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Dreamer seeks Patron, 3-D artists, & web designers to Build a Dream (San Francisco)
3424 16th Street near Church Street
no pay
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There is no funding available at this time.
I seek to chat with ceramic artists, illustrators, and web developers for this monumental project (San Francisco)
We are currently experiencing the greatest mass extinction of plants and animals in human history. The Light of Hope Sculptural Garden on Alcatraz will be an educational foundation focused on educating tourists around the world about this extinction.
I seek to consult with porcelain, ceramic, or glass tile artists, crafts persons or professors who can wrap their imagination around the idea of hundreds of artisans like yourself working in state-of-the-art workshops you’ve designed on Treasure Island. Workshops where you and countless other skilled workers will create and fire billions of custom tiles that resemble bits of fur, skin, scales, talons, feathers, eyes, noses, beaks, or teeth of a few hundred monumental animals from land, sea, and air.
My name is Jim Reid. I am a 75-year-old dyslexic builder and dreamer in San Francisco.
Since 1998, I have been nurturing a vision of creating a Wonder of the World on
Alcatraz. This project, when realized, will not only be a testament to human creativity.
and resilience but also a beacon of hope in a precarious future.
I keep this post running to keep the dream alive.
Once we have secured the necessary funding and the desired patrons, we will develop a multi-million-dollar fundraising website that will cover the costs of the massive construction and political lobbying required to make this project a reality.
1.2 million global tourists visit Alcatraz every year. They will be a prime source of ongoing funding to construct and maintain The Light of Hope.
The five human statues will stand on the vacant parade grounds on Alcatraz Island.
The tallest of these, HOPE, is an Indigenous maiden (see photo) with her right palm upraised to the sky. Her palm will be the same height as the Statue of Liberty and her base or the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. It will be the tallest statue in the Western Hemisphere.
The mother’s right hand reaches to the sky, seeking connection to a power higher than herself for help in saving her children, all other sentient beings, and the Earth. Intense beams of light emanate from her children’s raised hands, joining hers as one, piercing the darkness.
The beam will be as intense as that of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. This is a technical
challenge that will be accomplished by LED lighting engineers.
For over two decades, I held this dream close to my heart, often feeling it was just that—a dream. But a chance encounter with a street poet in Dolores Park changed everything. His words, which he captured in a simple poem, stirred something deep within me.
The Light of Hope on Alcatraz begins as just one candle in a human hand.
The whalesong washes, waves lapping concrete.
A rusted door creaks open and the light leaks out obscenely free.
Upon the backs of animals, we rise. – Ben Bernthal
These words brought tears to my eyes, reignited the fire of this dream, and inspired me to dedicate the remaining years of my life to advancing it. This will require the skills of thousands of skilled artisans over ten years.
Approximately 200 giant animal statues, four times life-size, will stand around the island as if they were walking east to meet the human ambassadors. Other animals will emerge from the bay onto the island as if they have just swum across from the mainland or in through the Golden Gate. Each is an ambassador of their species to humans who seek help from above, be it gods or aliens, to save the planet from extinction in the coming decades.
The project will be funded by the online or in-person purchases of millions of subscription tiles that will cover the 205 monumental statues.
We will build a robust fundraising website. It will be necessary to raise the billions of dollars needed to construct this monument. The 3D model of Alcatraz Island would feature five human statues, 200 national animals, and 200 national birds – one from every country in the world. Each animal on the website would be rotatable; allowing subscribers to find a specific tile featuring their national animal, write a brief memorial message, and pay for the tile. The fundraising website would allow tourists to pay for a tile while they wait for the ferries to take them to the island or return.
US tourists could sign postcards to their congresspersons and the next president, Gavin Newsom(?) elected in 2028 asking them to support and sign legislation that would make building this monument a possibility.
I imagine that a wealthy San Franciscan who wants to leave a lasting legacy could afford to cover the multi-million-dollar website costs and serve on the Board of Directors. If you know such a person, please send them a link to this posting and ask them to consider becoming a patron and help build this Wonder of the World as their lifetime legacy. They will help establish a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, an Extinction Education Foundation, using this website to inspire volunteers and patrons. All contributions could be tax-deductible.
