2008 Beautification Winners will be announced in July
Here is the press release for the 2007 Beautification Award Winners
Media
Contact Dee Dee Workman, San Francisco Beautiful: (415)
421-2608 / deedeew@sfbeautiful.org
San Francisco Beautiful Announces Annual
“Beautification Award” Winners
www.sfbeautiful.org
Theme of this year’s Awards is
“Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of Keeping
San Francisco Beautiful”
Nonprofit founded to Save the Cable Cars Celebrates
60h Anniversary
in City Hall Gala on October 18
Winners include:
Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon Restoration
Mt. Sutro Native Plant Garden and Trail Network
Kid Serve Youth Murals
24th Street Mini-Park
San Francisco Airport Gateway Garden
Friedel Klussmann Award goes to Victoria Manolo
Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael School
Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood
Conservation awarded to
Friends of Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle
Neighborhood Association
Media Note: High-resolution
digital images of this year’s winners may be found online at:
http://www.davidperry.com/ga_sfbeautiful.html
24 September 2007 – San Francisco, CA: For the
past 35 years, San Francisco Beautiful (www.sfbeautiful.org)
– the esteemed nonprofit founded 60 years ago to save the
then-endangered (now iconic) Cable
Cars – has recognized individuals, organizations, community groups, and
businesses that improve the quality of life in San Francisco through its annual
Beautification Awards. This year’s
winners run the gamut from the restoration of the lagoon surrounding the
internationally recognized San Francisco icon Palace of Fine Arts to the SFO
Gateway Garden; from a project created by Kids Serve Youth Murals and a
mini-park at 24th Street to a native plant garden and trail network on Mount
Sutro. The Friedel Klussmann Award
– named for San Francisco Beautiful’s legendary founder –
will go to the Victoria Manolo Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael School in
recognition of their construction of a new park across from the first new
public elementary school built in the City in many years. Additionally, the
Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood Conservation will be awarded to Friends
of Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association. This year’s
awards, granted around the theme “Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of
Keeping San Francisco Beautiful,” will be given out at San Francisco
Beautiful’s 60th Anniversary Gala on October 18 at San Francisco City Hall.
“All of these award winners have one thing in common
– they help make San Francisco beautiful,” said Dee Dee Workman, marking
her 10th year as Executive Director for San Francisco Beautiful. “San Francisco
Beautiful’s 60th Anniversary Awards dinner will bring together community
leaders, activists, and philanthropists to celebrate the outstanding
achievements of this year’s award winners.”
From restoring landmarks to saving parks, the
nonprofit San Francisco Beautiful acts for the benefit of all who live, work
and play in San Francisco. Through
civic initiatives and outreach, grants, and award programs, San Francisco
Beautiful helps ensure that this celebrated City by the Bay becomes even
better. On Thursday, October 18,
San Francisco Beautiful will hold its 60th Anniversary Celebration and
Beautification Awards Dinner in San Francisco City Hall. For the past 35 years, the
Beautification Awards have recognized individuals, organizations, community groups,
and businesses that improve the quality of life in San Francisco.
City resident Friedel Klussmann founded San Francisco
Beautiful in 1947 as an outgrowth of her successful effort to save the city’s
Cable Cars. Her one-woman
campaign made possible the preservation of these internationally-beloved icons
– the only “Moving National Monument” in the United States. San Francisco Beautiful is the only
organization in the City whose sole purpose is to protect and enhance the urban
environment: working year round to improve the quality of daily life,
strengthen communities, and empower citizens to maintain the character of the
city’s parks, neighborhoods and streets.
For more information and to access a podcast interview
with San Francisco Beautiful Executive Director Dee Dee Workman, go to www.sfbeautiful.org.
Details about the 2007 Beautification Award
Winners:
“Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of
Keeping San Francisco Beautiful”
Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon Restoration: San
Franciscans despaired when a chain link fence was erected around the lagoon to stop
people from falling in due to the degradation of the pathways. Today the
fencing is gone, replaced with low stone walls and native landscaping that
snake around the clean and clear lagoon. The Palace of Fine Arts is drawing
thousands of visitors once again as the first phase of its historic
rehabilitation, the lagoon restoration, is completed.
Mt. Sutro Native Plant Garden and Trail Network: In the very center of the City, volunteers have
restored a network of WPA-era pathways and maintain an abundant native plant
garden that is “hidden in plain sight” on the top of Mount Sutro.
Kid Serve Youth Murals – “A Sign of Hope”: Josef Norris, the founder and director of this youth
arts organization, worked with students at Gateway Charter High School to create
a beautiful and moving mosaic mural memorial on the school’s Geary Boulevard
façade.
24th Street Mini-Park: Neighborhood residents worked with the City’s
Recreation and Park Department to turn an abandoned lot in the heart of the
Mission District’s commercial corridor into a vibrantly colorful playground
filled with artful climbing structures, fountains and seating areas.
San Francisco Airport Gateway Garden: A majestic and serene redwood forest at the entry to
SFO greets visitors and traveling residents alike, creating an appropriate and
gracious new gateway garden to San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Friedel Klussmann Award: Victoria Manolo Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael
School: SOMA residents advocated for a new park and school in their inner-urban
neighborhood over many decades. When newly-secured funding for the project was
threatened, Supervisor Chris Daly and his staff worked to make sure that the
project stayed on track. City staff worked with the neighbors to design and
build a substantial and thriving new park just across the street from the first
new public elementary school built in the City in many years.
Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood
Conservation: Friends of Duboce Park and Duboce
Triangle Neighborhood Association: Neighborhood volunteers have worked together
over many years to ensure that the special character of the Duboce Triangle
neighborhood is preserved, and the popular park that lies at its heart is
usable for the entire community. A lovely new labyrinth on the Scott Street
side of the park has created an unusual recreational amenity people of all ages
can enjoy.
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