The Palace of Fine Arts was designed by architect Bernard Maybeck for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, the world's fair that celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and the city's recovery from the 1906 earthquake. Almost every other building from the fair was pulled down afterwards. This one was kept because San Franciscans did not want to lose it.
What you see
A domed rotunda stands at the edge of a lagoon, flanked by curving colonnades. Look up at the figures on top of the columns: they are weeping women, facing inwards, one of Maybeck's touches of melancholy. The original was built of plaster and wood and slowly crumbled; it was rebuilt in concrete in the 1960s, and restored again since.
When to go
Early morning is quiet and calm, with clean reflections in the lagoon. Late afternoon has warm light and wedding photographers. It is open to walk around at any reasonable hour and costs nothing.
What is nearby
The Palace sits at the western edge of the Marina district. Walk north to Crissy Field and the bayside path towards the Golden Gate Bridge, or west into the Presidio, where the Walt Disney Family Museum is a short walk away.
The 1915 exposition
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition filled more than six hundred acres of reclaimed marshland in what is now the Marina district. It celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and showed the world that San Francisco had rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Nineteen million visitors came to its palaces of industry, agriculture and machinery, its towers, gardens and amusement zone. Nearly all of it was built to last only a year.
The Palace of Fine Arts housed the exposition's paintings and sculpture. Maybeck designed it as an imagined Roman ruin, deliberately melancholy, meant to be seen across the water. When the fair closed, a preservation society formed to save it.
Rebuilding the palace
By the 1950s the original plaster and timber structure was crumbling and closed. A local philanthropist, Walter Johnson, and the city funded its reconstruction: the palace was taken down and rebuilt in steel-reinforced concrete, faithfully recreating the original, and finished in the late 1960s. A later seismic retrofit and restoration renewed the rotunda and colonnades again.
Details to look for
- The weeping women on top of the colonnades, facing inward into flower boxes that were never planted.
- The rotunda's dome, decorated inside with figures representing art and its opponents.
- The swans, ducks and turtles of the lagoon.
- The exhibition hall behind the colonnade, which once housed the Exploratorium and now hosts events.
Frequently asked questions
Can you go inside?
The rotunda and colonnades are open-air and free to walk through. The hall behind them opens for events.
How long should I spend there?
About half an hour, more if you bring a picnic to the lawns by the lagoon.
How do I get there?
Several city buses run to the Marina nearby. It combines naturally with a walk to Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge.