The Chronicle today has a nice article that goes into more depth on the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway that opened a few weeks ago at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. As you may recall, much of the landscape around the railroad is made from recycled materials. Well, that’s putting it nicely. It’s made from garbage. 🙂
One of the groups involved in the exhibit’s creation was The Bay Area Garden Railway Society, comprised of aficionados who have created and maintain their own garden railways at home.
Along with a former artist-in-residence from the city dump, the group created San Francisco landmarks using discarded goods recycled from the trash. Cereal boxes were transformed into “The Painted Ladies” row of victorian homes, City Hall’s dome was made from an old collander, and “the building’s Styrofoam core is clad with ice cube trays and refrigerator egg racks, and the front steps are a computer keyboard.”
This year’s railway also incoporates a soundscape to make the landscape come alive. Andrew Roth of Natural Sounds dangled mics from the Golden Gate Bridge to capture the fog horns, and incorporated his recordings of the historic sounds of the Castro Theater’s organ, along with the squawking Telegraph Hill’s wild parrots and the bark of the sea lions of Pier 39.
There’s even the sounds of a rumbling earthquake once an hour, of which conservatory staffer Dolores Gebhart says, “I hope people don’t start running from the building.”
Read the full Chronicle article here to learn more about how the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway was put together. Or check out more photos and video of the exhibit at SFAppeal.com.
See it now through April 18, 2010 at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am – 5pm.
Sarah B.