From striking Art-Deco, to elegantly shingled homes, captivating brutalism, and of course, our iconic Queen Anne Victorians, San Francisco is defined by its diverse collection of the most impressively eclectic architecture. We're delineating a few of the most prominent and outstanding design styles in the city so that you can properly recognize and further appreciate their historic and creative details the next time you spot them while sightseeing.
See also: What Exactly Is Sutro Tower?
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Starting with one of the oldest styles decorating the SF Bay Area, Gothic Revival was a highly popular trend that began in England in the mid-1700s and later proliferated in the United States a century after. Within the mid-1800s, many ornate buildings began popping up in the Bay with the prominent masonry features of dramatic medieval arches, wondrous stone carvings, and ostentatious statues and gargoyles.
Such Gothic reverence can still be seen and equally admired today with the Grace Cathedral and the Saint Francis of Assisi Church.
View this post on Instagram
Perhaps the absolute most recognizable architectural style synonymous with San Francisco is the Queen Anne, a design under the Victorian aesthetic. These houses are defined by their long roofs, balustrade-segmented floors contrasting uniformity, and whimsical ornamental embellishments such as bay windows, bold Friezes, cornices and Colonnettes, and elegant bracketed porticos.
The vibrantly colorful Painted Ladies in Alamo Square are perhaps the strongest models for this, painted in intentionally juxtaposing hues back in the 60's to reflect the experimental hippie counterculture.
View this post on Instagram
Another style under the Victorian design umbrella is the magnificent Tudor Revival, which blossomed in the city from the 1890s to the onset of World War II when more American-style homes began being emphasized. Architects Bernard Maybeck, Oliver Rousseau, and Ernest Coxhead were the local trailblazers of this movement, outlined by grand, decorative mansions with intentional asymmetry, steep roofs, wattle-and-daub walls, and elaborate gables.
You can marvel at such medieval-style masonry in the Presidio, the Sunset, Berkeley, and even San Mateo.
View this post on Instagram
A contemporary contrast to the grandiosity of Victorian homes was the more humble and simple New England-style shingled homes. Also known as the First Bay Tradition of the Bay Area Arts and Crafts Movement, these shingle-style abodes boldly opposed Victorian filigree with their more rustic facades, fortified with redwood shingles for an authentically Californian essence.
Willis Polk and Julia Morgan were two architects who blossomed this more cottage-style East Coast aesthetic around the city, most evident in the lush Presidio.
View this post on Instagram
What would San Francisco be without its showstopping Art Deco? From posh geometric patterns to lavish chrome and playful parapets, this iconic movement embodies 1920's-era opulence.
Art Deco is flamboyantly spread all over San Francisco, such as the Alamo Drafthouse (formerly the New Mission Theatre), the rich green 200 Powell building, the jaw-dropping interior of the Castro Theatre, SoMa's Eng-Skell Building, the towering 140 New Montgomery, and even the Golden Gate Bridge!
View this post on Instagram
Stemming from an adoration for classic Spanish villas, the Mission Revival style sparked a romantic trend in architecture in the early 20th century that is defined by rounded bell gables, red tiled roofs, tan stucco walls, and cobblestone flooring.
The Presidio's military bases are perhaps the most evident example of this vintage callback, as well as Timothy Pfleuger’s Castro Theatre, the Sunset and Mission's many adobe-exterior homes, and Stanford University. Such rustic and natural aesthetics contrasted the country's rapid industrialization and evoked a simpler and more pastoral feeling of Spanish paradise.
View this post on Instagram
Evolving from Art Deco, Streamline Moderne amalgamated 1920's sleekness with Great Depression-era simplicity. The yearning for a return of wealth and industry innovation was ingeniously captured in buildings influenced by aerodynamic forms of cutting-edge aircrafts, polished automobiles, and commanding ships.
These sweeping silhouettes can be seen on Telegraph Hill's Malloch Building, the watercraft-like Maritime Museum, and East Cut's Rincon Annex, all with long rounded edges and nautical-style windows akin to vehicles, and friezes with towering figures aspiring to reach towards a more prosperous future.
View this post on Instagram
Postwar rebounding in America elicited architecture that was not only quick, minimal, and uniform, but that also incorporated the innovative advancements and futurism of the 1950s.
