San Francisco is known around the world as a “green” city. It consistently tops the lists of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly places to live—in publications like Travel + Leisure and Popular Science. It’s easy to see why: there’s a focus on clean energy, as exemplified by residences like the LEED-certified condos at 181 Fremont. It also has one of the best recycling programs in the US, and it consistently promotes sustainable farm-to-table dining via restaurants like Rich Table. But SF is also hued green, thanks to swaths of lush parks like sprawling Golden Gate Park, myriad gardens, and a commitment from the city to provide verdant relaxation for its citizens.

Whether you’re grabbing a post-work bottle of wine at Cask or brunching on the Bay at nearby Waterbar, there’s always a grassy respite awaiting you—although that might not always be apparent. Many neighborhoods, including the lively streets of SoMa, belie hidden gardens that are just an escalator- or elevator-ride away from your condo at 181 Fremont. Like many highly populated cities, San Francisco forces urban designers to think about using space very efficiently (often vertically). And the result may be a charming and relaxing public area like the plaza at 303 2nd Street, which is a veritable pleasure garden with alcoves, a pretty fountain, and plenty of benches that are perfect for a lunchtime break. If you like more of an industrial vibe while you relax on a patch of grass, Warm Water Cove gives you a unique place to unwind and take in some interesting architecture right on the Bay.

Enjoy the temperate climes of the Bay Area from high above the city at the soon-to-be-completed Salesforce Transit Center’s living roof-park space. City Park will be a 5.4-acre public space replete with gardens, walking trails, and a glade for lounging on a blanket and getting some sun. This park will not only be good for your spirit but good for the environment; it filters pollution. And those who live at 181 Fremont will have the added (and exclusive) convenience of direct access to the park via a skybridge from their building.

For those who want to do more than just enjoy the surrounding flora, simply roll up your sleeves and dig in at a community farm like Alemany Farm, which was way ahead of the “urban farming movement” curve. Since 1995, this former dumping ground has provided volunteers a chance to support the community via educational initiatives and healthy food.

The Recreation and Parks Commission of SF maintains and continually updates the city’s green spaces to make them look good and to make them more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Recently, the Commission reopened the Twin Peaks hiking trail after they made improvements to prevent erosion and maintain wildlife habitats, showing yet again that it is easy to be green in San Francisco—and easy to soak up the green when you live at 181 Fremont.

By the end of this year, the Salesforce Transit Center will be completed, as will the crown jewel on its summit: Salesforce Park. The sprawling rooftop space is perched seven stories above the city, and it covers 5.4 acres and will house 12 different forests and gardens representing various ecologically diverse regions around the world. A stroll through the park past the colors of Chile, Australia, South Africa (and, of course, California) is primed to be an experience like no other. In terms of elevated parks, this is about as ambitious as it gets.

Salesforce Park is well on its way to becoming a towering green sanctuary, but how exactly does one move hundreds of trees—469 to be exact—from the street to the roof in one of the busiest areas in the Bay Area? In the middle of the night, trees are lifted to the rooftop by cranes. This means that when most of San Francisco is sleeping, Patrick Trollip, the man in charge of relocating the trees to the 70-foot-high rooftop, is hard at work.

In a story for San Francisco Chronicle, Trollip elaborated on the unique process, saying “You are elevated, surrounded by these skyscrapers, yet it is quiet and peaceful, and there is no traffic. Then all of a sudden these massive trees are lowered onto the roof. I know these trees intimately, but it takes a while to get used to seeing them up there.” And these are not small shrubs and saplings we’re talking about. Some of the trees weigh as much as 30,000 pounds.

Elevator doors open to a bamboo forest, but then there are also redwoods, oak trees, palm trees, birch trees, olive trees, Chinese elms, columnar hornbeams, cacti, ferns, and succulents—and that’s really only scratching the surface. Landscape architect for the project, Adam Greenspan, explained to San Francisco Chronicle that he “[thinks] there’s going to be a tree for everyone” at Salesforce Park.

But there is only one residential building that will feature a private skybridge that leads right to the park: 181 Fremont. The people who live in the 181 Fremont condos will be the only San Franciscans who have this direct access from their home. And, in those moments when an escape from the din of the city is desired, the convenience of being only a few steps from Salesforce Park cannot be overstated.

The Salesforce Transit Center is set to become the premier transit hub of the West Coast, and Salesforce Park is one of the most anticipated projects in the United States. From the beginning, the sheer ambition of the undertaking made headlines, and now, as the trees ascend to their designated spots on the summit each night, the vision is becoming a vibrant and inspiring reality.

