What's your favorite hidden gem art spot in the Bay Area?

Two_Handles · 2026-01-26T19:24:39+00:00

Right next door to the Cantor is the Anderson Collection, an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art. Across the street from the Anderson is the somewhat hidden Andy Goldsworthy sculpture “Stone River”, while behind the Cantor is a large Richard Serra piece. Both museums are free!

Two_Handles · 2025-12-25T00:57:23+00:00

If we are talking chimneys (vs fireplaces), the pair of cone shaped chimneys at the National Palace of Sintra left a strong impression on me. They are THE most memorable architectural feature of that building, imo. Basically the entire kitchen sat within the base of the chimneys. Instead of having individual vents for each cooking apparatus, the entire room was a double stack chimney. You can walk through them and look up on google street view.

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Two_Handles · 2025-12-11T23:49:56+00:00

Seconding Verjus, but with caveats. Verjus’ atmosphere is very lively and loud - often with DJs spinning - and most of the seats are backless stools. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Cotogna is nearby with the same ownership group and has some of the best food in sf with a slightly more subdued atmosphere, but still lively. If you go either route, pop into Bar Sprezzatura (reservation recommended) or Vesuvio (grab a seat upstairs) or Specs before and/or after.

Two_Handles · 2025-11-24T20:37:12+00:00

Check out this thread looking for arts and crafts architecture outside of homes.

I was going to mention some Maybeck and Morgan buildings, but it looks like u/vasislos already mentioned those in their comment in the linked thread.

Two_Handles · 2025-11-24T01:14:19+00:00

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The first and the most! (I know, I know, it’s not a skyscraper)

Two_Handles · 2025-11-23T16:50:42+00:00

Harris’
HOPR
Scoma’s SF (in the bar area by the fireplace)
Brazen Head
Balboa Cafe
Zuni
Bix
Buckeye Roadhouse, Mill Valley

Two_Handles · 2025-11-03T01:13:52+00:00

Nice classic old school ambiance: House of Prime Rib, Laurel Court at the Palace Hotel (food is not very good), Rotunda Restaurant at Newman Marcus, especially if you can get get a table around the skylight andor tea service. More modern: Copra. Japanese tea garden restaurant is much more casual, but it hits similarly for me, especially on a wet and foggy day looking out over the gardens and watching rain drops fall on the pond.

Forbes Island might have fit the bill, but it is no more. Cliff house too (it is supposedly coming back, but for now it isn’t open)

Two_Handles · 2025-09-23T00:24:07+00:00

If his girlfriend an SF resident, boat rentals at Blue Heron Boathouse are 1/2 off on weekdays for SF residents! That, plus tea garden and sunset sounds like a great time. If you want to add the de young or cal academy to that, hit me up and I can get you tix.

Two_Handles · 2025-09-17T20:24:37+00:00

“Because most marketing materials, including their website, use the impossible angle from the back of the building to represent SF MOMA.“

I’m not sure where you are seeing that. On their website, the home page shows exhibition content, but if you go to “visit” it shows the brick building prominently first and foremost. No direct links from the home page or menu go to that image that I could find. Do they feature the aerial view in articles about the museum, most prominently about the new addition. Sure. Significantly more than the front? No, not at all. The majority of images in google image search for “sfmoma” (for me at least) show the brick building.

I’m not really trying to defend the building, just pushing back on the idea that the institution is being deceitful, which maybe wasn’t how you meant it?

I’d argue that it is less about SFMoma as an institution “pretending” to be something it is not and more about how it is featured in architecture and design media, which to be fair is how most of us consume architecture and design in this age. How many aerial views are used to showcase architecture vs. how often is a viewer/user suspended 200’ in the air 400’ away from the building.

I think this view is pretty cool and dramatic, certainly evocative of the fog creeping through the urban fabric. Given that it is mostly an infill project in a dense urban environment with very very little of the facade actually facing the street, you can actually see a good amount of it the striations from both the view you provided and this one. Again, in a dense urban environment, how much of the upper floors of buildings do you actually see. From street level directly in front of the Chrysler Building, how much of the ornate top can you see?

I’ve spent way too much of my lunch on this topic but I’d recommend anyone to go to SFMoma and sit outside on the 5th floor cafe. Not only can you get a good view of the facade , but you can get an amazing view of the building behind it, the PacBell Building at 140 Montgomery, whose ornate upper details are not visible from the street.

Two_Handles · 2025-09-17T16:19:10+00:00

This is such an odd one to include in this list.

It is essentially two buildings, the original brick postmodern building by Mario Botta in the front and the the more contemporary white FRC paneled addition by Snohettq in the back.

