Downtown San Rafael's New Art Is Built to Move, Like Fourth Street Always Has

Why would a new sculpture spend its first months somewhere it isn't meant to stay? Martin Taylor's Touch the Sky is made of stainless steel, patinated steel and gold paint. Right now it stands outside the San Rafael Community Center at 618 B Street. The City of San Rafael has named its permanent home as the lane divider of the Second and Fourth Street intersection project, an intersection that hasn't been rebuilt yet.

The sculpture is one of five public artworks installed downtown between spring and late summer 2026. In the same stretch, the City and the Marin History Museum launched a self-guided history tour along Fourth Street. Fourth Street has always been rebuilt one site at a time, and the new art collection is following the same pattern. Two of its five pieces are on temporary footing, one because it is waiting for its permanent site and one because it was only meant to stay a year.

What the History Tour Shows About Fourth Street

The tour covers 25 sites along Fourth Street, from the Union Depot and SMART stop to Fourth and D Streets. Each stop has stories and historic photos in English and Spanish. It runs on the STQRY app at cityofsanrafael.stqry.app. You can pull up a site's material by scanning a QR code or just by standing nearby. The Marin Independent Journal reported that it was built by the museum's research librarian, Lori Deibel, and education coordinator, Marcie Miller, with Walter Gonzalez Valdez of the City Manager's Office leading the City's side.

Taken in order from east to west, the stops show one site after another either taking on a new use or being replaced outright.

1. Union Station, 699 Fourth St. This is the 1884 depot. The San Rafael Record traces its rail history and its later reuse in the transit era.
2. Borden Soda Fountain, 703 Fourth St. It sits right next door, at the east end of the route.
3. Gold Rush Jewelers, 831 Fourth St. The building was once a Packard dealership. Owner Rick Lewis told the Marin Independent Journal that the Art Deco façade and the interior period details are still features of the store.
4. Marin County Courthouse site, 1000 Fourth St. The courthouse built here in 1872 stood for about a century. The tour shows it through historic photos, since the building itself is gone.
5. Bank of Italy, 1300 Fourth St. In 1844 this was the site of Don Timoteo Murphy's adobe, San Rafael's first house. The ornate bank building replaced it in 1930, and the bank later helped finance the Golden Gate Bridge.
6. Mahon Building, 1330 Fourth St. It's a few doors further west in the same block.

The 1300 block packs the most into one stop. The site went from the town's first house to a 1930 bank, and the Mahon Building stands nearby. Across the street, at 1325 to 1337 Fourth, is Art Works Downtown, the gallery and studio building that anchors the monthly art walk. So one block gives you two layers of history and the current arts scene within a minute's walk.

Five Pieces, Each With Its Own Timeline

The public art came out of a process that took about a year. The City's call for artists closed at the end of July 2025, and the public commented on semifinalist proposals in October 2025. The San Rafael City Council approved the selections on February 2, 2026. According to Downtown San Rafael, more than 1,000 community members gave input. A California Arts Council grant paid for the work, and the installations arrived with the new name for the downtown cultural district: San Rafael Arts, formerly the Downtown San Rafael Arts District.

Here is what's standing now and how long each piece is expected to stay:

Valenzuela's mural on the garage shows cupped hands holding a rose against a Bay Area landscape. One panel is set in daytime and the other at night, and text-based marks around the image speak to caring for community and land. De la Calzada's fountain piece is about water's flow, renewal and reflection, which suits a work that wraps a working fountain. Hersey's wall is the largest of the five. At about 210 feet long, it strings together coyotes, wildflowers, bicycles and Mount Tam.

Lobykin's Talking Heads is the most open-ended of the group. Its reflective, open form plays with positive and negative space, and the City presents it as a piece meant to invite viewers' own readings. It's also the piece with a set end date, because the City describes it as a one-year installation. The City Hall lawn is a site for rotating work, so the sculpture there next fall may be a different one.

The Sculpture Waiting on an Intersection

Touch the Sky links the art program to the next physical change on Fourth Street. Taylor's piece came to San Rafael after earlier showings in Napa and Vacaville. It shows his "metal origami" style, with steel folded so that it looks like it is reaching upward. When it was unveiled, the City said the sculpture would move "later this year" to the lane divider at Second and Fourth.

That intersection is still the old one. In its October 16 update, the City said the Council would consider a $2.3 million construction contract with Ghilotti Bros., Inc. at its October 19 meeting to rebuild the junction. Nearly 20,000 vehicles pass through it each day, and its five skewed approaches can confuse drivers, bike riders and pedestrians. The redesign reduces the five signal approaches to three and shortens the crosswalks. It also adds new signals, lighting, paving and a transit stop, along with accessibility upgrades and a finished protected bike lane from Shaver Street to West End Avenue. A $3 million federal grant pays for most of the work, and about $398,000 comes from the City's gas tax fund.

Put the two timelines side by side and the sculpture's next move depends on a road crew. A contract that was still up for consideration in mid-October has to come before the new median that will hold the artwork. The City hasn't given a specific move date. Until the construction is finished, the place to see Touch the Sky is still B Street.

This follows the same pattern as the history tour. The Murphy adobe gave way to a bank, the 1872 courthouse is gone, and a Packard showroom became a jewelry store. The newest piece on Fourth Street is waiting for the street to be rebuilt around it.

A Walk Worth Taking Before the Next Change

The route works best from east to west. Start at the depot at 699 Fourth with the STQRY tour open and follow the addresses upward. Detour a block south for the garage mural on Third Street, and come back to the 1300 block for the Bank of Italy and Art Works Downtown. Then head over to Fifth Avenue for Talking Heads and to B Street for Touch the Sky. Hersey's mural runs along the Second Street retaining wall, close to the intersection that Touch the Sky is meant to join.

Several dated events in the coming weeks put people on this same route:

• Saturday, November 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The free Goldenaires Holiday Crafts Market takes over the San Rafael Community Center at 618 B Street, with Santa there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The sculpture still stands outside, at what is meant to be its temporary home.
• Saturday, November 7, 3 to 9 p.m. San Rafael's 38th annual Día de los Muertos celebration is at the Albert J. Boro Community Center, 50 Canal Street. Family activities start at 3 p.m., and the walking procession begins at 6 p.m.
• Friday, November 13, 5 to 8 p.m. The free 2nd Friday Art Walk runs from Art Works Downtown at 1325 to 1337 Fourth Street. October's lineup included Kim Eagles Smith Gallery at 1327 Fourth, the Marin Jewelers Guild at 1331 Fourth, Tutu Lounge at 1335 Fourth, the Marin Society of Artists at 1515 Third and a window display at Marelli Brothers Shoe Repair, 1318 Fourth. Art Works Downtown posts venue updates for each month on its Art Walk page.
• Saturday, December 5, 1 to 6 p.m. The City's free Winter Wonderland and tree lighting fills Fourth Street between A Street and Lootens.

The art walk on November 13 lands in the 1300 block, the same stretch where the tour tells the Murphy adobe and Bank of Italy story. You can scan that stop on your phone and then walk across the street into the galleries.

Diana Sweet's interest in architecture runs to buildings like the Bank of Italy and the old Packard showroom at 831 Fourth, the kind of downtown San Rafael buildings that have taken on new uses without losing their character. If you're curious how that history shows up in the homes around downtown, Diana Sweet Homes is glad to talk it through. Start Your Home Search whenever you're ready.