Covered in local landmarks and colorful SF characters – burlesque icon Carol Doda, psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane, protesters declaring themselves 'Jewish Diabetics for Peace' – Ruth Asawa's 1973 San Francisco Fountain captures the city's spirit. Asawa collected favorite city sights from 250 San Franciscans, sculpted them in bread dough, then cast them in bronze. Apple designed its flagship store for this spot, but, after a public outcry defending the fountain, it eventually redesigned the building and restored the fountain.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Frank Lloyd Wright Building

0.06 MILES

Shrink the Guggenheim, plop it inside a yellow-brick box with a round Romanesque entryway and put it where you'd least expect it: on a shady SF alley that…

2. 450 Sutter St

0.07 MILES

A 26-story deco dental building fit for the gods, this 1929 Mayan-revival stone skyscraper has a lobby covered floor to ceiling with cast-bronze snakes…

3. Union Square

0.07 MILES

High-end stores ring Union Sq now, but this people-watching plaza has been a hotbed of protest, from pro-Union Civil War rallies to AIDS vigils. Atop the…

4. I Magnin Building

0.09 MILES

When Timothy Pflueger’s radical design was revealed on Union Sq in 1948, SF society was shocked: San Francisco’s flagship clothing store appeared…

5. Dragon's Gate

0.15 MILES

Enter through the Dragon archway donated by Taiwan in 1970, and you'll find yourself on the street formerly known as Dupont in its notorious red-light…

6. 49 Geary

0.18 MILES

Pity the collectors silently nibbling endive in austere Chelsea galleries – at 49 Geary, First Thursday art openings mean unexpected art, popcorn and…

7. Lotta's Fountain

0.21 MILES

Lotta Crabtree made fortunes as San Francisco's diminutive opera diva, and she never forgot the city that paid for her trademark cigars. In 1875 she…

8. Contemporary Jewish Museum

0.24 MILES

That upended blue-steel box miraculously balancing on one corner atop the Contemporary Jewish Museum is appropriate for an institution that upends…