Carports, sweeping atomic angles, flat roofs, and seamless indoor-outdoor layouts with open-concepts and glass fixtures were all new-age staples of Mid-Century Modern homes, which all flourished around neighborhoods like Diamond Heights and Twin Peaks. St. Mary's Cathedral and the Embarcadero's Alcoa building are immense public examples with their plain square figures reminding us of postwar simplicity.
View this post on Instagram
Love it or not, San Francisco is replete with concrete brutalism. This style is robustly uniform and boldly barren with its captivating beauty eminating from its structural might and unapologetic presence.
These sturdy designs are seen as the Embarcadero Center, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Glen Park BART station, and around USF, making for raw concrete jungles that add contrast to the glamorous Art-Deco skyline.
View this post on Instagram
The 60s were a time of rapid progressive change with counterculture and free-thinking influencing the way we can think literally outside the box of traditional architectural forms. Postmodernism inspired buildings of all new free-form and unconventional designs, fusing otherworldly futurism with daring color schemes, thought-provoking art, and structural features made with uncommon materials.
The SFMOMA is a clear example with its avant-garde angular circular atrium and striped black-and-white turret, as well as the Federal Building, the DeYoung Museum, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum all boasting radically angular and eccentric silhouettes.
View this post on Instagram
Today, the most common aesthetics seen being constructed around San Francisco are sharp, clean, and sleek, with emphasis on large glass panes and multi-use versatility, such as complex 5-over-1 housing with the ability to add stores and businesses on the ground floor for more community.
Creativity is not lost on these modern designs, as San Francisco's fearless ingenuity is still channeled with playful building shapes as seen with the Salesforce Tower, Millenium Tower, East Cut's cutting-edge spiraling MIRA high-rise, and Mission Rock's upcoming collection of staggered buildings.
No matter where you wander around the city, you will now be able to distinguish all of our various architectural masterpieces! Which one is your favorite?
See also: The Timeless Story Behind Hillsborough's Iconic Flintstone House
Photography by: Courtesy of Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
From striking Art-Deco, to elegantly shingled homes, captivating brutalism, and of course, our iconic Queen Anne Victorians, San Francisco is defined by its diverse collection of the most impressively eclectic architecture. We're delineating a few of the most prominent and outstanding design styles in the city so that you can properly recognize and further appreciate their historic and creative details the next time you spot them while sightseeing.
See also: What Exactly Is Sutro Tower?
View this post on Instagram
Starting with one of the oldest styles decorating the SF Bay Area, Gothic Revival was a highly popular trend that began in England in the mid-1700s and later proliferated in the United States a century after. Within the mid-1800s, many ornate buildings began popping up in the Bay with the prominent masonry features of dramatic medieval arches, wondrous stone carvings, and ostentatious statues and gargoyles.
Such Gothic reverence can still be seen and equally admired today with the Grace Cathedral and the Saint Francis of Assisi Church.
View this post on Instagram
Perhaps the absolute most recognizable architectural style synonymous with San Francisco is the Queen Anne, a design under the Victorian aesthetic. These houses are defined by their long roofs, balustrade-segmented floors contrasting uniformity, and whimsical ornamental embellishments such as bay windows, bold Friezes, cornices and Colonnettes, and elegant bracketed porticos.
The vibrantly colorful Painted Ladies in Alamo Square are perhaps the strongest models for this, painted in intentionally juxtaposing hues back in the 60's to reflect the experimental hippie counterculture.
View this post on Instagram
Another style under the Victorian design umbrella is the magnificent Tudor Revival, which blossomed in the city from the 1890s to the onset of World War II when more American-style homes began being emphasized. Architects Bernard Maybeck, Oliver Rousseau, and Ernest Coxhead were the local trailblazers of this movement, outlined by grand, decorative mansions with intentional asymmetry, steep roofs, wattle-and-daub walls, and elaborate gables.
You can marvel at such medieval-style masonry in the Presidio, the Sunset, Berkeley, and even San Mateo.
