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Shasta Dam is the keystone of the Central Valley Project, a complex of several dams, reservoirs and canals across Northern California.  It is a high-arch concrete dam over 600 feet high and almost 3,500 feet wide at the top, situated in the former Iron Canyon. At the time it was built, it was the second largest dam in the world, after Grand Coulee on the Columbia River (another New Deal project), and it is still the 8th highest in the United States.  It impounds the largest reservoir in California, with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet. Shasta Dam had been originally conceived...

George Stanley created this large sculpture "Muse of Music, Dance, Drama" for the Hollywood Bowl in 1938-1940, with funding from the WPA. "The monument was constructed from 1938 to 1940, as part of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). It was the largest of hundreds of WPA sculpture projects created in Southern California. It was described at the time as "an engineering feat...the entire hillside of this famous shrine made into a monument, in which are eleven hundred and eighty-eight tons of concrete, the forms of which are delineated by slabs of the same granite to the amount of two...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped fund construction of the magnificent Monterey County courthouse in downtown Salinas, California, which opened in 1937. New Deal funds supplemented a local bond issue to cover the cost of this large building, which covers a square block.   The cornerstone makes it clear that New Deal funding came from the PWA, not the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as claimed by the nearby historical marker. This is a common mistake, given the similarity of PWA and WPA. Robert Stanton was the architect and the design is Classical Moderne.  It was built with a large courtyard, which originally surrounded...

Woodminster Amphitheater and Cascade is an astonishing feature of Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland hills and one of the largest New Deal projects in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Woodminster lies just off Joaquin Miller Road above Highway 13.  The large complex was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1940. Initial work began in late 1935 after $128,000 in federal funding was approved for Woodminster stairway and amphiteather, as part of a million dollars WPA effort across the city of Oakland (Chronicle 1935).  Further funds and more work came with a larger disbursement of almost $700,000 for "a master...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided matching funds for the construction of a new City Hall for Mill Valley in 1935-36. The city had already decided to replace an older city hall built on the same site in 1908 and had raised $30,000 through a bond issue in 1935. The new City Hall housed city offices and council chambers, as well as the fire station and city police. The building was designed by architects D.E. Jaekle and Walter Falch in the Neo-Tudor style, which was one of many period revival architectures popular in the interwar period.   City Hall's was heavily remodeled...

The historic downtown post office building in Redding, California was constructed by the federal Treasury Department in 1936. It is still in use today. The elegant Moderne design with fluted "columns" is by Albert Roller and features a graceful front stairway with two decorative urns and light fixtures flanking the entrance.  Two bas-relief eagles mark the corners of the facade. It appears that the striking blue highlights are original, if repainted over time. The original lobby was modernized at an unknown date, leaving the front desk area (on the left as one enters) quite undistinguished. But the two corridors with personal mailboxes are intact.

A PWA grant and bonds made possible a group of buildings at Santa Rosa Junior College, including an administration unit, large assembly hall and library. These plans were drawn up by C.A. Calkins, and the building materials were steel, concrete, brick veneer and tile roof. The WPA constructed permanent bleachers in the football stadium (now Bailey Field). Tree-trimming and other work was done on the campus. They installed the first permanent exhibit in the Jesse Park Museum of Native American artifacts as well as Californian flora, fauna and rock specimens. This grew into a biological, cultural, and historical center. Santa Rosa...

Funds for a seawall and fill for the exposition site were provided through a $3,043,000 WPA grant. Another WPA grant of $1,296,000 provided for roadways, a causeway, trestles, landscaping, and drainage of water systems. A PWA grant of $1,711,000, matched in part by local funds, provided for paving, ferry slips and some buildings. Private funding for the exhibition were raised through private subscriptions, through the sale of bonds. A 1940 WPA publication describes the construction of Treasure Island as follows: "Dedicated November 21, 1937, Yerba Buena Shoals, more popularly known as Treasure Island, was raised from beneath the waters of the bay through the handling...

Berkeley High School's Community Theater is adorned with cast stone bas-relief sculptures by Robert Howard, son of architect John Galen Howard.  The sculptures are on the exterior side of the building, along Allston Way and facing the Berkeley Civic Center park. The central panel is around 30 feet high and contains a rich group of figures illustrating people of all races coming together through the arts. On each side is a panel of a herald  blowing a trumpet, one male and one female, and the man is apparently African American. The panels were paid for by the Federal Arts Project of the...

Jacques Schnier created the impressive bas-relief sculpture, "St. George and the Dragon", that fills a huge space on the west (exterior) side of Berkeley High School's building H (a former Science and Industrial Arts Building), which faces Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The sculpture also contains the inspirational inscription, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." The work was paid for by the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration, as were the other sculptures on Berkeley High School.  It was mounted c. 1940.