A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

A massive ultra-modern church presents a science-fiction view of Catholicism's inclusive future.

The Flatiron Building's storied West Coast cousin is a lot more into religion.

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.

After serving in World War II and picking up Apollo astronauts, this aircraft carrier has been turned into a museum overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

An ominous concrete cube cuts a dystopian silhouette atop this California mountain.

A sudden forest of traditional Papua New Guinean art works is hidden in a corner of Stanford University.

This one-block alleyway is stuffed with street art that is colorful, cultural, and intensely political.

Since 1973, this block has been home to the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

San Francisco’s century-old Christmas Tree.

A garden oasis filled with flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.

A monumental cross hides in the trees in Golden Gate Park.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

The neighborhood church casts a breast-shaped shadow that locals have come to call the “two o’clock titty.”

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.