16th Avenue Tiled Steps
Community-made mosaic stairway of one hundred sixty three steps rising from sea creatures to a tiled sun and moon.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps in San Francisco starts with two artists, Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher, who arrived at a neighborhood meeting each expecting to compete for the same mosaic commission around 2003. It follows how neighbors Jessie Audette and Alice Yee Xavier proposed covering a plain 1920s concrete stairway after seeing Rio de Janeiro's tiled Escadaria Selarón, and the two and a half years hundreds of residents spent cutting tile and hiding their names inside painted fish and birds. A listening tip: look for a stranger's name still hidden somewhere in the tile beneath your feet.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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