Experience San Francisco's six-best architectural gems

15.11.2023 - 15:35 / bbc.com / Art Deco

San Francisco has always been synonymous with creativity. From the Beat movement of the 1950s to the boho period that birthed hippie culture in the 1960s, this hilly city situated at the tip of a peninsula along the Northern California coast is nothing if not progressive – and that creative spirit extends to its rich architectural heritage. 

Beyond the iconic beams of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco offers a treasure trove of eclectic architectural styles that reveal the city's many transformations from a far-flung frontier town to a cosmopolitan hub. In leafy neighbourhoods, Victorian rowhouses made from local redwood timber give way to Art Deco buildings epitomising 1920s opulence in San Francisco's downtown core. In recent decades, the city has also provided a canvas for the kind of cutting-edge design ushered in by the Silicon Valley boom.

"San Francisco is a different kind of city," said Mark Cavagenero, a renowned San Francisco architect who has designed a variety of cultural, commercial and civic projects around the city. "It's always been something of a dreamer's city – a visionary's city – and the buildings that I like are the ones that have these aspirations latent in them." 

Here, he shares with us his favourite architecture gems across San Francisco, and the best ways for you to experience them.

1. The Palace Hotel (Downtown)

"I enjoy visiting older buildings like [The Palace Hotel] as much as San Francisco's newer buildings, because they're just really beautifully put together," said Cavagnero. "We've always been a really proud and sophisticated city, and so they're really well-maintained." 

Take the Palace Hotel, a landmark property just off of downtown's Market Street that first opened in 1875, and then was rebuilt following San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire. Today, the hotel has been restored to its opulent 1920s splendour. 

"Go into its Garden Court," Cavagnero suggested, "and enjoy lunch or a cocktail beneath its glass skylight," a dome of antique stained-glass panels that are framed in steel. "I especially like being there from late afternoon into the early evening, when you can watch the light of the sky as it changes colours above you. Some evenings they also have live music." 

Website: www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sfolc-palace-hotel-a-luxury-collection-hotel-san-francisco/overview/
Address: 2 New Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: +1 415 512 1111
Instagram: @palacehotelsf

2. Salesforce Park (SoMA)

Part of downtown's Salesforce Transit Center and right next to Salesforce Tower, San Francisco's towering new 61-storey-tall Salesforce Park is a natural oasis smack-dab in the middle of an urban centre.

"It's a beautiful, elevated park