San Francisco packs America's second-largest modern art museum, a symphony hall and opera house on one civic plaza, and 600-plus outdoor murals into 49 square miles. Three days trace it from Rivera's frescoes to Mission Latino street art.
Snøhetta's 2016 expansion added 10 storeys of rippling white fibreglass to Mario Botta's 1995 brick original, making this the largest modern art museum in the US. The Fisher Collection anchors it: Kelly, Richter, Calder. Open 10:00–17:00, closed Wednesdays.
Rivera painted this 1931 fresco at 800 Chestnut Street showing himself, back turned, painting a worker — a mural about mural-making. The Institute closed in 2022 but the landmarked fresco reopens for scheduled public viewings; check current access before climbing Russian Hill.
Bernard Maybeck's 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition rotunda was built in plaster meant to crumble; San Franciscans loved it so much it was recast in concrete in the 1960s. The weeping-women colonnade and lagoon are open around the clock, no ticket.
The 1933 art deco column's ground floor holds 27 New Deal frescoes by 26 artists depicting Depression-era California labour — so politically charged the opening was delayed. Murals free; lift to the top costs extra. Open until 17:00 (18:00 summer).
Gae Aulenti converted the 1917 Beaux-Arts main library into a home for 18,000 objects spanning 6,000 years, including the oldest dated Chinese Buddha image in the world (AD 338). Open 10:00–17:00, Thursdays until 20:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Arthur Brown Jr's 1932 Beaux-Arts house seats 3,128 and hosted the signing of the UN Charter in 1945. It faces City Hall's gilded dome across a symmetrical plaza; the SF Ballet, the oldest in America, performs here.
The 1980 glass-fronted hall holds the San Francisco Symphony and the 9,235-pipe Ruffatti organ. Acoustic panels were rebuilt in 1992 after criticism. Tours run Mondays; matinees and open rehearsals suit an afternoon visit.
Timothy Pflueger's 1922 movie palace seats 1,400 under a plaster ceiling cast to imitate a tent's interior. A Wurlitzer organ rises before screenings and the audience sings along to the closing bars — a ritual for a century of sing-alongs and festivals.
One block off 24th Street, Balmy Alley has been continuously painted since 1972 — Central American solidarity murals from the 1980s layered under newer work on gentrification. Precita Eyes runs guided walks from its 24th Street centre.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 1953 shop published Ginsberg's 'Howl' and won the 1957 obscenity trial that reshaped US free-speech law. Three floors, the Poetry Room upstairs, open daily to 22:00. Jack Kerouac Alley runs alongside to Vesuvio Cafe.
Housed in Julia Morgan's 1932 Chinatown YWCA on Clay Street, the museum tells the story of Chinese America through the Exclusion Act era and the 1906 fire. Open Thursday to Sunday; the building alone justifies the visit.
The Harlem of the West once ran dozens of clubs along Fillmore Street. Sheba Piano Lounge and the Boom Boom Room keep live sets going nightly, and 22 sidewalk photo panels mark the vanished venues between Geary and Fulton.