{"nrhp_refnum":"04000659","name":"Palace of Fine Arts","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"3301 Lyon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Francisco","county":"San Francisco","state":"CA","lat":37.802688362000055,"lon":-122.44788200446226,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-12-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Conservation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A park-setting district in San Francisco's Marina District, on a 16.99-acre site at 3301 Lyon Street next to the Presidio. It consists of a rotunda, two curved colonnades, a curving exhibition building and a lagoon, rebuilt in 1964-1974 from Bernard Maybeck's 1915 design.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the Palace as a faithful reconstruction of Bernard Maybeck's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition design, rebuilt in permanent materials because it was considered too beautiful to lose. It calls the complex perhaps the freest and most powerful example of Beaux-Arts classicism in the United States. It is also described as one of San Francisco's most recognized icons.","narrative":"Set beside a lagoon at the west end of San Francisco's Marina District, this 16.99-acre park contains a domed rotunda, two curving colonnades and a long exhibition building. The complex was rebuilt between 1964 and 1974 from Bernard Maybeck's design for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, after the original plaster-and-wood structures deteriorated and were demolished in 1963-64. The rotunda and colonnades are poured and cast concrete, while the exhibition building keeps its 1915 steel frame under stucco textured to suggest travertine. Details were cast from the originals, though much of the exhibition building's ornament was omitted for cost reasons. The reconstruction was funded before any use was decided, largely through gifts from Walter Johnson, and the building later housed a science museum and a theater. The nomination treats the rebuilt Palace as an example of Beaux-Arts classicism with a high degree of integrity for 1964-1967 and 1973-1974, and as a widely recognized San Francisco landmark.","period_of_significance":"1964-1967 and 1973-1974","architect_builder":"Bernard Maybeck (original 1915 architect); reconstruction to his designs, with funding from Walter Johnson","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts","criteria":[],"status_note":"Houses a museum and an exhibition building with a theater; the form notes minor changes from lack of maintenance, including falling ornamental fragments in the rotunda and a protective net hung in 2003.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.622191-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/04000659.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000659/1e290436a4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000659/1e290436a4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Kevin Cole (en:User:Kevinlcole)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Fine_Arts_SF_CA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kevin Cole (en:User:Kevinlcole)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Fine_Arts_SF_CA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861242","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fine_Arts","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q966263"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-francisco/palace-of-fine-arts-04000659/"}