If you have experience creating a tax-exempt not-for-profit foundation with a board of directors and would like to be on the board, please contact me. There will also be human-sized bronze statues around the island, depicting dozens of notable individuals, both historical and contemporary, such as Jane Goodall, Margaret Mead, and Dian Fossey, who will be honored for their significant contributions to the movement.
As tourists walk among the monumental animal statues, they will encounter these statues of the builders, patrons, and historic heroes of humans, animals, and the environment. There might also be numerous self-cleaning bronze nesting trees around the island, monitored by passionate marine ornithologists, where seabirds could build their annual nests high above the humans below. These strategically placed structures could contain lights to illuminate the animal sculptures.
In the last hundred years, our out-of-control population growth has led to the natural extinction rate skyrocketing from one or two species a year to a few dozen vanishing every day, the largest planetary extinction in human history. I compare the Earth to the Titanic. We hit the Climate iceberg thirty years ago. There are no lifeboats. None! We need to repair and turn the ship 180 degrees within the next thirty years or die!
The animal sculptures will represent the symbolic national animals of all nations and bodies of water on Earth, serving as ambassadors for their species to humans and those above. Tourists from each country could learn about their national animal and discover the countless animals that are going extinct in their country because of human growth.
The clothing on the five copper-clad human statues will consist of inscribed glass, porcelain, or ceramic fundraising tiles from 4” x 4” to 12" x 12" in all shapes and textures. This will have to look impressive up close on the island and from afar when lit at night. Their exposed skin would be copper, like the Statue of Liberty, and would acquire a green patina over decades.
The national animal of the United States is the American bison, which had an estimated population of 70 million in the late 18th century. Bison were integral to the culture and survival of Plains Indians, who relied on them for food, clothing, and shelter. By 1889, the species had been culled down to just 541 animals as part of the subjugation and genocide by my European ancestors, of the countless Indian tribes west of the Mississippi. There are a few living in Golden Gate Park.
Imagine a fundraising tile booth beneath the massive animal, rendered in textured tile that resembles a brown, fur-covered hide. Every tourist bureau in the national capital would have a similar sculpture of its national animal and bird, four times life-size. $100+ memorial tiles, millions of them, bought at Fisherman’s Wharf, under the 25 foot tall American Bison, or online, would be surrounded by hundreds of decorative tiles. Tourists would wander around, amazed at seeing a Wonder of the World build before their eyes.
At its peak, The Light of Hope will employ a vast number of artists, ceramicists, tile setters, construction workers, engineers, and designers, all working on nearby Treasure Island. Finished tiles would be transported daily across the bay to workers on scaffolds, ready for installation. Imagine helping to solve the countless problems needed to build something that will survive for a thousand years.
As a builder, I know that there are extraordinary adhesives that could withstand the salty air and waters of the Bay. The unique steel structure and possible poly-carbonate skin under the tile would have to be equally impermeable. New materials are being developed all the time.
If we fail to prevent this extinction, future intelligent beings will come upon the ruins of this monumental garden and wonder why we failed.
During a recent visit to the site, I realized I needed to brainstorm the tiles with ceramics teachers and ceramic artists with experience in creating such tiles.
Imagine a website where anyone could go to find their national animal, rotate it, select one of the million tiles, and open its data cell, which would contain the message and the donor's name. The 3D Island, the 205 national animals and birds, and the five humans could be rotated and accessed.
The project will cost many billions of dollars and will take up to ten years to complete.
Bechtel Corporation, the world's largest construction company, originally based in San Francisco, could engineer and build the structures. It could surpass their greatest achievement, the Hoover Dam, built in 1931 in Las Vegas, at a cost of $1 billion in 2025 dollars.
In my grander vision, if more money is raised, an underwater tram will be installed in a tube-like BART system that will travel from Fisherman's Wharf under the bay and emerge at the foot of the human statues, emerging from the mouth of a tile-clad blue whale. Bechtel Corporation engineered the BART Tube many decades ago and could easily engineer and build this.
In my biggest dream, each animal statue will have an identical, tile-clad counterpart in a tourist location in their capital city. Once we have a 3D model of Alcatraz Island and all the sculptures, a skilled technician could print large copies on a 3D printer that could be used in hundreds of tourist locations around the world to raise money for education about the cascading extinction crisis that we humans have caused.
