Housed since 2003 in the old Main Library-which was significantly revamped for its new tenant-the Asian Art Museum owns what is today considered to be the finest collection of Asian art in the nation. With particular strengths in Chinese art, includi..

Among San Francisco's most photographed tourist attractions, the 1000 block of Lombard Street boasts eight switchbacks in its one-block descent from Hyde to Leavenworth. The block's natural 27 percent grade was gentled to 16 percent in 1922, when cob..

Towering 180ft above a 32ft rectangular base, this fluted, con-crete column (1934, Arthur Brown, Jr.)-which, despite persistent local lore, was not designed to resemble a firehose nozzle-ranks today among the city's best-known landmarks both for its ..

So close, and yet so far. Prisoners at Alcatraz, the federal maximum-security penitentiary known as the Rock, had a tantalizing view of San Francisco, but the mile-and-a-half span between the two landmasses was virtually unbridgeable. Escapees drowne..

Stretching across the narrow strait of the Golden Gate above the swirling union of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, this elegant Art Deco suspension bridge remains one of San Francisco's most beloved symbols. Yet it elicited passionate emotio..

Encompassing more than 1,017 acres of meadows, gardens and public buildings, verdant Golden Gate Park is the largest cultivated urban park in the US. Three miles long and half a mile wide, it has 27mi of footpaths and 7.5mi of equestrian trails, all ..

This 560-acre plot of coast redwoods is one of the last virgin redwood forests in the Bay Area. Muir Woods became a national monument in 1908 after Congressman William Kent donated land to the US government, insisting the park be named for conservati..

Flanking a formal courtyard, these twin structures erected in memory of San Francisco's war dead served for decades as the city's center for the performing arts. The 1932 War Memorial Opera House (301 Van Ness Ave.) was the first city-owned opera hou..

Testament to San Francisco's civic pride, this monumental Beaux-Arts edifice, crowned by a magnificent dome, is considered by many to be San Francisco's most beautiful building. Designed by Arthur Brown, Jr., a graduate of the École des Beaux Arts in..

Sheathed in white travertine marble and visible from miles around the city, San Francisco's third Catholic cathedral (1971) resembles a giant washing-machine agitator. It was designed by Pier Luigi Nervi & Pietro Belluschi, with McSweeney, Ryan & Lee..

This elegant Renaissance and Baroque Revival structure, San Francisco's second-oldest hotel, fronts the entire west side of Union Square. Commissioned by millionaire Charles Crocker, it opened in 1904 as the Hotel St. Francis. After the 1906 fire, th..

Exploring such issues as race, class, gender, history, technology and art itself, the changing exhibitions in this low-slung, modern-istic building (1993, Fumihiko Maki) reflect the cultural diversity and experimental élan of the Bay Area. Designed t..

San Francisco's premier showcase for modern art is housed in a delightful building (1995, Mario Botta) that seems to gaze benignly out over Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Together these insitutions form the creative heart of the district. Botta's d..

One of San Francisco's few Victorian-era residences open to the public, this imposing gray edifice (1886, Peter R. Schmidt) is among the last survivors of the many ornate single-family houses that once filled this eastern Pacific Heights neighborhood..

One of San Francisco's most noteworthy works of architecture, the seven-story office block was designed by Willis Polk (1917) and named for Andrew Hallidie, inventor of the cable car. Because the facade is formed by a modular grid of glass panes hang..

The city's largest building, this 52-story, dark-red behemoth (1971, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) competes with the Transamerica Pyramid for dominance of the skyline. The building contains 2 million square feet of office space. Its distinctive color c..

Many baseball insiders consider San Francisco's major-league stadium to be the finest in the world. Opened in April 2000, it couples the mood of an early-20C urban ballpark, such as Boston's Fenway Park or Chicago's Wrigley Field, with modern ameniti..

Now the Union Bank of California, this exquisite, classically proportioned bank (1907, Bliss & Faville) displays the energy and resources put into rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 fire. A regal, coffered ceiling tops the magnificent banking ha..

In the years since its 1972 completion, this bold pyramid has come to symbolize San Francisco, a role similar to New York City's Empire State Building or Chicago's Sears Tower. Designed by William Pereira to house the headquarters of the Transamerica..

Two angular towers linked by a glass-enclosed "sky bridge" cap this futuristic skyscraper (1987, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill). The building incorporated the facades of earlier historic structures, including the J. Harold Dollar Building (192..