If you choose to reside in one of the luxury condos at 181 Fremont, you can live above the clouds, and the transporting beauty won’t end there.

These SoMa residences are located in the heart of San Francisco’s most thriving art mecca, home to the city’s hottest galleries and international art destinations like SFMOMA and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where the work of some of the world’s most celebrated artists and performers will bring inspiration to your doorstep all year long.

This summer, SFMOMA will be featuring a stellar line-up of exhibitions you will want to visit more than once. From late June to early October, Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed will give you a chance to immerse yourself in the rich compositions of one of the 20^th-century’s greatest artists. Another not-to-be missed exhibit is a perfect example of SFMOMA’s innovative approach to curating works from its own collection: Side by Side: Dual Portraits of Artists is a show conceived around a dual portrait by David Hockney of a pair of artists, and includes Frida Kahlo’s Frieda and Diego Rivera as well as new insights on the artist as subject. In late July and early August, the museum will also feature a film festival of the works of Johnnie To, a director The New Yorker calls “one of the masters of Hong Kong Cinema,” who will give a talk at the museum on August 3.

The Yerba Buena Center for The Arts will also be host to important exhibitions and film series throughout the summer, including the upcoming Global Sounds on Screen, which will map contemporary international music on film from West African blues to Japanese pop. Become a Yerba Buena member, and you can automatically attend events like the “dinner and a movie” program on July 27, which will feature a screening of A Life in Waves, a film about world-renowned electronic music phenom Suzanne Ciani, who will be at the event to speak with the audience and answer questions about her otherworldly soundscapes.

For more art-centric nights on the town, step into one of SoMa’s cutting-edge art galleries, where you can mingle with luminaries of the SF art world and catch up with the work of the latest talents. Andrea Schwartz Gallery and ArtHaus, which have been identified as “Must-Visit” SF galleries by The Culture Trip, are both making their mark in the city and internationally. You won’t want to miss Andrea Schwartz Gallery’s August 2nd opening of an exhibit by local artist Chad Hasegawa, whose works in latex and acrylic, which are heavily influenced by the San Francisco street-art tradition, capture the energy of the city with canvas and brush. In fact, a new Hasegawa just might be the perfect addition to your condo between city and sky at 181 Fremont Residences.

Image courtesy of ©iStock.com/kirkikis

San Francisco is undeniably a city for foodies with a penchant for farm-to-table cuisine, bold red-loving oenophiles, and dedicated sports fans who appreciate their Bay Area teams, especially San Francisco’s beloved Giants. With restaurants, bars, and the AT&T Park nearby, residents of the luxury San Francisco condos at 181 Fremont in SoMa can relish all that this historic locale has to offer.

Just a 20-minute walk from 181 Fremont, AT&T Park is more than a place to enjoy America’s favorite pastime, baseball. It’s a location to see big-budget theatrical experiences like Cirque de Soleil, concerts from legendary singer-songwriters Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor, and other sports spectacles—from college football games to Giant Race Series half-marathons. Living so close to AT&T Park—and the soon-to-be-built Chase Center where the Warriors are set to play—also means that you can elevate your experience by sampling food and drink from our SoMa favorites.

Meet your friends at SoMa hotspot JAX for a pregame bottle of wine. When you enter this convivial tasting-room space, you’ll be transported to Napa without having to get on the interstate. Try the JAX Vineyards Block 3 Cabernet Sauvignon, which received 97 points from The Wine Advocate for its deep flavor produced from grapes grown on alluvial soil. Sip your vino and discuss your pick for MVP around the fire pit outside.

If you want a meal that will sustain you well after the seventh-inning stretch, treat yourself to a dinner with a presidential pedigree. Housed in a converted 1917 warehouse and packing plant, Twenty Five Lusk is a celebrated multilevel restaurant serving sensational seasonal fare like duck confit, sunchoke risotto, and a whole fish with chimichurri for the table. Zagat described Twenty Five Lusk as “one of the most fashionable destinations in town.”

Once you get to AT&T Park, you have even more ways to celebrate the big game with panache. While peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and hot dogs offer a fun, nostalgic treat, this world-class ballpark has myriad options for those who want more than typical stadium fare, like Rich Table’s porcini doughnuts with raclette dipping sauce. Rent out a private luxury space like the Anchor Suite and get a refrigerator full of Anchor Steam beer or arrange for an additional tasting. You might also find yourself right on the field at Triples Alley, where you are escorted before the game and lavished with food and drink.

