Ocean sings at Wave Organ

By Karen Aiello
kaiello@modbee.com

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

SAN FRANCISCO -- If the sounds of the ocean interest you, then there's a place in San Francisco to delight in the kerplunks, gurgles, sloshes and pangs of its waves.

The Wave Organ is on a jetty, constructed of granite and marble taken from a Gold Rush-era cemetery, near the Palace of Fine Arts and the Marina Green. It's the vision of Peter Richards and sculptor George Gonzales. Created in the 1980s, the Wave Organ employs different pipes and tubes, made of PVC and concrete and located at various elevations, to bring sound to the surface as the rise and fall of the tides moves the water in and out of the pipes.

Whether your imagination can turn the deep gurgle noise into the grumblings of an underwater creature or you can imagine the "thwarp" from a water tube as the drum of a American Indian warrior, the sounds offer a unique way to connect with the ocean.

Exploratorium - Wave Organ is at the end of a jetty, east of the St. Francis and Golden Gate yacht clubs in San Francisco's Marina District, looking northeast across San Francisco Bay toward Alcatraz and Angel Island. The Wave Organ is environmental art that uses PVC tubes and bay waves to create "the world's largest sea shell." Sticking up among the structure are listening tubes that resemble periscopes.

IF YOU GO
- WHERE: The Wave Organ is at the end of Yacht Road past the St. Francis and Golden Gate yacht clubs.
- WHEN: Daily, sunrise to sunset, but best at high tide
- COST: Free
- GETTING THERE: Go west on 580 to the Bay Bridge. Cross the bridge and take the Harrison exit (first right). Go right on Harrison, then left onto the Embarcadero (Herb Caen Way). Go left on Bay, right on Laguna, left on Marina Boulevard and left on Baker to the Exploratorium. Or turn right off Marina onto Yacht Road and go to the end of the road for the Wave Organ.
- MORE INFO: www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave_organ.html