CIVIC CENTER

THE PRESIDIO

GOLDEN GATE PARK

The Civic Center is one of America’s great architectural complexes. A grand collection of municipal buildings it was begun in 1913 under the leadership of Mayor James Rolph and owes a great debt to the City Beautiful movement.

CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT

In brief, the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century sought to improve the urban environment through beautification. It was hoped that the changes would:

…inspire civic loyalty and moral rectitude in the impoverished; American cities would be brought to cultural parity with their European competitors through the use of the European Beaux-Arts style; and create a more inviting city center in which to work and spend money.

The City Beautiful: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C. , American Studies at The University of Virginia, 1996.

The first expression of City Beautiful in the United States was at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Known as the "White City," it represented the epitome of city planning and architectural cohesion. Beaux-Arts trained, East Coast architects, hired by Daniel Burnham, designed monumental and classically inspired buildings. Of uniform cornice height, similar decoration, and painted white, the buildings welcomed nearly 27 million visitors. State-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems, the absence of poverty, and the Columbian Guard supported this utopian environment which influenced design and planning in every American city from Washington, DC to San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO REALIZES A DREAM

The Civic Center plan is California's most clear-cut example of City Beautiful influence. Located within the Civic Center Historic District, it is where politicians gather; patrons of the arts flock to the symphony, an opera or a concert; bibliophiles congregate, and a farmers market operates twice weekly.

On Civic Center Plaza:
The first building constructed in the Civic Center was City Hall. The impressive Beaux Arts-style building, which opened in 1916, replaced the 1870’s city hall destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Its dome, measures 308 feet; 16 feet higher than the U.S. Capitol dome. The mayor's office, the Board of Supervisors chambers, and other city offices are located here.

Across Civic Center Plaza is the Old Main Library. Currently under reconstruction, it will be home to the Asian Art Museum , which is relocating from Golden Gate Park. A new Main Library, designed by Pei, Cobb, Freed, opened in 1996.

On the northern edge of Civic Center Plaza the California State Building designed by Bliss & Faville and completed in 1922, is home to the California Supreme Court and other state offices. The addition to the building was one of the first public-private ventures entered into by the State of California.

The Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium) forms the southern edge of Civic Center Plaza. Built as one of the few permanent structures for the Pan Pacific Exposition in 1915, it was designed by a committee of architects.

The Civic Center Plaza is home to Pioneer Monument, which commemorates Spanish, Mexican and American pioneer settlers of California. Originally positioned before the old city hall, it was relocated when the new Main Library was built.

Along Van Ness Avenue:
The widest street in San Francisco is home to many cultural buildings - The Opera House (1931), Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall (1981), and the Veteran’s War Memorial Building (1931) – as well as the new State of California Building (1986) by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.