that appears to welcome you to an apocryphal footrace between the tortoise & the hare.  The artist is highlighting the absence of the black-tailed jackrabbit.

2) Patience by Jensen Architects

We really liked this installation.  Patience involves a bunch of yellow chairs places randomly around an overgrown field.  Patience is the perfect title.  This piece conveys a sense of waiting and viewing.

Are you allowed to sit on the art?

3) Western Screech Owl Habitats by Ai Weiwei

To find this exhibit you have to look up.   An artist has strategically tied nine Chinese porcelain pots around a tree to create a habitat for the Western Screech Owl which hasn’t been seen in SF in over a decade.

Look! Up in the sky!

We heard about this installation from some other folks who we met on the street.  We decided to bypass #’s 4 and 5 and head straight here.  They told us about an adorable community garden & a cute playground.  We spent some time admiring each.  But we almost completely missed this piece because it blends so well in to its surroundings.  It isn’t small or camouflaged but it didn’t appear to be a piece of art, just a part of the landscape.  It’s a circular planter that is supposed to correspond to annual cycle of the Anna’s Hummingbird.

The community garden is beyond cute.  There is a waiting list which looks really long.  The playground is tucked away and looked new.

7) Winged Wisdom by Phillippe Becker Design

Finally, we encounter the “signs” we had seen driving past months before.  Two phrases are spelled out and each letter is made with straw, providing nesting material for the robins & something unexpected and intriguing for humans passing by.

resolve conflict with song

9) Winged Defense by Mark Dion with Nitin Jayaswal

Near the quiet Redwood Grove & tennis courts we didn’t know about is this interesting installation.  This piece was designed for bats and placed near Dragonfly Creek, which attracts lots of insects & mosquitos for the bats.  We learned a lot from the cell tour on how bat behaviour, along with certain amphibians & bees, can be a key indicator of environmental change.  This piece also pays homage to the old military housing by using materials from houses no longer in use.

Bat Habitat

10) Pollen Ball Project by Amy Lambert

Have you ever wanted to know what a 60 pound ball of wax looks like?  Now you can see four of them!   Again, the cell phone tour was really valuable here highlighting the digger bees which are unlike the familiar honeybees & bumblebees.  They are solitary bees that don’t live in colonies.

We hope to return and view the other exhibits that we missed.  Let us know if you check them out & what your thoughts are.