Wayward tribute

David Brower led the Sierra Club through the 1950s and ‘60s, then founded Friends of the Earth, then founded the Earth Island Institute, all because he knew his planet was in jeopardy.

But not even he could have suspected that planet would turn up in a San Francisco storage yard, destination uncertain, assembly required.

The globe in question is a 175-ton sculpture created by Finnish American artist Eino (who goes by one name, pronounced AY-no) as a tribute to Brower, who died at age 88 in 2000. It was conceived that same year, when Bay Area entrepreneur Brian Maxwell, founder of the company that makes PowerBars, and Berkeley-bred nature photographer Galen Rowell resolved to honor Brower by commissioning a large art piece.

The two enlisted Eino, a 63-year-old sculptor who was born in Finland but lived and worked in California from 1963 until he moved to quarry-adjacent Jasper, Ga., in 1996. The backers raised roughly $500,000 for the project, most of it from Maxwell and his wife, Jennifer. Though Rowell died in a plane crash in 2002, Eino and the Maxwells have continued with the effort.

The work, dubbed Spaceship Earth, measures 15 feet in diameter and comprises more than 80 pieces of blue quartzite from Brazil, with a figure representing Brower standing near its apex. When fully assembled, more than 1,400 pieces of bronze representing continents and major islands will encrust its exterior.

The problem is where to put it. Eino favored a grassy patch in San Francisco’s sprawling, federally controlled Presidio area, but placement there entailed, in the words of the artist’s wife and spokeswoman, Karla Ely, “just too much red tape.”

The sculpture’s backers have come up with several spots they like on city-owned land, but in April they ran up against the city’s Arts Commission, whose staff recommended against accepting the work as a gift to the city.

“There was definitely consensus that David Brower should be memorialized, but there were concerns about the piece itself,” said commission Executive Director Richard Newirth. One commissioner called it “ostentatious.” Others cited “the size and challenges in terms of finding a location,” along with “questions about whether this was the best and most appropriate tribute,” Newirth said.

The project’s backers and Newirth agreed a more comprehensive presentation could be made to the commission, but they decided to wait until San Franciscans chose a successor to Mayor Willie Brown in the Dec. 9 runoff (the mayor appoints the city’s 15 arts commissioners). The voters elected Gavin Newsom.

Later this month or in January, backers say, they’ll go back to the commission. Maxwell says he’s optimistic, but “if things don’t move forward in the next few months, we’re going to start looking at other cities. Eino’s not getting any younger, and we want this thing to be built.” Among the other spots he’s considering: Berkeley (Brower’s hometown), Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon.

In the meantime, Maxwell has also underwritten “Monumental: David Brower’s Fight for Wild America,” a 74-minute documentary by producer-director Kelly Duane that’s expected to premiere at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in March before moving to the film-festival circuit.

As for those quartzite blocks, they’re stacked behind locked gates in the Presidio area, and the bronze continents wait in the sculptor’s Georgia workshop. All the remaining assembly and finish work, likely to take three months or more, must wait until a location is certain.

But once its home is settled, “this is a piece that’s going to be around for 500 years,” said Maxwell.

“That’s one of the things that makes it exciting.”