SMALL SERPENT – Monty Python 1986
Body c. 80-ft. long, 18-in. diameter
South East Community Facility, San Francisco
South East Community Facility, San Francisco
The main building project was a community college that had a childcare program and a childcare center. This center opened onto an outdoor play area for which the landscape architecture firm CHNMB designed a play structure of a serpent.
I got the project through CHNMB in February 1984. The Serpent was completed in 1986.
DESIGN
The plans for the serpent as drawn up by CHNMB showed a spiraling concrete body and a geometric schematic for a head, with certain colors designated for different elements, including a yellow stripe down the back. I was free to interpret the head and the colors, but the body shape was fixed as an 18-in. diameter tube to be set on a low retaining wall.
I got the project through CHNMB in February 1984. The Serpent was completed in 1986.
DESIGN
The plans for the serpent as drawn up by CHNMB showed a spiraling concrete body and a geometric schematic for a head, with certain colors designated for different elements, including a yellow stripe down the back. I was free to interpret the head and the colors, but the body shape was fixed as an 18-in. diameter tube to be set on a low retaining wall.
The architect's design for the playground serpent
I made drawings and a model for the head, which I would build at my studio in Mendocino, but I had to solve the problem of the serpent’s body.
FABRICATION
Since the snake was to be a spiral, I could not use pre-fabricated concrete pipe sections as I had with the Berkeley Slide-Climber. To have the spiraling sections fabricated for me as curving tubes, as someone recommended, would have cost more than the budget for the whole project.
I remembered seeing coiled reinforcing bars used in columns supporting highway ramps and decided that a rebar slinky would work well for the structural base of the snake’s body, because it could adapt to the changes of curvature in the spiral form. I ordered the proper size and weight of coiled rebar from McGrath Steel in Emeryville, and figured out how to anchor it to the base designed by CHNMB and built by others.
Since the snake was to be a spiral, I could not use pre-fabricated concrete pipe sections as I had with the Berkeley Slide-Climber. To have the spiraling sections fabricated for me as curving tubes, as someone recommended, would have cost more than the budget for the whole project.
I remembered seeing coiled reinforcing bars used in columns supporting highway ramps and decided that a rebar slinky would work well for the structural base of the snake’s body, because it could adapt to the changes of curvature in the spiral form. I ordered the proper size and weight of coiled rebar from McGrath Steel in Emeryville, and figured out how to anchor it to the base designed by CHNMB and built by others.
I made the head of the serpent in my shop in Mendocino. All the tiles were set except for the penny round tiles on the balls of the horns, which I set on the site. I topped the horns with these spheres for safety, as I had on the Berkeley Slide-Climber.
INSTALLATION
When the base for the serpent was built, I brought the head down to the site and had it set in place at the front of it.
The coiled rebar sections were delivered and I attached them to anchors set into the base at regular intervals. Then I clad the rebar slinky with metal lath. I paid the project’s contractor to have one of his plasterers apply cement to this 80-ft. long, 18-inch diameter spiral form, and I laid tiles on the plaster basecoat at designated sections along the body. The plasterer then set the finishing coat flush with the tiles.
When the base for the serpent was built, I brought the head down to the site and had it set in place at the front of it.
The coiled rebar sections were delivered and I attached them to anchors set into the base at regular intervals. Then I clad the rebar slinky with metal lath. I paid the project’s contractor to have one of his plasterers apply cement to this 80-ft. long, 18-inch diameter spiral form, and I laid tiles on the plaster basecoat at designated sections along the body. The plasterer then set the finishing coat flush with the tiles.
The finished Serpent.
Many years after its installation I drove by with friends to show them the Serpent and found no trace of it. Not only was the Serpent gone but so was the entire play area, sandbox and all, replaced by mown grass.
It turns out, as the Community Center's Report of 2008-2009 stated, "lead was discovered in the tiling of the snake sculpture located in the playground area of the Childcare Facility at the SECF. PUC Health and Safety personnel then immediately barricaded the play area with the snake sculpture. It was decided by the SECF Commission that the snake be completely removed for the safety of all, especially the children attending the Childcare Center. "
Thus the demise of another of my public works.
It turns out, as the Community Center's Report of 2008-2009 stated, "lead was discovered in the tiling of the snake sculpture located in the playground area of the Childcare Facility at the SECF. PUC Health and Safety personnel then immediately barricaded the play area with the snake sculpture. It was decided by the SECF Commission that the snake be completely removed for the safety of all, especially the children attending the Childcare Center. "
Thus the demise of another of my public works.