The Palace of Fine Arts

Photo © 1975 by Thomas Gangale

The ephemeral endures.

Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck, was built of wood lathe and paper-mâché as a temprary fantasy for the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, but San Franciscans quickly fell in love with the enchanting structure and would not allow it to be torn down when the fair ended. The Palace deteriorated over the next four decades, until a grant from industrialist Walter Johnson in the late 1950s provided the seed money to rescue it from ruin. The restoration was completed in the early 1960s, although the semicircular building partially surrounding the central dome was rebuilt in a stripped-down version of Maybeck's original. Neverthless, the reconstruction was ten times the cost of the original structure.

The grounds include a central pond surrounded by assorted winding walkways. This romantic setting is frequently reserved for weddings, and is often the backdrop of fashion photography. The interior houses a theater and the Exporatorium, world's first and greatest interactive science museum.