8 Best Sights in San Francisco, California

This stunning, rosy rococo palace on a lagoon seems to be from another world—it's the sole survivor of the many tinted-plaster structures (a temporary neoclassical city of sorts) built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the world's fair that celebrated San Francisco's recovery from the 1906 earthquake and fire. The expo buildings originally extended about a mile along the shore. Bernard Maybeck designed this faux-Roman classic beauty, which was reconstructed in concrete and reopened in 1967.

The pseudo-Latin language adorning the Palace's exterior urns continues to stump scholars. The massive columns (each topped with four "weeping maidens"), great rotunda, and swan-filled lagoon have been used in countless fashion layouts, films, and wedding photo shoots. Other than its use for major events and exhibitions inside the building, it's really an outdoor architecture attraction that's perfect for an hour of strolling and relaxing. After admiring the lagoon, look across the street to the house at 3460 Baker Street. If the statues out front look familiar, they should—they're original casts of the "garland ladies" you can see in the Palace's colonnade.

It's neither owned by Transamerica nor, to some building experts, is it even a pyramid, but this 48-floor, 853-foot-tall pyramid-obelisk is the most photographed of the city's high-rises. Excoriated in the design stages as "the world's largest architectural folly," the icon was quickly hailed as a masterpiece when it opened in 1972. Today it's probably the city's most recognized structure after the Golden Gate Bridge, and it's the second-tallest in the city after the Salesforce Tower. You can't go up the pyramid (apparently there is now a bar on the 48th floor), but the best views and photo-ops are of the building itself anyway. After the real estate developer SHVO purchased the building in 2020, the legendary skyscraper architect Norman Foster led a renovation of the pyramid that was completed in 2024 (and unveiled with a new official name, the Transamerica Pyramid Center). Most of the building is still for private offices, but the public can visit a lobby coffee shop, a ground floor art gallery, and Café Sebastian located just steps from the building but still within the one-block large complex.  A fragrant redwood grove along the east side of the building, with benches and a rotating outdoor art exhibit, is a placid downtown oasis in which to unwind.

At the official entrance to Chinatown, stone lions flank the base of the pagoda-topped gate; the lions, dragons, and fish up top symbolize wealth, prosperity, and other good things. The four Chinese characters immediately beneath the pagoda represent the philosophy of Sun Yat-sen, the leader who unified China in the early 20th century. Sun Yat-sen, who lived in exile in San Francisco for a few years, promoted the notion of friendship and peace among all nations based on equality, justice, and goodwill. The vertical characters under the left pagoda read "peace" and "trust," the ones under the right pagoda "respect" and "love." The whole shebang telegraphs the internationally understood message of "photo op." Immediately beyond the gate, dive into souvenir shopping on Grant Avenue, Chinatown's tourist strip.

The street, which bisects the city at an angle, has consistently challenged San Francisco's architects. One of the most intriguing responses sits diagonally across Market Street from the Palace Hotel: the tower of the Hobart Building (No. 582) combines a flat facade and oval sides and is considered one of Willis Polk's best works. East on Market Street is Charles Havens's triangular Flatiron Building (Nos. 540–548), another classic solution. At Bush Street, the Mechanics Monument, in recognition of the Donahue brothers who industrialized the city, holds its own against the skyscrapers that tower over the intersection. This homage to waterfront mechanics, which survived the 1906 earthquake (a famous photograph shows Market Street in ruins around the sculpture), was designed by Douglas Tilden, a noted California sculptor. The plaque in the sidewalk next to the monument marks the spot as the location of the San Francisco Bay shoreline in 1848. Telltale nautical details, such as anchors, ropes, and shells, adorn the gracefully detailed Matson Building (No. 215), built in the 1920s for the shipping line Matson Navigation.

It's pretty atypical for an apartment building to be featured as an actual tourist sight—but, then again, very few buildings are as notable, in terms of modern architecture, as the emerging East Cut neighborhood's MIRA, opened in 2020 and designed by the innovative Studio Gang. The 40 stories of its exterior seem to wrap around each other with a mix of waves and curves, like a giant twist tie. It's fascinating to see and almost seems like a visual allusion. Meanwhile at ground level on Folsom Street, there is a notable wine bar (Mili) and coffee shop (Saint Frank) at the base of the building.

Erected by Freemasons in 1957, the hall is familiar to locals mostly as a concert and lecture venue, where such notables as Van Morrison and Trevor Noah have appeared. But you don't need a ticket to check out the outdoor war memorial or artist Emile Norman's impressive lobby mosaic. Mainly in rich greens and yellows, it depicts the Masons' role in California history.

The former home of silver baron James Clair Flood cost a whopping $1.5 million in 1886, when even a stylish Victorian like the Haas-Lilienthal House cost less than $20,000. All that cash did buy some structural stability—the Flood residence (to be precise, its shell) was the only Nob Hill mansion to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire. The Pacific-Union Club, a bastion of the wealthy and powerful, purchased the house in 1907 and commissioned Willis Polk to redesign it; the architect added the semicircular wings and third floor. The ornate fence design dates from the mansion's construction. It is now a members-only private social club.

A striking triangular shape and a gorgeous green patina make this 1907 flatiron building unmissable, and the Financial District's skyscrapers make a great backdrop for it. In the 1970s filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola bought the building to use for his production company. The ground floor houses Coppola's swanky wine bar, Café Zoetrope.