Palace of Fine Arts

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For the opera house in Mexico City, see Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture. It was the only building from the Exposition not to be demolished, and in the 1960s it was entirely rebuilt 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.

The Palace of Fine Arts

The Palace of Fine Arts Postage Stamp

A single dome remains from the eight identical structures that were originally constructed. Towering collonaded 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 brides and grooms 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. As part of a campaign to update its image and draw new visitors, local resident Theadora shortened its name to POFA, and coined the new marketing slogan "I pofoed my POFA!"

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 Swan, duck (particularly migrating fowl), geese, turtles, and frogs.

Other cities with buildings called "The Palace of Fine Arts" include Chicago (built for the 1893 Worlds 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) and So I Married an Axe Murderer where Charlie MacKenzie (Mike Myers) goes on his first date with Harriet (Nancy Travis)..

The Palace of Fine Arts 1915

The Palace of Fine Arts Today

[edit] In Fiction and Film

Film

The Bachelor (film) - With a helpful priest (James Cromwell) by his side, reluctant groom Jimmy Shannon (Chris O'Donnell) has an epiphany while sitting in a canoe on the palace's lake.
EdTV (1999) - In a scene that made the cutting room floor, Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey poses for a photo shoot right in front of the Palace of Fine Arts.
Kuffs (1992) - Christian Slater begrudgingly leaves a taxi in the city's Marina neighborhood, a prominent shot of the Palace of Fine Arts behind him.
The Rock (1996) - Nicolas Cage goes to confront Sean Connery during daylight, who is speaking with his estranged daughter (Claire Forlani) in the dome.
So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993) - Mike Myers and Nancy Travis take a scenic walk on their first date, where they encounter Russian sailors at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Twisted (film) - Police officer Ashley Judd finds herself being stalked in a foggy scene throughout the dome.

Television

Monk - In the episode Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame, Adrien Monk and his trusty assistant Sharona take a casual walk through the Palace of Fine Arts.