Global ambassadors of the Light of Hope would travel to all national capitals explaining the extinction crisis in their country and what they can do to mitigate it. Most countries have a national animal and bird, such as the bald eagle in the US, which was on the brink of extinction due to the pesticide DDT in 1963, with only 417 nesting pairs. With the passage of the Endangered Species Act, we brought them back.
I recently hired a tour guide friend from India to create a database of countries, capital cities, tourist bureaus, and national animals.
Glass bottles and containers could be melted down in kilns on Treasure Island and poured into molds to create the glaze for the billion tiles. Glass is the best and least expensive material to reuse.
From my builder's point of view, constructing this Wonder of the World will be the easiest part. The challenges will include obtaining federal and local approval, as well as fundraising.
I’ve written to the San Francisco mayor and Board of Supervisors, the National Park Service, and California Governor Gavin Newsom to support this project.
I ran for mayor twice, in 1999 and 2003, and built the Smallest House in San Francisco as a builder’s solution to the homeless problem. I towed it to City Hall three times. I sat next to Gavin Newsom in the debates I was invited to. He went on to become the mayor of San Francisco for two terms and is now serving his second term as the governor of California.
I chatted with Gavin at the Ferry Building when he was promoting his book and running
for his second term as governor. When he is elected president in less than four years, he could introduce legislation to approve the project, as Hope will sit on federal land, a national historic monument. He could be a tarnished bronze statue of an enlightened president in a hundred years.
When he is campaigning in the coming years he will need a large cadre of alert bodyguards to protect him from assassins. The easiest thing to do to an enlightened leader is to kill them in our gun happy country. I remember the day Bobby Kennedy was murdered. I was 12 years old in eighth grade in Catholic school when JFK was shot.
The National Park Service could not propose, approve, or facilitate this project on Alcatraz without an act of Congress mandating it. Both the N.P.S and the SF Board of Supervisors, as well as the mayor, could issue non-binding resolutions stating their support for the creation of this Wonder of the World, provided it is built without taxpayer money.
The Statue of Liberty symbolized the promise of America when she was dedicated on October 28, 1886, 139 years ago. She was a gift from the French Republic to the first great democracy. President Grover Cleveland dedicated her as a symbol of American ideals.
The Light of Hope will symbolize hope for humanity, the lesser creatures that share the planet with us, and the Earth itself. Alcatraz currently symbolizes the imprisonment of men’s souls. Radiant animals and ethereal humans will outshine the juxtaposition of the decrepit despair of the prison buildings.
The Light of Hope will be a Wonder of the World, the first built since 1635, when the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan took ten years with an army of workers to build an unsurpassed monument of undying love to his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She died giving birth to their 13th child.
If you love the planet and the vulnerable animals who live here and are committed to using your skills to help save them, please write to me.
I’ve begun writing a book: There are NO Lifeboats. It compares the earth to the Titanic having hit the global iceberg 30 years ago. It is a metaphysical story of enlightened patrons who assemble and fund an army of young people. They collect terrestrial, aquatic, and avian species from all major countries far from San Francisco. Without initially knowing the plan, they find allies with different skills and resources including galactic aliens. They follow an alien orb that crashed into Alcatraz after a month-long erratic orbit of earth. It has biblical and historic mythology woven in the story and their motivations. The galactic aliens have a global computer/AI -JOe/JO that is set to manage the planet. They plan to create a world government on Angel Island with three equal constituencies: Humans, Animals, and Environmentalists.
They all arrive in San Francisco during a blue moon when five humans, 200 animals, sea creatures, and birds transform metaphysically as the moon zeniths high above Alcatraz. All of the 605 beings willingly give their lives to save the planet. I am 20,000 words into the story.
Building a wonder of the world is an extraordinary aspiration and would leave an amazing legacy for early supporters and designers.
Imagine being on the planning committee that built the Sphinx, the Pyramids of Giza, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Great Wall of China, or the magnificent Taj Mahal.
What say you, Citizen? Are you in?
Jim Reid
“Only those who are crazy enough to believe that they can change the world are the ones who do!” – Steve Jobs