Fate of 'The Whales' Statue to be Decided in Coming Months

What's the next move for "The Whales?"

The once-celebrated sculpture of twin killer whales has moved many times since its 1939 debut at the World's Fair on Treasure Island, moving from Golden Gate Park, to the Bay View and to Ingleside.

Destined for display at City College of San Francisco, today the artwork resides in an Oakland storage facility in disrepair. The San Francisco Arts Commission will decide its fate as soon as May.

City College is monitoring the situation.

Migrations

Sculptor Robert B. Howard created the black granite composite sculpture of two entwined orca whales for a fountain display at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island.

After the fair ended, the sculpture was stored at the west-end of Golden Gate Park near the horse stables until 1956 when it was installed in front of the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park. The marine mammals frolicked in the fresh air for over 55 years to the delight of many. Generations of children on field trips ate bag lunches in view of the artwork.

In preparation for the rebuild of the aquarium and the California Academy of Sciences, The Whales were moved for a third time in 2004. The statue's future home would be City College of San Francisco's flagship campus in Ingleside, where it would join the collection of other GGIE artworks, on a permanent loan from the Arts Commission.

Complications

But here's where the story gets a little complicated. As the sculpture was transported by Academy of Sciences-contractor Sheedy Drayage Company it was damaged. Some of the mortar joints holding the piece together were cracked by the time it was received at Sheedy's yard. That's how Scott Atthowe of Atthowe Fine Arts Services found it when he arrived to brace the work with a protective wooden cradle in preparation for its fourth move with Sheedy to a City College warehouse on Carroll Avenue in the Bayview.

In 2006, Atthowe's team, with Sheedy's help, moved the piece to the City College's Ocean campus where it would remain for 13 years. That was The Whales's fifth move.

In 2009, it was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that The Whales had been damaged during the 2004 move to City College. The estimated cost to repair them was $250,000. Staff from the Arts Commission and the Academy were "having amicable discussions" about what had happened and who would pay for repairs. Stephanie Stone from the Academy said "we're happy to discuss covering some of the cost with them. We want to be good partners."

The landscape architectural firm Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey's plan at the time would have placed The Whales in a new fountain at the foot of Science Hall's staircase on Frida Kahlo Way. Another later idea was to place the sculpture in front of the new Wellness Center on Ocean Avenue — but neither happened.

Instead the whales remained on campus: outdoors, supported by a wooden frame and under a tarp. After being exposed to the elements for more than a decade the steel armature had rusted which compromised the sculpture's structural integrity.

“The sculpture was initially damaged during the move to City College because the relocation protocols that the Arts Commission prescribed were not followed by the Academy of Science’s general contractor,” a commission staff person wrote in 2018 according to a press report.

Questions

In 2019, The Whales were moved, in their damaged state, for a sixth time to an undisclosed storage facility in Oakland. At that time, the Arts Commission was confident that The Whales would be fixed and installed in front of the pool at City College within two years.

But many questions remain: Exactly how were The Whales damaged in the move from the Academy and did anyone ever pay for the damages? Who is liable for the damage sustained during its stay at City College? Did the Arts Commission pay $180,000 to the Architectural Resources Group between 2016-2018 for conservation services to repair The Whales? If indeed The Whales are returned to the City College campus will they be installed in a fountain and where?

The biggest question of all? Will the Arts Commission vote to keep the work and later fund its restoration.

"We request funds for collections work each budget cycle and we’ll know what we have to work with in July when the new fiscal year begins," the Arts Commission's Axel said.

Additional reporting by Alex Mullaney.

Editor's note: The Arts Commission was wrong about the statue being part of the Memorials and Monuments Committee's work.