Local gems in San Francisco

555 California Street

San Francisco

This 52-story tower in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River from its completion in 1969 until 1972. Designed in a sober postwar modernist style with brutalist undertones, it served for decades as the global headquarters of Bank of America — until the 1998 merger with NationsBank moved operations to Charlotte. Today the building is co-owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization. Its distinctive dark polished-granite facade continues to define the skyline of the banking district.

Asian Art Museum San Francisco

San Francisco

The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is one of the world's most significant museums dedicated to Asian art. It opened in 1966 after patron Avery Brundage donated his extensive collection of East Asian objects to the city. Today the collection spans over 17,000 objects from cultures ranging from Japan, China and India to Persia and South-East Asia. Since 2003 the museum has occupied the former main library building in the Civic Center. Notably, Brundage continued donating over many years, building a collection that remains unrivalled in scope.

Basilica of St. Joseph

San Francisco

The Basilica of St. Joseph in Alameda, California, is a Roman Catholic church in the Spanish Mission style dating from the 1920s. The parish traces its roots to 1885, when it was established as a mission church from St. Anthony's in Oakland. The current building features the hallmarks of the Mission Revival style — white stucco walls, red tile roof, and scrolled gables. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. As a minor basilica in the Diocese of Oakland, it is a notable religious landmark in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Benicia–Martinez Bridge

San Francisco

The Benicia–Martinez Bridge refers to three parallel spans crossing the Carquinez Strait west of Suisun Bay in California's San Francisco Bay Area, linking Benicia to the north with Martinez to the south. The oldest is a 1930 vertical-lift railroad drawbridge still in active use by Union Pacific and BNSF freight trains. A 1962 truss bridge, officially named after California legislator George Miller Jr., carries southbound Interstate 680 traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians. A 2007 segmental bridge, named for U.S. Congressman George Miller III, handles northbound I-680 traffic. Together, the three spans represent a fascinating cross-section of bridge engineering across nearly a century.

California Memorial Stadium

San Francisco

California State Route 4

San Francisco

California State Route 4 runs roughly 317 kilometers east to west from the San Francisco Bay Area near Hercules to Ebbetts Pass in the Sierra Nevada. The route passes through the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta — a popular boating and fishing area — before climbing through the Sierra foothills and up into the mountains. The section crossing Ebbetts Pass carries the designation of a National Scenic Byway, known as the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway. During summer months, this mountain stretch draws motorcyclists and road trip travelers seeking dramatic alpine scenery.

California State Route 49

San Francisco

California State Route 49 — known as the Golden Chain Highway — runs approximately 475 kilometres through the historic mining communities of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The route travels from Oakhurst in the south to Vinton in the north, crossing eleven counties and passing through towns like Auburn, Placerville, and Grass Valley. Lobbied for by the Mother Lode Highway Association from 1919, the route number commemorates the forty-niners of the 1849 Gold Rush. Well-preserved mining districts and small towns line the highway, where the atmosphere of the Gold Rush era remains tangible — a classic road trip through one of the most formative chapters of American history.

Central Plaza San Francisco

San Francisco

Central Plaza is a 23-storey office skyscraper in San Francisco's Financial District, completed in 1987. The building rises nearly 97 metres at the corner of Market and First Streets, one of the busiest intersections in the city. Architecturally it belongs to the postmodern office-tower wave of the 1980s, with a cleanly articulated glass facade. It sits directly above several BART and Muni access points.

Chase Center

San Francisco

Chase Center is the home arena of the Golden State Warriors, located in the Mission Bay neighbourhood of San Francisco. Opened in 2019, the multi-purpose arena holds around 18,000 spectators and was entirely privately funded — without public money. It sits on an 11-acre campus that also includes office space, restaurants and public plazas. In addition to basketball, it regularly hosts concerts and major events. It is considered one of the most modern sports venues in the United States.

City Lights Booksellers

San Francisco

City Lights in San Francisco is a legend among independent bookshops. Founded in 1953 by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, it became the epicentre of the Beat Generation. Its defining moment came when Ferlinghetti published Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems – provoking an obscenity trial that ended in acquittal and a place in literary history. Designated an official historic landmark in 2001, City Lights today combines a bookshop, a small press, and a living cultural archive.

Contemporary Jewish Museum

San Francisco

The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting art museum in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, founded in 1984 and opened at its current location in 2008. The building is architecturally notable: it is the historic Jessie Street Substation from the early 20th century, whose interior was completely redesigned by Daniel Libeskind. Libeskind added a striking deconstructivist steel structure whose form references the Hebrew letter Chet. The museum makes Jewish cultural life accessible to broad audiences through temporary exhibitions and educational programs, welcoming visitors of all backgrounds.

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

San Francisco

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park is a rural cemetery established in 1892 in Colma, California — a small city in San Mateo County proverbially known as the City of the Silent because the dead vastly outnumber the living. Founded by Hamden Holmes Noble, it follows the English landscape garden style promoted in the 19th century as a dignified alternative to overcrowded urban cemeteries. Buried here are numerous notable San Francisco figures, including William Randolph Hearst and Levi Strauss. The cemetery stands as a testament to the late 19th-century burial reform movement and to the history of San Francisco.

Dragon Gate

San Francisco

East Palo Alto City Hall

San Francisco

East Palo Alto City Hall is the administrative centre of this small city in San Mateo County, California. Sitting directly adjacent to wealthy Palo Alto and the Stanford campus, East Palo Alto has historically been shaped by economic and social disadvantage. The city, which only became independent in 1983, has a complex legacy: in the early 1990s it briefly had one of the highest homicide rates in the United States, but has since undergone significant development. The city hall symbolises the independent municipal path of a community in the middle of Silicon Valley.

Golden Gate Park

San Francisco

InterContinental San Francisco

San Francisco

The InterContinental San Francisco is a 32-story high-rise hotel in the city's SoMa district, opened in 2008. With 550 rooms, a height of over 103 meters, and direct adjacency to the Moscone West Convention Center, it is a premier address for business travelers and conference attendees. The hotel sits centrally in one of San Francisco's most dynamic neighborhoods – between tech offices, galleries, and Yerba Buena Gardens. A two-level underground garage and a six-floor podium housing hotel amenities complete the complex.

Francisco Park

San Francisco

Holly Park

San Francisco

Holly Park is a small, unhurried neighbourhood park in San Francisco's Bernal Heights district – a green hillside spot far more popular with locals than with visitors. The park offers open views of the city skyline, the bay and, on clear days, the Bay Bridge. The grounds are simple: grass, winding paths and mature trees that attract dog walkers, joggers and families. Those who have moved beyond the standard tourist circuit appreciate it for its blend of genuine neighbourhood character and surprisingly far-reaching views.

Pioneer Park

San Francisco

San Francisco Veterans Memorial

San Francisco

Verdi

San Francisco

William McKinley Memorial

San Francisco

Eureka Valley / Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library

San Francisco