San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
When the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expanded in 2016, it was a mind-boggling feat that nearly tripled the institution's size to accommodate a…
Must-see attractions in Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Hedonism is alive and well at this transit hub turned gourmet emporium, where foodies happily miss their ferries over Sonoma oysters and bubbly, SF craft…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
That upended blue-steel box miraculously balancing on one corner atop the Contemporary Jewish Museum is appropriate for an institution that upends…
Museum of the African Diaspora
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
MoAD assembles an international cast of characters to tell the epic story of diaspora, including a moving video of slave narratives told by Maya Angelou…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Imaginations race from subtle Chinese ink paintings to seductive Hindu temple carvings and from elegant Islamic calligraphy to cutting-edge Japanese…
Diego Rivera's Allegory of California Fresco
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Hidden inside San Francisco's Stock Exchange tower is a priceless treasure: Diego Rivera's 1930–31 Allegory of California fresco. Spanning a two-story…
Transamerica Pyramid & Redwood Park
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
The defining feature of San Francisco's skyline is this 1972 pyramid, built atop a whaling ship abandoned in the gold rush. A half-acre redwood grove…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Urban blight is interrupted by bucolic splendor on one of the Tenderloin's grittiest blocks. Once littered with hypodermic needles and garbage, dead-end…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Like a dandelion pushing through sidewalk cracks, this plucky nonprofit gallery has brought signs of life to one of the Tenderloin's toughest blocks for…
Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
When the rainbow-robed Glide gospel choir enters singing their hearts out, the 2000-plus congregation erupts in cheers, hugs and dance moves. Raucous…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Since 1974, this nonprofit art organization has championed experimental photo-based imagery beyond classic B&W prints and casual digital snapshots. Since…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Rising from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake, this beaux arts landmark echoes with history. Demonstrators protesting red-scare McCarthy hearings on City…
Powell St Cable Car Turnaround
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Peek through the passenger queue at Powell and Market Sts to spot cable-car operators leaping out, gripping the chassis of each trolley and slooowly…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
High-end stores ring Union Sq now, but this people-watching plaza has been a hotbed of protest, from pro-Union Civil War rallies to AIDS vigils. Atop the…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
A true SF survivor, the Palace opened in 1875 but was gutted during the 1906 earthquake. Opera star Enrico Caruso was jolted from his Palace bed by the…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
'Dot-com' was coined in mid-’90s San Francisco, when venture capitalists and tattooed cyberpunks plotted website launches in South Park cafes. But…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Market St's traffic-stopping 1937 Mayan deco landmark was built to accommodate 300 wholesale furniture-design showrooms – but, a decade ago, fewer than 30…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Enter a Golden State of enlightenment at this Californiana treasure trove, featuring themed exhibitions drawn from the museum's million-plus California…
Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company Building
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Recently renovated and gilt to the hilt indoors, this 1925 building made architect Timothy Pflueger’s reputation with its black-marble deco lobby and…
San Francisco Murals at Rincon Annex Post Office
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Only in San Francisco could a post office prove so controversial. This art-deco landmark is lined with vibrant Works Project Administration murals of SF…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
A grand light well illuminates SF's favorite subjects: poetry in the Robert Frost Collection, civil rights in the Hormel LGBTQIA Center, SF music zines in…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
When Timothy Pflueger’s radical design was revealed on Union Sq in 1948, SF society was shocked: San Francisco’s flagship clothing store appeared…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Bet you didn't think anyone could capture Chuck Close's giant portraits, Robert Bechtle's hyper-realistic street scenes or Kiki Smith's painstaking wall…
Ruth Asawa's San Francisco Fountain
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Covered in local landmarks and colorful SF characters – burlesque icon Carol Doda, psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane, protesters declaring themselves…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Gold miners needed somewhere to stash and send cash, so Wells Fargo opened in this location in 1852. Today this storefront museum covers gold rush–era…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Cities are what you make of them, and urban-planning nonprofit SPUR invites you to reimagine San Francisco (and your own hometown) with gallery shows that…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Get back to your creative roots at this arts nonprofit, which hosts curated shows on themes ranging from garden art to calligraphy made with human-hair…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
No velvet ropes or hands-off signs here: kids rule, with high-tech displays double-daring them to make music videos, film claymation movies and construct…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Breathe a sigh of relief: you've found the lush green getaway in the concrete heart of SoMa, between Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Metreon…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Pity the collectors silently nibbling endive in austere Chelsea galleries – at 49 Geary, First Thursday art openings mean unexpected art, popcorn and…
Compton’s Transgender Cultural District
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
The world's first legally recognized transgender district was created to commemorate historical sites and preserve existing non-profits, businesses and…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
A 26-story deco dental building fit for the gods, this 1929 Mayan-revival stone skyscraper has a lobby covered floor to ceiling with cast-bronze snakes…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
This 1904 stone building survived the 1906 earthquake and retains its original character, notwithstanding the Gap flagship downstairs. Upstairs,…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Get in on the ground floor of the next SF art movement at this public showcase for local talent, with past exhibits ranging from Susan O'Malley's silk…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
'If, as they say, God spanked the town/For being over-frisky/Why did He burn His churches down/And spare Hotaling's whiskey?' This saloon-goers' retort…
Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
San Francisco's Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District became official in June of 2018. District boundaries include Howard St (northwest), 7th St (northeast)…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
If there was a time that Salesforce employees could have a night on the town without thinking about work, that time is over. The top nine stories of the…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
The plaza across from the Ferry Building isn't much to look at – the Vaillancourt Fountain has run dry, the walkways sag and the pavers are cracked. But…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
Today upscale Jackson Sq is framed by Washington, Columbus, Pacific and Sansome Sts – but before the gold rush filled in the area with abandoned ships,…
Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa
San Francisco's infamous, secretive men's club was originally founded by bonafide bohemians – but they couldn't afford the upkeep and allowed the ultra…
