The Palace of Fine Arts is the only surviving structure from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the world’s fair that announced San Francisco’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake. Architect Bernard Maybeck designed it as a Roman ruin, a domed rotunda and colonnade reflected in a lagoon, meant to evoke the passage of time.
It was built of temporary materials and was supposed to be torn down, but the city kept it. By the 1960s it had crumbled and was rebuilt in permanent concrete. The lagoon draws swans and turtles. The grounds are free and open at all hours.
Part of a self-guided walking tour
