Asian Art Museum: Best For Asian Culture
The most comprehensive collection of Asian art outside Asia covers 6000 years of history and thousands of miles of terrain. A trip through the galleries is a treasure-hunting expedition, from cutting-edge Japanese minimalism and seductive Hindu temple carvings to a jewel-box gallery of lustrous Chinese jade just dont bump into those priceless Ming vases!
The museums’ displays follow the evolution and migration of Asian art from West to East, along with Buddhist pilgrimage trails and trade routes toward San Francisco. If youre tight on time, follow the mapped trail of masterworks parents can pick up Explorer Cards for kids to find favorite animals and characters in the galleries.
De Young Museum: Best For Globe
The de Youngs camouflaged, oxidized green exterior barely hints at the fantastic range of artistic wonders within. Exhibitions here boldly broaden artistic horizons, from ceremonial masks from Oceania and trippy hippie handmade fashions to James Turrells domed Skyspace installation, built into a hill in the sculpture garden.
Featuring African masks and Turkish kilims alongside California crafts and avant-garde American art, this cross-cultural collection has been expanding minds for a century. Rotating main-floor installations are riveting and diverse, from early Inuit carvings to documentary photography from US prisons. Access to the Osher Sculpture Garden is free, as is the 144ft observation tower with its 360-degree viewing room.
New York Times Building
Piano’s design for the was chosen after competition whose entrants included projects by , and . The competition rules asked for a building that be as open and transparent as possible, to symbolize the connection between the newspaper and the city. The first six floors are occupied by an atrium with restaurants, shops and a conference center. The distinctive Piano feature of the tower is the clear glass curtain wall outside the facade, and rising higher than the facade itself. The curtain is composed of clear glass and a frame of ceramic tubes suspended 61 centimeters from the facade it serves as a sunscreen, eliminating the need for tinted or glass.
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High Museum Of Art Extension
The original building of the in , designed by , and inspired by the form of the in New York City of , opened in 1983. Piano’s project added four new structures a pavilion for exhibitions, a gallery for special collections, a building for offices, and a residence hall for the Atlanta College Of Art, creating 16,000 meters of additional space. Both the new building and the original building are a gleaming white. A glass bridge with two levels connects the main pavilion with the original part of the museum. The careful management of external light is a particular feature of Piano’s buildings the High Museum Extension rows of curving fan-shaped panels on the facade and on the interior ceiling with filter the sunlight. From the parvis on the outside, the white facade gives the impression that the building has no weight at all.
Exploratorium: Best For Kids
Is there a science to skateboarding? Do toilets really flush counterclockwise in Australia? Combining science with art, San Franciscos dazzling hands-on Exploratorium challenges you to question how you know what you know. As thrilling as the exhibits is the setting: a 9-acre, glass-walled pier jutting out over San Francisco Bay, with vast outdoor areas you can explore for free.
The 600-plus exhibits have buttons to push, handles to crank and dials to adjust, all made by artists and scientists at the museums’ in-house workshops. With such fun activities as trying out a punk hairdo, courtesy of the static-electricity station, its one museum children wont want to leave.
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More Free Things To Do In San Francisco
In addition to these free museum admission days, here are a few other free things to check out during your stay in San Francisco.
Lombard Street: Have you heard about San Francisco’s famous crooked street? It’s called Lombard Street and it’s a fun place to check out during your visit. You can either walk or drive down this famous street with eight hairpin turns. For those walking, you will find a set of stairs on both sides where you can watch others as they try to maneuver around each turn. Learn more here.
Painted Ladies of Alamo Square: Another fun thing to do in San Francisco is to check out the famous Painted Ladies of Alamo Square. You will find them next to Alamo Square Park. They are six identical historic Victorians with a wonderful view of downtown SF behind them. Learn more about visiting here.
Street Art: One of the cool things about SF is that you will find street art all around town. My guide offers you details on where to find the best pieces and which neighborhoods have the largest concentration. Learn more here.
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Aurora Place Sydney Australia
in Sydney, Australia is composed of two towers, an eighteen-story residential building next to a forty-one story office building with different facades but similar metal and glass sunscreens on the roofs. The lower tower was an early example of the luxury high-rise residential buildings by star architects in the center large cities which became very popular in the early 21st century. The office tower has a discreetly peculiar form the east façade bulges out slightly from its base, reaching its maximum width at the top floors. The curved and twisted shape of east the façade echoes that of the Sydney Opera House on the harbor. The exterior glass curtain-wall extends beyond the main frame, creating an illusion that the wall is independent of the building. of its Glass shutters on the exterior can be opened for ventilation, and Piano designed an exterior skin combining glass and ceramics to regulate the intensity of the sunlight. The office building has interior winter gardens on each floor, and earth-colored ceramic tiles give a dash of color to the facade.