No matter what happens on the field—you’ll win!

Image courtesy of ©flickr.com/jcookfisher

Of all the neighborhood gems that make the 181 Fremont luxury condos so attractive to home-seekers, the nearby San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) might be the crown jewel. Founded in 1935, SFMOMA—where Jackson Pollack had his first museum show—is one of the most important and largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States, and it’s just minutes from the luxury condos at 181 Fremont in SoMa. In May 2016, following a three-year closure, the museum unveiled its vastly expanded, reconfigured space, designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta. SFMOMA now spans 170,000 feet of space, triple what it had before, with 45,000 square feet of free public space that houses sculptures and installations. As with a neighborhood jogging path or favorite weekend brunch spot, visits to SFMOMA are likely to become a treasured ritual, with exhibitions rotating every few months. Admission is always free for kids 18 and under, and the museum store is the perfect place to find irresistible, well-designed gifts.

The museum’s galleries are divided into several distinct areas for different mediums and from different time periods. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, a major gift of bold and colorful contemporary paintings from the founders of the Gap, Inc., includes masterworks by Ellsworth Kelly, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, and Sol LeWitt, among many other luminaries. The new Pritzker Center for Photography, which includes special exhibition galleries, a study center, and the Photography Interpretive Gallery, is a testament to SFMOMA’s pioneering efforts to establish the medium of photography as a form of art, and, at 15,000 square feet, it is the largest museum space in America dedicated to photography. Its latest show, diane arbus: in the beginning, on view until April 30, features early work by the famed American photographer, who began taking candid photographs of her fellow New Yorkers while she was still working professionally as a fashion photographer by day. This exhibition of Arbus’s first forays into documentary photography covers the years 1956-1962 and captures indelible scenes and characters from Times Square, the Lower East Side, and Coney Island. Arbus shot moody, thoughtful portraits of people who were overlooked in the middle decades of the 20th century, including the elderly, cab drivers, exotic dancers, and circus performers, all captured with the dignity and sometimes even the glamour of the fashion models she had been trained to capture on film.

Those who love three-dimensional work won’t want to miss British Sculptors, drawn from the Fisher Collection, which assembles works by some of the 20th century’s masters of abstraction, including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. On view through September 3, this installation encourages visitors to walk around each work and explore how their surfaces and forms seem to shift from different vantage points. Likewise, Alexander Calder: Motion Lab, on view through September 10, is sure to be a hit with younger visitors. Calder began making mobile, wind-activated sculptures in the early 1930s, but had already started tinkering with the concepts and construction of these works throughout the 1920s. This exhibition includes a selection of Calder’s “mobiles” from the Fisher Collection, as well as sketches and maquettes that illustrate how he brought his ideas to fruition.

Visitors can keep tabs on current shows, tours, talks, and special events at SFMOMA by visiting the Exhibitions and Events page.

Image courtesy of sfmoma.org

In Situ | 151 3rd Street

Photography, painting, and sculpture aren’t the only fine arts that are on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. While art lovers gather at this extraordinary institution to see exhibitions by Diane Arbus and Runa Islam, foodies flock to the SFMOMA’s to taste creations from the world’s top chefs—think Alice Waters and Thomas Keller. Hailed by Zagat as one of 2016’s most anticipated SF restaurants, head chef Corey Lee, of Benu, opened the doors with a little help from his world-famous friends. At In Situ, Lee curates and replicates a veritable exhibition of recipes from other chefs. There’s no need to pine for dishes from Denmark’s now-shuttered Noma. Here you can taste the René Redzepi’s tart of sheep’s milk yogurt blended with wood sorrel and topped with anise brittle. With just a quick walk from your luxury San Francisco condo, travel to the bottom of the sea via Peruvian chef Virgilio Martínez’s glazed octopus and “coral” made from rice dyed with squid ink.

Saison | 178 Townsend Street

A visit to Saison isn’t just a night out; it’s an experience of a lifetime. Formerly a pop-up restaurant in a parking lot, this three-Michelin-stars establishment has a permanent home in the former California Electric Light company building. On the menu, a major throughline is fire. Chef Joshua Skenes told the New York Times, “Nearly every dish at Saison contains something that was smoked, grilled or roasted by a wood fire.” And it’s true: There’s white sturgeon caviar with smoked kelp, ember-poached-then-grilled asparagus, and even smoked carrots that are rehydrated with carrot juice. Wash it all down with a smoky red selected by wine director Mark Bright.

