Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: gateway

The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. It is the oldest of the four notable Chinatowns in the city. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that continues to retain its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. There are two hospitals, numerous parks and squares, a post office, and other infrastructure. Visitors can easily become immersed in a microcosmic Asian world, filled with herbal shops, temples, pagoda roofs and dragon parades. While recent immigrants and the elderly choose to live in here because of the availability of affordable housing and their familiarity with the culture, the place is also a major tourist attraction, drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge. A Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Avenue at Bush Street is the only authentic Chinatown Gate in North America. Unlike similar structures which usually stand on wooden pillars, this iconic symbol conforms to Chinese gateway standards using stone from base to top and green-tiled roofs in addition to wood as basic building materials. The Gateway was designed by Clayton Lee, Melvin H. Lee and Joe Yee in 1970.

The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. It is the oldest of the four notable Chinatowns in the city. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that continues to retain its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. There are two hospitals, numerous parks and squares, a post office, and other infrastructure. Visitors can easily become immersed in a microcosmic Asian world, filled with herbal shops, temples, pagoda roofs and dragon parades. While recent immigrants and the elderly choose to live in here because of the availability of affordable housing and their familiarity with the culture, the place is also a major tourist attraction, drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge. A Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Avenue at Bush Street is the only authentic Chinatown Gate in North America. Unlike similar structures which usually stand on wooden pillars, this iconic symbol conforms to Chinese gateway standards using stone from base to top and green-tiled roofs in addition to wood as basic building materials. The Gateway was designed by Clayton Lee, Melvin H. Lee and Joe Yee in 1970.

SONY DSC

There are now three so-called "welcome" gateways installed in what is popularly known as Stanley Park's s totem pole area. They are the first physical presence of indigenous people of Metro Vancouver on the site. Previously, all eight of the totem poles at Brockton Point were from northern first nations such as the Haida and Nisga’a. The Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh who traditionally used Stanley Park never made totem poles. But they did make house posts and the three impressive arches take their form from what guests would have walked under when entering a traditional Coast Salish longhouse. Susan Point, the Musqueam artist who designed the welcome gateways or portals, said she’s honored that her work was chosen to represent the Coast Salish people. "The Salish people are finally setting their footprint, their own artwork, on their own land," she said in an interview in the backyard of her home and workshop on Musqueam land in south Vancouver. Working on the gateways has been a family affair for Point. The carvers and painters include Point, her children Brent Sparrow, Kelly and Thom Cannell, as well as husband Jeff Cannell, son-in-law Leigh Rollins, and production manager Ron Denessen.

SONY DSC