Philip Johnson's Grim Reapers

At the 580 California Street building in San Francisco there are some very unusual statues at the top of the 23 story skyscraper. The Post-Modern building was designed by Johnson & Burgee and completed in 1984. Johnson & Burgee commissioned sculptor Muriel Castanis to create the figures and she described them as 'Corporate Goddesses.'













The 12 foot high figures are mounted in front of a mansard roof and peer out over the city. There are 3 figures on each side of the building. Each one is devoid of hands or a face.














While the sculptures are typical of Castanis' work, I recently heard an interesting story about the figures. Apparently the figures are suppose to be Grim Reapers. The anecdote relayed to me indicated that Johnson's firm had a very difficult time getting this building through the planning commission and approved. These Grim Reapers are meant to symbolize the members of the planning commission as agents of death for architecture.

I heard this story through a colleague who works at Morphosis and apparently Philip Johnson had mentioned the statues to Thom Mayne while Morphosis was preceding ahead in the early stages of their San Francisco Federal Building.

While I can't back up the validity of the story or any other meaning associated to the figures I do really like the idea of members of SF's Planning Commission symbolized as a Grim Reaper. If you have ever tried to get a building built in San Francisco you will know what I mean.