Benu | 22 Hawthorne Street

After stints at the French Laundry and Per Se, Corey Lee, a Thomas Keller protege, opened this a truly American restaurant inspired by recipes and techniques from around the world. In addition to raving about Benu’s quiet, temple-like atmosphere, food critic Ruth Reichl claimed, “I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a meal this much.” With caramelized anchovy salad, savory foie gras soup dumplings, and jelly fish-wrapped prawn every detail is perfectly executed down to the custom-made silverware.

Kokkari Estiatorio | 200 Jackson Street

As soon as you walk through the door, it’s as if you’ve been flung across the Atlantic and onto the European continent. Kokkari Estiatorio has a rustic, taverna feel about it—and in the midst of the heady atmosphere, it’s easy to feel you’ve walked into a particularly welcoming Greek home. Indeed, this restaurant gets its name from a fishing village on the Greek island of Samos; dishes like the grilled calamari stuffed with feta reflect this connection. For carnivores, they also do a mean lamb chop and grilled meatballs in spicy tomato. Dessert comes in the form of refreshing yoghurt sorbet topped with fruit granita and mint syrup. Add in a couple of glasses of Greek vino, and it’s almost as good as going to Greece itself.

Michael Mina | 252 California Street

It takes some gumption to put your own name across the door of a restaurant. But Michael Mina has every right to feel confident; after working his way up from a 15-year-old garde manger in a small French restaurant, Mina came to San Francisco to make his name. 20 years later—and a good few restaurants under his belt—Mina has created an exquisite dining experience. For first-timers who’ve just moved into their luxury condos in San Francisco, the chef’s tasting menu is the way to go: caviar parfait, bluefin tuna, and freshwater eel and foie gras are among the concoctions that will convert you into a customer for life. Celebrate your new favorite restaurant by settling at the cocktail bar afterwards, for a Bleeding Heart (gin, blackberry, port, and red wine foam). After all, a hearty meal should be followed with a hearty drink.

San Francisco’s Treasure Island isn’t anything like the tropical setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling adventure story, but it is a fun and fascinating urban oasis. The man-made island was originally built as the site of the yearlong 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition World’s Fair and during WWII was transformed into a naval station. By the late 1980s, several of the island’s original airplane hangars were converted into soundstages and film sets, where popular blockbusters like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Matrix were shot. Today, Treasure Island remains a bustling cultural hub, and San Franciscans who live in the luxury condos at 181 Fremont are in a prime spot to enjoy weekend visits and explore its history, as well as its culinary and shopping destinations and array of local wineries.

Treasure Island’s impressive landscape of art deco architecture dates from its World’s Fair days, including the impressive “Building One,” which served as the welcome center to the World’s Fair and a strategic command center during WWII. Thanks to the Treasure Island Museum, several of these beautiful buildings and eye-catching sculptures from the late 1930s are open for theme-specific tours, which focus on the World’s Fair, aviation history, or the island’s navy years. Though it has a rich history, the island is also still full of adventure: the nonprofit Treasure Island Sailing Center, which has more than 100 boats in its fleet, offers excursions year-round, as well as classes devoted to sailing, kayaking, and paddleboarding. The center has provided sailing and educational opportunities to over 10,000 kids and adults in the Bay Area, and on a clear day, one of its sails around the Bay offers a spectacular view of the skyscrapers and luxury condos dotting the San Francisco skyline.

Treasure Island is equally well-known as a destination for food and fun, thanks to the growing popularity of the Treasure Island Music Festival, the Treasure Island Flea, and several local boutique wineries. Each October, the music festival brings the likes of Sigur Rós and Ice Cube to San Francisco for two days of live performances that alternate between electronica, hip hop, and indie rock. Since it launched in 2011, the Treasure Island Flea has become a focal point for the Bay Area’s creative minds and shoppers who love all things locally made. Visitors can sample local delicacies from food trucks, listen to local musicians play, and shop for fine jewelry and clothing, organic soaps and fragrances, toys and games for kids, specialty foods, and one-of-a-kind artworks. Nicknamed “the Festival of the Bay,” this beloved gathering of imaginative entrepreneurs is open the last weekend of every month except December.

