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San Francisco, California
The statue's crying too and well he may
We start this half of the 2016 Weekend Trips Slideshow in a familiar place, even if you’ve never been there. This is (of course) the Golden Gate Bridge looking towards San Francisco, and specifically this is the vista from Vista Point, an area as well named as any other I have been to.
There are a lot of things you can do in San Francisco, but following the lead of Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, we headed for the stadium to watch the Giants play. AT&T Park (which was reportedly almost sponsored by Ralph Lauren and given the name of the Polo Grounds) is a great place to watch a game, and the views of the bay are a wonderful bonus distraction, especially when you watch the Giants play terribly and lose 4-0 to the Padres. And while I really don’t care about who wins- I don’t think I can confidently name a player on either team right now- the hometown crowd is always a little more fun when their team is more watchable.
Even on a short visit to San Francisco, it’s hard to pass up a visit to Herzog & de Meuron’s de Young Museum, where the collection is fine but the building is spectacular. And sometimes (like this time) it’s even ok to skip that fine collection and just head right up to the free observation deck, where some of the best views of the city are available for anyone who wants them.
From Golden Gate Park, the Presidio is certainly walkable and I’ve even it walked it before a few times., although this time my laziness got the better of me as I took an Uber to see the Walt Disney Family Museum, a fascinating museum all about Walt that really feels like it’s in the wrong place. I mean I can think of far more appropriate places- Anaheim, Burbank, Orlando, Kansas City or even Queens, New York to name just a few. Even it’s location in San Francisco feels out of place, it’s in the middle of a military housing block, with only some signage to differentiate it from other businesses. For a guy all about innovation, you’d think a museum all about him might have been inspired to be a little more architecturally inspiring.
Once inside though its collection of artifacts is amazing. Drawings, animation cells and models (like this one of the Carousel of Progress) make you forget you’re at the Presidio.
Maybe the Walt Disney Family Museum could have been located downtown like SFMOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There its landmark (though too new to be actually landmarked) museum by Mario Botta has a new hulking friend, a massive addition designed by Snohetta.
The Mario Botta building opened in 1995, and even by then its interiors felt a little outdated. The old lobby was super fun and I was upset to hear that it was being renovated, although what was actually done turns out to be not that bad. I’ll forever miss the old lobby, even though with the old bulky stairs gone you can actually see more of it than before. As for the other spaces, they blend in and blur together enough that it’s hard to tell where Botta stops and Snohetta begins, a good thing if you ask me.
Even though it’s hard to tell where Botta stops and Snohetta begins inside the lobby, there are most certainly places where it’s all Snohetta all the time. The addition includes a few terraces and unexpected experiences in the back of the building, a great reward for anyone up for exploring.
