Golden Gate Bridge

It's been photographed millions of times, and I cross it twice daily, yet I never tire of looking at it.

Ghost advertising, San Francisco

Lost in that peeling paint is an ad for nonstop service from San Francisco to Hong Kong. I can't recall which airline offered it, but I suspect it's now defunct, kind of like this ad. Apparently, latex doesn't adhere well to brick…

Hobart Building, San Francisco

At Market and Montgomery, another Willis Polk masterwork, like so many of San Francisco's best buildings. This one was completed in 1914, and its beauty really stands out against the much plainer skyscrapers in the background. 21 floors of steel-frame construction, adorned in a sort of neo-Baroque style. As with so many buildings on the north side of Market St., the shape of the building was dictated by the odd-shaped lot, yet it all works, somehow. More to come on this one.

Flood Building, San Francisco

Landmark building at Powell and Market, still striking even when seen from the back. Built by James L. Flood and designed by Albert Pissis in 1904, it withstood the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, one of the few buildings along Market Street to do so. The ground floor housed a Woolworth's from 1945 until 1996—I only went in there once, to buy a wig with David Horii—and a Gap since the building's renovation in the 1990s.

2301 Jackson Street, San Francisco

Built in 1900 by an unknown architect, this lovely house displays the classic Greek proportions, which perfectly balance the front and the sides of the building against each other as well as the horizontal and the vertical. Note the seven windows along the front.

Hyde Street, San Francisco

That's a cast iron column pretending to prop up the second floor of that building.

St. Gregory Armenian Church, San Francisco

Here's a surprising thing to find in the Inner Richmond district: an Armenian Apostolic church. As the stone proclaims, Armenia was it the first nation to embrace Christianity on an official basis (in 301AD). Following a theological dispute in 554, the Armenian church has been separate from both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

Ghost advertising, San Francisco

Not really ghostly at all but rather a deliberately preserved portion of the wall near the Anchor Brewing Co.'s loading dock. I wish they'd left the area around the ad in unpainted brick, but it may have been defaced, prompting the painting. Still, it's nice that they left the original artwork.