Two men stand on a Mission street sidewalk. They are in work clothes; Jose Medina, left, holds a paintbrush, and Dan Danielson, right, holds a pain roller. They are standing in front of an abstract round shaped terazzo artwork inlaid in the cement with a 5 or 10 gallon bucket of clear sealant.
Jose Medina, left, and Dan Danielson, right, terrazzo workers with 4 months and 37 years of experience, respectively. Photo by Anlan Cheney.

A thick, chemical smell mingled with the already pungent potpourri that arrested the senses of Mission Street sidewalk commuters where Dan Danielson and Jose Medina appeared to be painting the sidewalk on a recent weekday morning.

A few passersby had to be reminded to watch their step; the dark patches were wet with epoxy, the source of the smell. 

Danielson and Medina, a terrazzo worker and terrazzo apprentice, respectively, explained they were laying a fresh layer of the lacquer sealant over an abstract terrazzo artwork inlaid in the cement near the Wells Fargo branch at 2595 Mission St.

This is only the second coat of sealant over the piece in its 22-year lifespan. “The sealer stays in there pretty much forever,” said Danielson.

He delved into the history of his profession, fascinated by its origins in ancient times and places like Italy and Greece. “Basically, back in those times when they used to do the marble statues, all the marble pieces would fall and they would use the small pieces for their walkways,” he said. “Then they would get stones to grind and smooth [the surface] because everyone was barefooted. That was kinda how the mosaics got started.”

Whereas mosaics are “small pieces of marble that were set individually in the cement,” he clarified, terrazzo requires materials, such as marble or other suitable substances, like quartz, to be ground ground into smaller pieces. The pieces are then mixed with binding agents, poured into place and sealed with an epoxy resin.

Today, electric grinders are used, but in the past, materials were hand ground.

  • inlaid in the cement sidewalk, this terazzo piece is built on a black background. A blue blob with abstract, organize shapes inside mainly of green and white - a blog with a tail, like a sperm or cell necleus - is surrounded by variously shaped black antenna-like shapes with round, yellow accents at a few antenna ends. This blue blob rests in a larger black blob itself resting on a blue blob or border one inside the other.
  • Dan Danielson is kneeling on a sidewalk by the Mission street intersection with 22nd street, rolling a paint roller over a panel of the sidewalk that contains a black terrazzo strip. Apprentice Jose Medina is standing to his right watching.

Danielson was trying to find an old picture he had saved on his phone of workers hand-grinding for the floor of the Smithsonian’s United States National Museum building at the turn of the 20th century. “Everybody had these big long sticks with stones at the end, and that’s how they ground it,” he said, “I can’t imagine how they did that.”

He also had pictures of his work on the Salesforce Transit Terminal floor (425 Mission St.) in 2019. An artist designed the piece, and terrazzo workers like Danielson laid 30,000 square feet of “epoxy terrazzo,” depicting plants, birds, and geometric figures.

Danielson was proud of his contribution: “It got Job of the Year across the United States, actually.” 

There were pictures of personal projects he completed for his home, too: a terrazzo floor in the garage, a terrazzo compass on the sidewalk out front, and the bathroom — all terrazzo. “Yeah, we get pretty involved,” he said, laughing.

the view of the Salesforce Transit Terminal's floor from top of an escalator. On a white background, the entire 30,000 square foot floor is filled with various butterfly, hummingbird, and flower depictions with geometric shapes seemingly randomly placed and very colorful - blues, purples, yellows, oranges, reds, and greens. The building's many windows let in a lot of natural light, and large, white columns extend from floor to ceiling at the center of the room, surrounded by a black and white alternating terrazzo border at the base.
Danielson worked on this “secret garden” terrazzo floor at the Salesforce Transit Terminal for his employer, Associated Terrazzo, in 2019. Photo courtesy of National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association, Inc.

Danielson lives in Benicia and has been doing terrazzo for 37 years. He got involved by joining a bricklayers’ union, and Medina, a Vallejo native who is newer to the craft at just four months in, is completing an 1,800-hour apprenticeship with the union. His on-the-job training will take about two years to complete, Medina said. They work all over northern California with Associated Terrazzo.

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"Annie" is originally from Nebraska, where she found her calling to journalism as editor of her high school newsletter. Before returning to the field, she studied peace and political science in the Balkans, taught elementary and middle school, and worked as an epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow her on Twitter @anlancheney.

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1 Comment

  1. I am impressed with your talents! Keep up the beautiful job here in Northern California!

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