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Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts

Bernard Maybeck & William Gladstone Merchant

Photo: Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Lyon Street, San Francisco, California, United States
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 1915
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco was built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific Exposition. The infobox lists William Gladstone Merchant and Bernard Maybeck, while the text credits Maybeck alone. The article names no client. The style is Beaux-Arts, drawing on Roman and Greek architecture, Piranesi's etchings and Böcklin's painting Isle of the Dead.

The original had wood framing covered in staff, a mix of plaster and fiber. The rebuild used poured-in-place lightweight concrete, with steel I-beams for the dome. The rotunda is 162 feet (49 m) high, the pergola about 1,100 feet (340 m) long and the site 17 acres. The dome's original Robert Reid murals were not restored.

The lead dates the rebuild to 1964 to 1974, but a rotunda plaque says 1964 to 1967. The Exploratorium occupied the hall from 1969 to 2013. A 2020 plan to convert it into a homeless shelter was reversed.

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