The ideal way to cap off an afternoon on Treasure Island is a visit to one of the local wineries, many of which offer tours and tastings. Sol Rouge specializes in red wines from grape varietals native to the Bordeaux and southern Rhone regions in the South of France. Located in the old Navy brig, Fat Grape Winery is known for their signature reds (made without added sulfites), which can be sampled at complimentary tastings on Tuesdays through Sundays. And Treasure Island Wines, the first winery to set up shop on the island, offers tastings on the weekends, with a constant rotation of six to eight new wines.

Image courtesy of sftreasureisland.org

Already a head-turning style icon in San Francisco, 181 Fremont has just reached a new milestone: the luxury tower has officially topped out at more than 800 feet, making it the tallest (and most resilient) mixed-use tower on the West Coast. An impressive mix of architecture, engineering, innovation, and peerless craftsmanship has placed this one-of-a-kind structure as the newest star in San Francisco’s sky.

181 Fremont’s design is innovative in ways both obvious and invisible. Passersby, and even its residents, probably won’t notice the fact that its construction caissons, which were designed by the engineering firm Arup, are the deepest ever drilled in San Francisco, extending over 260 feet into the bedrock. This means that the state-of-the-art structure has unparalleled stability, and Arup has awarded it a REDi™ Gold rating for seismic-resistant construction. On top of that, 181 Fremont is San Francisco’s first precertified LEED Platinum mixed-use building. Its water recycling system captures both graywater and rainwater for reuse, and its glass curtain wall system maximizes natural light, giving eco-conscious residents the option to dial back their use of electricity.

For all its structural marvels, 181 Fremont is also an aesthetic showstopper, both inside and out. The 55 San Francisco luxury condominiums begin on the 17th floor, and residents can enjoy sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Sutro Tower, Mount Tam, and beyond. Each residence has an individually designed floor plan, with interiors by the acclaimed designer Orlando Diaz-Azcuy. Three-bedroom condos range from 1,200 square feet to more than 2,500 square feet, while the full-floor penthouse occupies nearly 7,000 square feet. On the 52nd floor, the Sky Lounge houses stellar amenities, including a fitness center and yoga studio, library, lounge spaces, and a bar and catering kitchen. The building is also directly connected to the city itself: from the private seventh-floor skybridge, it offers access to the new Transbay Transit Center and the new City Park, a unique perk among luxury developments in San Francisco.

181 Fremont’s height extends more than 800 feet into the sky, thanks, in part, to a spire, and completion of this visually striking structural element represented the final stage in “topping off.” The spire was signed by every architect, engineer, developer, and designer involved with the project—and some of the future owners as well. And it is practical, too: it houses the building’s Electronically Activated Streamer Emission (EASE) system, which will dissipate lightning strikes through the structure’s grounding system, thereby reducing the chance of electrical outages during storms. Steady, stately, and grounded, the engineering feats that have made 181 Fremont a magnificent and resilient structure are mirrored by the feats of design that give it beauty and elegance. Its topping off is a cause for celebration, and its silhouette is a new jewel in the San Francisco skyline.

San Francisco Kid Activities

181 Fremont Residences’ location in sophisticated SoMa is a boon for adults who love the arts and culture. But the littlest residents of these luxury condos in San Francisco have their very own local treasure to explore, where they can stretch their imaginations, skills, and technical know-how, all while having fun. The Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) is located on Fourth and Howard Streets inside the lovely Yerba Buena Gardens. Formerly known as “Zeum” when it first opened in 1998, CCM takes an innovative approach to museum education that bypasses the passive absorption of dusty displays and dioramas and, instead, invites kids and families to create their own multimedia experiences in one of the museum’s many hands-on “labs.”

According to their mission statement, CCM has worked to “move the conventional approach of play to one of invention” and to “shift the focus from media consumption to media production.” So, no snapping photos on smartphones or checking Facebook while strolling through an exhibit: here, kids from ages 2 to12 make their own projects with educators who are excited to pass along their skills to young innovators. Visitors can take part in Design Challenges, Robot Coding, Music Video Production, Stop Motion Animation for an afternoon or even for weeks at a time during the summer.

Younger kids adore the Animation Studio, where they can learn about an essential filmmaking technique and get their hands dirty in clay. Kids can mold characters from soft clay using colors they choose and then work with museum educators to create a storyboard and produce a stop-motion short film. The museum’s stop-motion animation stations allow kids to choose different backdrops to set the scene and complete their films, which can then be emailed to parents.

