Place to see: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, United States

About this place:

Founded in 1871, The San Francisco Art Institute is one of San Francisco's oldest art schools. It occupies a great complex in North Beach. One part of the complex is an older building that houses all the classrooms with a beautiful courtyard, and a high ceiling gallery with a fabulous Diego Rivera mural. The other part which contains a lecture hall, another gallery, a cafe, studios and classrooms seems to have come out of the Bauhaus.

For a visitor, the top of the newer building has a tremendous view of the Bay and the surrounding city. The Institute is in a big bowl with Russian Hill to one side, Coit Tower to the other, Alcatraz out in the bay before it, with a view of Sausalito, Angel Island, and Mount Tamalpais on the other side.

If you are taking classes there (they have adult education classes in the evenings) its the perfect place to take a breather, and get some inspiration from the beauty of San Francisco and its Bay.