San Francisco : palace of fine arts

San Francisco : palace of fine arts

It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture. The sculptured frieze and allegorical figures representing Contemplation, Wonderment and Meditation were created by Ulric Ellerhusen.It was one of only two buildings from the exposition not to be demolished (the other being the Japanese Tea House, not to be confused with the Japanese Tea House that remains in Golden Gate Park, which dates from an 1894 fair.) And in the 1960s it was entirely refurbished to ensure its longevity.The exhibition hall, which originally housed Impressionist paintings during the exposition, is now home to the Exploratorium, a state of the art interactive science museum. There is also a replica of the Palace of Fine Arts in Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, as part of the exterior of the Golden Dreams attraction

A single dome remains from the eight identical structures that were originally constructed. Towering colonnaded walkways linked the buildings on the site, but only a few remain intact.

The Palace of Fine Arts has been a favorite wedding location for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In recent years the Palace of Fine Arts has fallen into ill repair, and a fundraising effort was launched.

The lagoon was intended to echo those found in classical settings in Europe, where the expanse of water provides a mirror surface to reflect the grand buildings and an undisturbed vista to appreciate them from a distance. In many places the edges are subsiding into the water, forming uneven and dangerous surfaces that are fenced off from the public and used by turtles to sun themselves. Australian eucalyptus trees fringe the eastern shores. Many forms of wildlife have made their home there including swans, ducks (particularly migrating fowl), geese, turtles, and frogs.

Other cities with buildings called "The Palace of Fine Arts" include Chicago (built for the 1893 World's Fair & today the home of the Museum of Science & Industry), and Mexico City.

The dome of the Palace of Fine Arts just outside the Exploratorium and the adjacent lagoon have often been used as backdrops for movies, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. One of the more recent sequences takes place in The Rock, where FBI agent Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) finally catches up with John Mason (Sean Connery).
(c) Wikipedia