At the Tech Lab, older kids learn how to program a robot to navigate mazes and play games using basic coding skills—a birthright in San Francisco. Creative problem-solving is the name of the game, and kids are encouraged to think through obstacles and puzzles in the pursuit of the solution. Their reward is the fun of watching their creation make its way through a maze, avoiding obstacles and responding to sensory information. Similarly, the Innovation Lab gives kids a tough puzzle to solve in the form of the Mystery Box, which contains basic materials that families can use to solve a problem. There are no fancy gadgets or tools to deploy here, just simple supplies and brainstorming. In the Music Studio, kids create their own music videos by performing Karaoke-style with costumes and applying custom backgrounds with green-screen technology.

Summer vacations can be artistic adventures too, with programs like this summer’s Musical Theater Camp, which is co-organized at CCM with the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, or Art Lab, where kids aged 3-5 can get a rich experience that includes songs, games, sensory-based play, and storytelling. And 5- to 6-year-olds can join the Play-Well Jedi Engineering camp, making refinements on the structure of LEGO® X-Wings and R2-units —all in a day’s work for a budding designer.

Undoubtedly, many of the grown-up residents of the luxury condos at 181 Fremont are accomplished professionals whose problem-solving skills and creativity are fueling the Bay Area’s thriving tech industry. With regular visits to the Children’s Creativity Museum, followed by a stroll through the Yerba Buena Gardens or a build-your-own-lunch at the nearby Vietnamese sandwich shop Freshroll, chances are the future will be in good (inventive) hands.

Image courtesy of ©iStock.com/Nadezhda1906

One of the most spectacular features of the new San Francisco luxury condos for sale at 181 Fremont is the view. Perched high above the vibrant streets of SoMa, the top 17 floors of this 801-foot-tall structure afford residents lovely scenes of the city skyline on one side and the San Francisco Bay on the other, where The Bay Lights, a unique, shimmering art installation illuminates the sky and water. Conceived by artist Leo Villareal, The Bay Lights was originally designed to be a temporary installation on the San Francisco Bay Bridge but became so popular that Illuminate the Arts, the San Francisco arts advocacy group that first brought the project to life, gathered support and raised $4 million to make it a permanent fixture in the city.

The installation is a work of artistic and technical magic, comprising over 25,000 individual LED lights running along the bridge’s 300 cables. Far from the quiet solitude of an artist’s studio, the San Francisco Bay Bridge is one of California’s most heavily trafficked thoroughfares, so planning for both the temporary and permanent installations of The Bay Lights was a formidable undertaking. Weather, traffic, the possibility of earthquakes, and the unpredictability of a busy urban bridge were all considered in making Villareal’s project a physical reality. Using the original blueprints from 1936, a team of engineers, IT professionals, and safety experts collaborated with Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation) and the engineering and design firms of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Zoon Engineering, and Philips Color Kinetics and Kapsch to draw up plans, while the women-owned electric firm of Bleyco Inc. took the lead on installation. The incredible design and installation process was documented in the film Impossible Light by director Jeremy Ambers.

Leo Villareal, the artist whose vision brought The Bay Lights into existence, is a gifted polymath whose site-specific light sculptures have brightened public spaces all over the world. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, native earned a BA in sculpture from Yale University in 1990 and an MA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunications Program. His work is represented in several important museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But for Villareal, the objects shown in museums are just one part of his artistic practice, as the world outside and the elements of light and sound, space, weather, people, architecture, and cars provide him materials on a canvas writ large.

In 2012, Villareal created Cosmos, a site-specific work on the campus of Cornell University, which is composed of nearly 12,000 LED lights suspended above the Mallin Sculpture Court at the University’s Johnson Museum. At night, the work mirrors the stars in the sky, and the software that powers its illumination generates new patterns over time. The same year, he created a work called Buckyball in New York’s Madison Square Park, which features a 30-foot-tall set of illuminated spheres—one nested inside the other—that cast a colorful glow from within the park at night. For an earlier piece, Multiverse, Villareal designed 41,000 LED nodes to illuminate the walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

While most people who encounter Villareal’s outdoor works happen upon them during their travels, the residents of the luxury San Francisco condos at 181 Fremont can enjoy the elegant glimmer of The Bay Lights from the best seats in the house as they sit down to dinner or watch the sunset. From the luxury condo’s amenity floor—itself a dazzling display of ingenious interior design—residents can take in the spectacular views of this unique work of art and share it with friends in high style, as the perfect complement to sparkling conversation.

Image courtesy of ©iStock.com/beebuddy