de Young Museum

The de Young traces its origin to 1895, when it opened in a building left over from the California Midwinter International Exposition of the previous year, and takes its name from newspaper publisher M.H. de Young. The original structure was badly damaged by the 1906 earthquake, closing it for over a year before it reopened in November 1907, and it was ultimately brought down for good by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which forced a full rebuild.

The current building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and opened in 2005, has a copper facade engineered to slowly oxidize into a greenish patina over the years, and the whole structure is built to shift up to three feet during an earthquake without structural damage. Its Hamon Observation Tower rises 144 feet and is open to the public free of charge, giving a 360-degree view over the park and the city.

The museum focuses on American art along with African, Oceanic, and Americas art, a collection scope that gives many visitors from outside Europe a chance to see art connected to their own region represented alongside American painting, distinguishing it from its sister institution, the Legion of Honor, which holds most of the city's European collection.