Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Six thousand years of Asian civilization housed in a building that used to hand out library cards.
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One of the world's largest Asian art collections — 20,000 objects spanning South Asia, Iran, the Himalayas, China, Korea, and Japan — with over 2,000 on rotating display. The building is George Kelham's 1917 Beaux-Arts former San Francisco main library, repurposed to face Civic Center.
What to look for
- Objects dated up to 6,000 years old — some of the oldest pieces in the collection predate most written records
- The Beaux-Arts building itself, designed by George Kelham in 1917 and originally the city's main public library
- Galleries organized by region — track how forms shift from South Asia and Iran through the Himalayas to Korea and Japan
Located opposite San Francisco Civic Center in the former main city library building.
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is one of 31 sights worth the detour in San Francisco, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the San Francisco pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in San Francisco
- Golden Gate BridgeOpened May 27, 1937 as simultaneously the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge — you can walk the 4,200-foot main span yourself.
- Alcatraz IslandFor 29 years, cold Bay tidal currents did what bars alone could not — make escape nearly impossible.
- Transamerica PyramidAn 853-foot pyramid that ruled San Francisco's skyline for 45 years — still on the Transamerica logo even though the company quietly moved its HQ to Baltimore.
- Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco turned three miles of bare shifting sand dunes into the country's third-busiest urban park — starting from scratch in 1870.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)The West Coast's first museum devoted solely to 20th-century art, now stretched across 170,000 square feet after a 2016 expansion that nearly sextupled public space.
- Alcatraz Federal PenitentiaryA 9-by-5-foot cell surrounded by cold bay currents — the federal government once staked its reputation on the claim that no one could leave.