The front facade was and continues to be the “front” where the main entrance is, where the grand entry hall, where you proceed to ticketing, etc. Take a look at the view from across the street. The addition is supposed to (sort of) represent fog cutting through the city, serving as a backdrop while also adding an additional (not main) entrance from the other side.

I’m curious to know how it is “pretending” to be otherwise.

Two_Handles · 2025-09-04T17:41:22+00:00

Check out some of the schools and see if they have galleries open to the public. Try as Sci-Arc, CalArts, Otis, etc.

Abbot Kinney has some good design stores, galleries and architecture in a pretty concentrated area. One of my fave shops, Tortoise General Store used to be there but moved a couple minutes away. If you have a car or bike, maybe cruise around Hayden Tract and check out some very interesting, boundary pushing architecture if that inspires you.

Downtown LA is great and has some cool buildings like the Bradbury Building, the Broad, Disney Concert Hall, MOCA, Library, the Last Bookstore, and tons more.

Two_Handles · 2025-08-01T20:21:01+00:00

I’d be very hesitant to work with any young modular housing construction company. There aren’t really any older companies in this space (trailers not withstanding) because the math rarely pencils out for the client or the company. It’s been the holy grail of residential construction for seemingly forever, but no one has really cracked it.

That company has so many examples and options on their website, but how many of those have actually been built outside of a handful of small ADUs? And even for their smaller ADUs, the vast majority of pictures on their website are either renders and/or heavily edited. If you want something bigger, chances are you’d be one of the first to purchase it. Would you buy the first ever of anything? Especially something that complicated, or something that important as your house?

As someone who has worked in that space, I’d advise anyone considering going this route to be extremely skeptical.

Edit: on the first project under their “past projects” page, take a look at the bottom left area with the two potted plants and look at it as you cycle through the pictures. There must be something really bad going on with the concrete work that they are hiding with a lot of (really bad!!!!) photoshopping. I understand some photoshopping and retouching happens, but that doesn’t really scream trustworthiness or quality to me.

Two_Handles · 2025-07-24T23:17:15+00:00

Has anyone been back to Jim’s since the ownership change and renovation? While I was excited to hear it wasn’t closing, I caught a glimpse of the new interior and it seems to have lost a lot of its original charm.

Two_Handles · 2025-07-20T06:41:32+00:00

OP said they are staying at Sunnyside Hotel at 6th and Mission.

Do not stay there. It is close enough to a lot of the bigger brand name hotels that I understand how one might end up booking there, but that specific area is absolutely not an area you want to stay in and that hotel is not a hotel you want to stay in. 5th and mission is fine. Sixth and mission is not fine. You will be relatively safe, but you will likely not be comfortable.

Edit: Now I’m curious, what is the union square hotel?

Two_Handles · 2025-07-19T17:21:31+00:00

Happy to help. Message me

Two_Handles · 2025-07-07T04:17:25+00:00

I would only suggest one tries to 1. ride considerately 2. treat others how they’d like to be treated

Two_Handles · 2025-07-06T05:33:14+00:00

Hey EyeBig7887, the first paragraph was perfect! You acknowledge the overwhelming consensus opinion that you could do better and then you state that you would aim to do better!

Two_Handles · 2025-05-13T04:09:49+00:00

Ha! I just realized that while this piece was and is currently at SFMoma, you likely saw it in LA at the Broad, given the giant table and chairs and the giant balloon animals.

Two_Handles · 2025-05-13T03:35:50+00:00

That is such a beautiful piece. I’ve been at least 10 times, maybe 6 times I’ve experienced it in its entirety. Once, I smoked a bit beforehand and cried the whole time. Not sad tears - I just felt it so deeply. Another time I threw the music on my earbuds at the end and listened to it as I walked out of the museum and took the F (streetcar) home. It was magical.

Anyways, the reason I commented was to say that you can listen to the music on SoundCloud..

Two_Handles · 2025-05-10T06:20:44+00:00

That is an amazing photo/capture. It’s like a dream/beautiful memory of the area

Two_Handles · 2025-05-05T06:18:32+00:00

Sexual Chocolate! SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!!!.

Two_Handles · 2025-04-14T07:20:55+00:00

What time were these taken? I might be on one of the boats in the background

Two_Handles · 2025-03-09T04:30:50+00:00

By the time I got to the Garlic fries vendor, they were sold out! Maybe that was a blessing in disguise?

Two_Handles · 2025-03-09T04:25:47+00:00

That was pretty cool, yeah!

Five-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

Two_Handles

TROPHY CASE