View this post on Instagram
A contemporary contrast to the grandiosity of Victorian homes was the more humble and simple New England-style shingled homes. Also known as the First Bay Tradition of the Bay Area Arts and Crafts Movement, these shingle-style abodes boldly opposed Victorian filigree with their more rustic facades, fortified with redwood shingles for an authentically Californian essence.
Willis Polk and Julia Morgan were two architects who blossomed this more cottage-style East Coast aesthetic around the city, most evident in the lush Presidio.
View this post on Instagram
What would San Francisco be without its showstopping Art Deco? From posh geometric patterns to lavish chrome and playful parapets, this iconic movement embodies 1920's-era opulence.
Art Deco is flamboyantly spread all over San Francisco, such as the Alamo Drafthouse (formerly the New Mission Theatre), the rich green 200 Powell building, the jaw-dropping interior of the Castro Theatre, SoMa's Eng-Skell Building, the towering 140 New Montgomery, and even the Golden Gate Bridge!
View this post on Instagram
Stemming from an adoration for classic Spanish villas, the Mission Revival style sparked a romantic trend in architecture in the early 20th century that is defined by rounded bell gables, red tiled roofs, tan stucco walls, and cobblestone flooring.
The Presidio's military bases are perhaps the most evident example of this vintage callback, as well as Timothy Pfleuger’s Castro Theatre, the Sunset and Mission's many adobe-exterior homes, and Stanford University. Such rustic and natural aesthetics contrasted the country's rapid industrialization and evoked a simpler and more pastoral feeling of Spanish paradise.
View this post on Instagram
Evolving from Art Deco, Streamline Moderne amalgamated 1920's sleekness with Great Depression-era simplicity. The yearning for a return of wealth and industry innovation was ingeniously captured in buildings influenced by aerodynamic forms of cutting-edge aircrafts, polished automobiles, and commanding ships.
These sweeping silhouettes can be seen on Telegraph Hill's Malloch Building, the watercraft-like Maritime Museum, and East Cut's Rincon Annex, all with long rounded edges and nautical-style windows akin to vehicles, and friezes with towering figures aspiring to reach towards a more prosperous future.
View this post on Instagram
Postwar rebounding in America elicited architecture that was not only quick, minimal, and uniform, but that also incorporated the innovative advancements and futurism of the 1950s.
Carports, sweeping atomic angles, flat roofs, and seamless indoor-outdoor layouts with open-concepts and glass fixtures were all new-age staples of Mid-Century Modern homes, which all flourished around neighborhoods like Diamond Heights and Twin Peaks. St. Mary's Cathedral and the Embarcadero's Alcoa building are immense public examples with their plain square figures reminding us of postwar simplicity.
View this post on Instagram
Love it or not, San Francisco is replete with concrete brutalism. This style is robustly uniform and boldly barren with its captivating beauty eminating from its structural might and unapologetic presence.
These sturdy designs are seen as the Embarcadero Center, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Glen Park BART station, and around USF, making for raw concrete jungles that add contrast to the glamorous Art-Deco skyline.
View this post on Instagram
The 60s were a time of rapid progressive change with counterculture and free-thinking influencing the way we can think literally outside the box of traditional architectural forms. Postmodernism inspired buildings of all new free-form and unconventional designs, fusing otherworldly futurism with daring color schemes, thought-provoking art, and structural features made with uncommon materials.
The SFMOMA is a clear example with its avant-garde angular circular atrium and striped black-and-white turret, as well as the Federal Building, the DeYoung Museum, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum all boasting radically angular and eccentric silhouettes.
View this post on Instagram
Today, the most common aesthetics seen being constructed around San Francisco are sharp, clean, and sleek, with emphasis on large glass panes and multi-use versatility, such as complex 5-over-1 housing with the ability to add stores and businesses on the ground floor for more community.
Creativity is not lost on these modern designs, as San Francisco's fearless ingenuity is still channeled with playful building shapes as seen with the Salesforce Tower, Millenium Tower, East Cut's cutting-edge spiraling MIRA high-rise, and Mission Rock's upcoming collection of staggered buildings.
No matter where you wander around the city, you will now be able to distinguish all of our various architectural masterpieces! Which one is your favorite?
See also: The Timeless Story Behind Hillsborough's Iconic Flintstone House
Photography by: Courtesy of Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