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Whitney Museum Of American Art New York City
The decided to move from its original building on Madison Avenue, constructed by in 1966, to a new location at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington in Manhatttan, a neighborhood once occupied by meat packing houses, next to the , a riverside highway and park. The museum, with nine levels, has an asymmetric industrial look to match the architecture of the neighborhood. In addition to its interior galleries, it has 1207 square meters of open-air exhibit space on a large terrace atop one section of the building. It was built of steel, concrete, and stone, but also with pine wood and other materials recycled from demolished factories. Jule Iovine, architecture critic of the Wall Street Journal, called it “a welcoming, creative machine” thanks to its “open, changeable spaces,” and Michael Kimmelman, critic of the New York Times, called it “an outdoor perch to see and be seen… There’s a generosity to the architecture, a sense of art connecting with the city and vice versa”.
San Francisco Science Museum Green Roof
This San Francisco science museum is amazing, and their living roof is another example of how this museum is unique. It not only keeps the Academy green it also provides a habitat for local wildlife.
The San Francisco science museum’s green roof is 2.3 acres large. It’s home to more than 1.7 million plants. The living roof offers insulation to the museum which reduces electrical costs, it collects excess storm water, and creates more oxygen by transforming carbon dioxide.
You can get a great view of this part of the museum from a small lookout platform on the top of the building.
Insider’s Secret: You can also get a full view of the California Academy of Science’s living roof in the tower at the de Young Museum, which is right across the street. The tower is free to visit and is open during the de Young Museum hours.
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Legion Of Honor: Best For Museum
A museum as eccentric and illuminating as San Francisco itself, the Legion of Honour showcases a wildly eclectic collection spanning Monet’s water lilies and John Cage soundscapes, ancient Iraqi ivories and the counterculture comics of Robert Crumb. Upstairs are blockbuster shows of work from old masters and Impressionists, but dont miss the Legions Achenbach Foundation of Graphic Arts collection, which covers 90,000 works on paper, from drawings by Rembrandt to the graphic designs of Ed Ruscha.
The Legions setting rivals its art. There are dazzling views of the Pacific and trails lead to the Lands End Lookout with its arresting views of the Golden Gate. On a warm day, stroll on to the ruined Sutro Baths below the lookout, once San Francisco’s most stylish bathing area.
Early Life And First Buildings
Piano was born and raised in , Italy, into a family of builders. His grandfather had created a masonry enterprise, which had been expanded by his father, Carlo Piano, and his father’s three brothers, into the firm Fratelli Piano. The firm prospered after World War II, constructing houses and factories and selling construction materials. When his father retired, the enterprise was led by Renzo’s older brother, Ermanno, who studied engineering at the University of Genoa. Renzo studied architecture at the . He graduated in 1964 with a about modular coordination supervised by and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters.
Piano taught at the Polytechnic University from 1965 until 1968, and expanded his horizons and technical skills by working in two large international firms, for the modernist architect in Philadelphia and for the Polish engineer Zygmunt Stanisaw Makowski in London. He completed his first building, the IPE factory in Genoa, in 1968, with a roof of steel and reinforced polyester, and created a continuous membrane for the covering of a pavilion at the Milan Triennale in the same year. In 1970, he received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for in , Japan. He collaborated with his brother Ermanno and the family firm, which manufactured the structure. It was lightweight and original composed of steel and reinforced polyester, and it appeared to be simultaneously artistic and industrial.
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Astrup Fearnley Museum Of Modern Art Oslo Norway
The in , Norway was designed to revive an old port and industrial area southwest of the center of Oslo with an art museum and offices, and to provide a destination and attraction on the edge of the picturesque fjord. The project has three buildings, two museum buildings and an office building, under a single glass roof, which covers 6000 square meters. The construction materials include both steel and wood beams. A canal and walkway connect the museum with another area under development nearby, while the museum and walkway offer views of the fjord and center of Oslo. A sculpture park with works of , and other notable sculptors is placed between the museum and the water. The museum building on one side of the canal holds permanent exhibits, while the building on the other side is used for temporary exhibits. A bridge over the canal the two museum buildings. The construction materials include steel, glass and wooden beams, while the facades that are not made of glass are covered with finely-crafted weathered panels, in the tradition of Scandinavian architecture.
Getting To The California Academy Of Sciences
The San Francisco Science Museum is located on the eastern side of Golden Gate Park. There are several options that will get you to here including public transportation and driving.
If you are taking public transportation, your best options are the N-Judah or 5-Fulton. Both drop you off just a few blocks from the museum entrance.
