: destination san francisco

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At Market and California, in front of Bliss & Faville’s 1916 monumental Southern Pacific Building (1 Market), catch the California St. cable car for a steep, rolling view of architectural beauties. Stand out on the platform to get the best view. On the north side of the street, watch for Crim and Scott’s 1909 Tadich Grill (240 California); Bliss & Faville’s 1907 Bank of California (400 California), a classic Greco-Roman structure with a Corinthian colonnade; and Percy & Polk’s 1904 Kohl Building (400 Montgomery), with its wonderful articulated top. Get off at Stockton St. for coffee and a croissant at the elegant Ritz Carlton (600 Stockton) in the former Metropolitan Life Building, designed in 1909 by Lebrun and Sons.

Walk back down the south side of California St., where you will find Anshen & Allen’s 1960 International Building (601 California); Wurster, Bernardi, Emmons/ SOM’s 1968 Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California); Willis Polk’s 1913 Insurance Exchange (433 California); D.H. Burnham & Co.’s 1903 Merchants Exchange (465 California); and the Dollar Building (301-333 California), designed in 1919 by Charles McCall. At Sansome, walk one block north to the old Federal Reserve Building (400 Sansome), the 1924 creation of George Kelham. The law offices boast beautiful lobby murals by Jules Guerin.

Other points of interest are the Pacific Stock Exchange (301 Pine), designed in 1915 by J. Milton Dyer and remodeled in 1930 by Miller & Pflueger; the former Standard Oil Building (225 Bush), designed in 1922 by George Kelham; Hertzka & Knowles/SOM’s 1959 Crown Zellerbach Building (1 Bush), San Francisco's first glass-walled tower; MacDonald & Applegarth’s1910 Heineman Building (130 Bush); and George Kelham’s 1929 Shell Building (100 Bush). End at one of the city's best-loved sculptures, Douglas Tilden’s 1894 Mechanic's Monument.

Walk west to Sutter Street. Note Havens & Toepke’s 1913 Flatiron Building (540-80 Market), the Romanesque revival arch of Schaltze and Weaver’s 1926 Hunter-Dulin Building (111 Sutter), and the unique glass curtain wall on the Hallidie Building (130-50 Sutter), designed in 1917 by Willis Polk.

At the former Crocker Bank Building (1 Montgomery), designed in 1908 by Willis Polk, visit the roof garden designed in 1983 by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. At Belden and Bush is the venerable Sam's Grill (415-421-0594), a longtime favorite for seafood. Tiny Belden St. is lined with restaurants that have sidewalk seating during the warm months.

After lunch, walk west on Bush St. to Louis Brouchoud’s 1913 Notre Dame des Victoires (564 Bush), the historic center of San Francisco's French colony. Heading back to Market, notice the 1908 Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building (333 Grant) by Ernest Coxhead, and Albert Pissis’ 1908 White House (255 Sutter), once a department store. Off Grant in Maiden Lane see Frank Lloyd Wright's 1949 Circle Gallery (140 Maiden Lane) with its interior spiral, a convention Wright later utilized in New York's Guggenheim Museum.

In elegant Union Square, stop for a drink at the Compass Rose in Bliss & Faville’s 1904 St. Francis Hotel (301 Powell), and don't miss the stained glass rotunda at Neiman Marcus, all that’s left of the City of Paris department store that once stood on the site, its demolition the occasion of a major preservation battle.