Structures with style

Pier 14



There's no better place to experience the fusion of city and bay than on this 15-foot-wide, 637-foot-long concrete breakwater topped by metal railings that make it feel as though you're on a catwalk above the depths. Tough and sleek at once, the narrow path doesn't try to upstage its surroundings. But it's not shy either, and in a setting like this, there's no better response.



Port of San Francisco and Roma Design Group, 2006. less Pier 14



There's no better place to experience the fusion of city and bay than on this 15-foot-wide, 637-foot-long concrete breakwater topped by metal railings that make it feel as though you're on a catwalk ... more Photo: Michelle Terris, The Chronicle Photo: Michelle Terris, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Structures with style 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Any visitor to San Francisco with any eye for architecture knows the basic spots to see. The Golden Gate Bridge and City Hall. The Ferry Building and - for iconic if not intrinsic value - the Transamerica Pyramid.

Beyond that? There's more than you might think.

This city is not Chicago, fabled for structural masterpieces; a better analogy is Portland, where the atmospheric whole of a neighborhood is greater than the sum of the often nondescript parts. But it is studded with good, urban buildings, a heartening number of them from the past 15 years. Here are 10 worth seeking out, starting with something that isn't a building at all.

Pier 14

There's no better place to experience the fusion of city and bay than on this 15-foot-wide, 637-foot-long concrete breakwater topped by metal railings that make it feel as though you're on a catwalk above the depths. Tough and sleek at once, the narrow path doesn't try to upstage its surroundings. But it's not shy either, and in a setting like this, there's no better response.

Port of San Francisco and Roma Design Group, 2006.

AT&T Park

Let dogmatic modernists scoff at the brick-paneled walls along King Street; this proudly retro ballpark is unequalled as an urban catalyst. It anchors the Embarcadero promenade and revived the varied blocks around it. The surrounding plazas and boardwalks are fun even when the Giants are out of town and (say) hey, did I mention the two World Series championships?

Third and King streets, HOK Sports, 2000.

South Park

In a 2010 visit here, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger declared this one-block oval to be "my new favorite place." No wonder. Developed in the 1850s as an elite enclave, within decades it was a forlorn backwater. That began changing 30 years ago, and now it's a café-lined mix of buildings from barebones to cutting-edge. The central green fills with tech workers in the afternoons, young families and couples on the weekend.

Between 2nd and 3rd, Brannan and Bryant streets.

101 2nd St.

Truly civil high-rises are rare, and they deserve our respect. Here, an unapologetically modern tower of limestone and glass is five stories at the corner and 26 stories on the skyline - a combination of scale and materials at home amid older neighbors. Better yet, the corner is a single public room that truly feels civic, complete with glass walls along the street pivot that open on sunny days.

SOM, 1999.

Shell Building

This telescoped wonder near Market Street is my favorite among the city's handful of Jazz Age towers. The sidewalk offers touch-close views of sandy terra-cotta panels around a delightfully pompous arched entryway framed in scalloped bronze grillwork; 28 steep stories later, the compact silhouette culminates in a crown wrapped in statuesque castings of, yes, shells.

100 Bush St., George Kelham, 1929.

Hallidie Building

Our most important work of 20th century architecture may be this seven-story piece of a busy Financial District block. The outer wall of clear glass within a steel frame was the nation's first glass curtain-wall, forerunner of towers that gleam on countless skylines. Now, after a two-year restoration, the reason for the fuss is obvious: With stone buildings on either side, the effect is startling once again.

130 Sutter St., Willis Polk, 1918.

1-7 Russian Hill Place

Three short blocks from the Hyde Street cable car is a scene that truly could be found nowhere else: a quartet of linked cottages along a landscaped brick alley. While the Tudoresque ensemble would be enchanting anywhere, what makes it memorable is the juxtaposed setting - a 31-story tower concludes the alley, while a few hundred yards to the east, a snug lawn beckons with matchless hilltop views.

Off Vallejo Street, Willis Polk, 1916.

Richardson Apartment

The Bay Area excels at top-flight contemporary housing for low-income residents, and this is among the best of the best. Four stories of apartments sit atop tall storefronts on a busy corner two blocks from City Hall, wrapped in an energetic collage where perforated aluminum sunscreens slice shadows across lime-green stucco walls and the corner could be a zinc-clad prow.

Fulton and Gough streets, David Baker + Partners, 2012.

Of our three recent buildings by winners of the vaunted Pritzker Architecture Prize, this is the one to see. Even if you find the copper-clad exterior to be a forbidding presence in Golden Gate Park, every facet of the interior is alluring and calm. The final seduction: an observation tower rising like some abstract diaphanous beast above the trees, free to all and difficult to leave.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., Herzog and de Meuron, 2006.

This clubhouse of sorts for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is an exhilarating surprise at continent's end, a muscular redoubt on a rugged cliff. Though modern and brash, it fits the site - the thick concrete will withstand wind and fog and rain coming off the ocean, while the 14-foot walls of glass on the east and west sides preserve hillside views from the east.

680 Point Lobos Ave., EHDD, 2012.