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National Aids Memorial Grove
In the decades following the first reports of in the United States in 1981, Americans were overwhelmed with the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. In 1988 a few San Francisco residents belonging to communities hit hard by the AIDS epidemic envisioned a place of remembrance for those who had lost their lives to AIDS. They imagined a serene AIDS memorial where people could go to heal. Renovation for the began in September 1991 and continues today as communities are constantly working to improve it. Located at 856 Stanyan Street, in the eastern portion of Golden Gate Park, the Grove stretches across seven acres of land. In 1996, due to Nancy efforts, the “National AIDS Memorial Grove Act” was passed by Congress and the President of the United States, , which officially made those seven acres of Golden Gate Park the first AIDS memorial in the United States. Then in 1999, it earned the Rudy Bruner Silver Medal for excellence in the urban environment.
On November 30 an annual Light in the Grove fundraising gala is held in the Grove. This event, held on the eve of Worlds Aids Day, sells out each year and was voted “Best Bay Area LGBT Fundraiser” by Bay Area Reporter readers in 2015.
The History Of The Academy Of Sciences
The makings of this natural history playground started in 1853 where it first served as an original research center. Since the state of California had joined the United States only three years previous, the Academy was deemed the first association of its kind to prosper within the western part of the U.S. At first, the society, which aimed to collect an assortment of common and unusual items about the region, was called the California Academy of Natural Sciences, and later renamed the California Academy of Sciences in 1868.
Throughout the years, the Academy has been attached to many great firsts, such as leading the way in providing advanced positions within the science world for women, who were typically limited to taking cataloging and filing jobs. The Academy began to branch out from research and constructed the first official museum in 1874, positioning their building on the corner of California and Dupont Streets. Each year, about 80,000 visitors journeyed to the site.
During the post-World War II era, the Academy underwent additional changes and received the Science Hall in 1951, followed by a gateway to the stars with the Morrison Planetarium in 1952. The Eastwood Hall of Botany was added in 1959, which preceded the rapid growth of numerous specimen collections, regarding subjects such as molecular biology. More buildings were added throughout the 60s and 70s, including new galleries.
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Centro De Arte Botn Santander Spain
The in is a private sponsored project by the Fundación Botín whose aim is to be a hub for the promotion of culture both as a museum and as study centre. It consists on two buildings standing on columns over the sea line at the Bay of Santander. The western building hosts the exhibition space of 5,000 square meters and the eastern is the one dedicated to study which hosts an auditorium, study rooms and other installations. Both are connected by a suspended square and set of stairs and platforms named “pachinko”. This was Piano’s first project in Spain and had some controversy over its location. Critics describe the building as sublime and striking due to the conjunction of light, views and design that the buildings propose.
Free Museum Admission Days In San Francisco 2022
Many San Francisco museums offer free admission to their facilities at least once a month. During these days, you gain access to each museum’s permanent exhibits. Most of the monthly free admission days are on the first Sunday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of the month.
While some museums offer a free day every month, a handful of them offer free days just four to five times a year. These include the California Academy of Sciences and the Exploratorium.
For many of these free days, you are currently required to book your tickets in advance online before you arrive. This helps them manage their capacity.
Here is the general pattern of free days for each SF museum, in alphabetical order. You can also scroll down for a list of dates for each museum by month.
> > More free ideas for December
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How Much Does It Cost To Park
Parking on the street is free.
The following are the rates to park in the garage:
- $5.25 an hour on weekdays
- $6.25 an hour on weekends
- $17 for a full day
The garage opens at 7 a.m. daily and closes at 7 p.m. Friday – Wednesday. It’s open until 11 p.m. on Thursday, which is when the Nightlife event takes place.
Note: The California Academy of Sciences does not own this lot, so if you have any complaints take note of the information on the signs within the garage.
What Is The Dress Code For Their Nightlife Event
There is no strict dress code for the California Academy of Science’s Nightlife event. You will find most people in nice jeans and a dress shirt. You will also find many people in business casual dress including dresses or nice pants.
It is chilly on this side of San Francisco most of the year, so bring along a jacket or a light sweater for the event. You will need it as you enter and leave.
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How Long Should I Plan For My Visit
A visit to the California Academy of Sciences can last anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. I recommend setting aside a minimum of 2 to 3 hours for your visit.
It includes 4 “museums” under one roof, so you really will get a full day of fun here. When I say “museums,” it just means four different exhibit themes. They are all large and could be museums on their own, so they often promote them as if it’s four museums in one.
You might spend an hour just in the Steinhart Aquarium. You might spend another hour in the Kimball Natural History Museum. The rainforest usually has a line and it might take you 10 to 15 minutes of waiting and then about 20 or more minutes to explore.
Your time there will also depend on the timing of your tickets for the Morrison Planetarium. The tickets are set for a specific time, so the earlier you reserve them in advance, the more choices you will have on your visit here.
If you have enough time, you could spend your entire day inside this San Francisco science museum.
