Around the Bay Area, where the term “move fast and break things” originated, it’s easy to lose sight of the historical moments that have shaped our landscapes. Whether you’re looking at a Julia Morgan-designed columbarium or an abstract bell tower that memorializes a child’s last gifts, there are plenty of monuments around the region that not only remind us about the past — but challenge us to envision what that means for our present and future.

Here are the stories behind five iconic Bay Area monuments.

Whether he’s wearing a jack-o’-lantern head or a pandemic mask, Santa Cruz’s surfer sculpture stands sentinel over West Cliff Drive, a young man stoically holding a surfboard as he stares out to the horizon.

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The surfer was commissioned in 1989 by the Santa Cruz Histori

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