Page 689 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

SAN FR ANCISC O  687

50,000 sq ft (4,600 sq m) of
gallery space, and it offers a
dynamic schedule of changing
exhibits from around the world.
The galleries display
paintings, sculptures, archi-
tecture, design, photography,
and media art, and include
art of the Bay Area and
California. Among the high-
lights are works by Dalí,
Matisse, and Picasso; Diego
Rivera’s mural The Flower
Carrier, a powerful irony on
Esplanade Gardens in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts the human cost of luxury,
painted in oil and tempera
sprung up. The center is 4 San Francisco on Masonite in 1935; and
situated at the heart of SoMa Museum of Richard Shaw’s sculpted figure
(South of Market), an area that Modern Art Melodius Double Stop (1980)
has become the city’s “artists’ in the California Art section.
quarter,” with its warehouses- Map F3. 151 Third St. Tel (415) 357-
turned-studios, bars, and avant- 4000. @ 5, 9, 12, 14, 15, 30, 38, 45.
garde theaters. The Esplanade v J, K, L, M, N. Open check the 5 Union Square
Gardens give visitors a chance website for opening hours. 8 = Map E3. @ 2, 3, 4, 30, 38, 45. v
to wander along paths or relax ∑ sfmoma.org J, K, L, M, N.  Powell–Mason,
on benches. Close by, the Powell–Hyde.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial This recently expanded,
has words of peace in several dramatic museum forms the Union Square, lined with palm
languages. The adjacent Center nucleus of San Francisco’s trees, is at the heart of the
for the Arts Galleries and reputation as a leading city’s main shopping district
Forum have visual arts galleries center of modern art. and has a wealth of fine
and a screening room featuring Created in 1935 with department stores. It
contemporary art and films. the aim of displaying was named after the
The Center for the Arts Theater works by 20th-century pro-Union rallies held
presents performing arts that artists, it moved into its here during the Civil War of
reflect the cultural diversity of new quarters in 1995. 1861–5. The original churches,
the city. The Children’s Creat- The focus of Swiss gentlemen’s clubs, and a
ivity Museum, located at the architect Mario Botta’s synagogue were eventually
Yerba Buena Rooftop, has an Modernist building is overtaken by shops and
ongoing program of events the 125-ft (38-m) offices. Some of the
involving design. The cylindrical skylight, main stores include
Contemporary Jewish Museum which channels light Macy’s, Saks,
showcases scholarly and artistic down to the first-floor and Gump’s. The
work relating to the Jewish atrium court. More area also houses
experience. It includes film, than 17,000 works of Victory Monument in many antiquarian
music, and literary readings. art are housed in its Union Square book shops and
smaller boutiques.
Union Square marks the edge
California’s Earthquakes of the Theater District and is
The San Andreas Fault extends some 600 miles (965 km) along bordered on the west side by
California’s coastline and is one of the few sites on earth where the luxurious Westin St. Francis
an active plate boundary occurs on land. Each year, the Pacific Hotel. At the center of the square
Plate moves 1–1.6 inches (2.5–4 cm). The terrible fire of 1906 that there is a bronze statue of the
destroyed San Francisco was caused by an earthquake estimated Goddess of Victory, sculpted
at 7.8 on the Richter scale. More recently, the earthquake of by Robert Aitken in 1903 to
October 1989, south of San Francisco, killed 62 commem orate Admiral Dewey’s
people and caused at least $6 billion victory during the Spanish–
worth of damage. In 1994, the American War (1898). The former
Northridge quake, magnitude Circle Gallery at 140 Maiden
6.7, rocked Los Angeles. Lane was designed by Frank
Scientists predict that the next Lloyd Wright as a precursor
major earthquake, the “Big One,” to his Guggenheim Museum
The San Andreas Fault will hit Southern California. in New York (see p92). It is now
the Xanadu Art Gallery.

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