Opened in January 2023, San Francisco’s Central Subway station, Rose Pak – connects Chinatown to SF downtown and South of Market neighborhoods. GlasPro created a public art panel that greets visitors entering the rooftop pavilion at the new station. The stunning art consists of a specially made red glass panel inscribed with Chinese poetry.

Central Subway Project outreach staff and their partners at the Chinatown Community Development Center wanted to ensure that all aspects of Chinese culture and art were represented in the art program that will adorn the entryway of the station’s rooftop plaza. The center conducted a couplet contest that garnered 120 couplet entries from local, national, and international poets.

San Francisco poet, Carin Mui was selected, Her couplet, a form of Chinese poetry with two lines of verse that have a joined meaning and follow a list of exacting rules reads “In the past, we traveled across the Pacific to mine for gold; Now, we break through earth to form a silver dragon.”

This is the first in a series of projects in collaboration with San Francisco Metro Transportation Agency