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10. Doc's Clock
This edge of the Mission district has its share of flashy signs, but none top the irony of Doc's Clock': flashy on the outside, dive-y on the inside.

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9. House of Prime Rib
One classy sign of San Francisco that actually reflects the same level of classy on the inside of this fine establishment.

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8. Tommy's Joynt
We're not sure what's more iconic, the mouth-watering scent of their slow-cooked meats from block away, or the groovy font and flowing flags hovering above this destination BBQ joint.

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7. "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"
Sure, the intersection of Haight and Ashbury is legendary and probably the most photographed street sign in San Francisco. But many tourists and locals overlook this humble wooden sign at Central and Waller Streets allegedly left behind by the Diggers community activists of the 60s. It encapsulates the ideologies of San Francisco then and now.

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The Magnes Museum

Elizabeth Lilienthal Gerstley's "Christmas Parties" album contains 201 photographs taken inside the Haas Lilienthal House at 2007 Franklin Street, San Francisco, between 1954 and 1971.

The Haas-Lilienthal House was donated to the San Francisco Architectural Heritage in 1974, but every December 24, descendants of William and Bertha Haas take out the one set of keys they kept and unlock the front door to 2007 Franklin Street. Since 1886, the Haas-Lilienthal family has gathered every Christmas Eve, a tradition Joshua Plaut used as an anecdotal opening in his new book, Kosher Christmas.

"That was never a term we used," said John Rothmann, the great-grandson of the Haas family. His mother, Frances Bransten Rothmann, simply called it Christmas in her book, The Haas Sisters of Franklin Street: A Look Back With Love. "When I hand my children, now in their 20s, the keys to the front door of their great-great grandparents' house, it's continuity, generation to generation."

See also:

Two-story dollhouse Isn't Child's Play

Haas-Lilienthal House Declare a "National Treasure"

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The word "porn" can make you think a lot of things, most of which you might not be interested in discussing with your boss/professor/mom/grandma. California and New Hampshire are the only two states that legally allow adult films to be produced, and currently an estimated 90 percent of U.S. porn films are made in the suburban San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, the nation's porn capital. But believe it or not, many films are made right here in SF, at the historic San Francisco Armory.

Recently, California Home + Design posted a slideshow of an inside look into some of the intimate settings where the magic happens inside the Armory, currently owned and operated by Kink.com (DISCLAIMER: NSFW), who specialize in films of the hardcore to extremely hardcore variety. We thought this was pretty entertaining, so here's a couple of our personal favorite studio scenes. Just use your imagination...

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We've heard lore of bamboo forests and sun decks in the otherwise inhospitable downtown San Francisco, but when we endeavor to visit such mythical places, it always ends the same way: we can't find the exact location, or a menacing security guard prompts us to quickly turn away. Surely all the good worker bees should just continue hunching in front of the computer during lunch because that's the only option, right?

Wrong. Since 1985, this fine city has required developers to provide one square foot of public space for every 50 square feet of office space, known as POPOS or privately owned public spaces. How do you find POPOS? Developers aren't keen on making it easy. Bad signage or front desk inquiries are de rigueur, the nonprofit urban think tank SPUR noted in their 2009 report, but they've been on the case ever since,  and this month they've released a new app which promises to radically alter your lunch hour. S.F.'s Secret Spaces and Hidden Oases identifies over 50 POPOS on a map, as well as hours of operations and tricks to getting to where you want to go, whether it is a five-story atrium or a sculpture garden.

We combed the app to bring you the top 10 gems hidden in plain sight in downtown S.F.

See also:

San Francisco's Top 10 Offbeat Museums

The Haas-Lilienthal House Declared a National Treasure

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Illustration by Michael Murphy

The Haas-Lilienthal House has just been declared a "National Treasure," an honor bestowed on the Victorian residence by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The purpose of the designation is to highlight historic and architecturally significant sites across the country. The house is the sole cultural institution in San Francisco to earn the accolade, which comes with perks that may prove vital to the house's future.

See also:

Two Story Dollhouse Isn't Child's Play

Recent Acquisitions archives

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The San Francisco Public Library's Golden Gate branch.

The California Preservation Foundation has announced the 2012 winners for the prestigious Preservation Design Awards, and four out of seven winners are from San Francisco. The Golden Gate Valley Branch Library Rehabilitation project, Murphy Windmill, Presidio 101 and 103, and Transbay Traveling Archaeology Exhibit all received accolades.

See also:
*S.F. voted America's best city 2012
*Our picks for the Architecture in the City Fest

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The month-long Architecture and the City Festival is underway in the Bay Area, and everyone's invited. This year's theme, Design: It's About Time, asks attendees to reconcile the permanence of the city's built environment with the rapidity of urban change. Now in it's ninth year, the nation's largest architecture festival is offering a dizzying array of walking and home tours, films, exhibitions, lectures, and other special events. We've parsed through the packed calendar and chosen 10 events which promise to delight dilettantes and experts alike.

The Tenderloin contains a strange dichotomy: This dense neighborhood offers high-end hotels catering to rich visitors who desire proximity to the theaters on one street, and Single Room Occupancy hotels serving as halfway houses on another. In 2009, it was placed on the National Register of Historic places, but it still has one of the highest rates of poverty and crime in the city. Traverse these diverse offerings firsthand during the walking tour, Rethinking the Tenderloin, at 3 p.m. on September 11.

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© San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Photo by Henrik Kam

San Francisco recently surpassed New York as the most expensive place to live in the U.S. This should not come as a shock to anyone who's ever paid $72 for a parking ticket or $7 for a bottle of "organic" water (There's no such thing as organic water!). S.F. was even denied the right to enjoy Subway's $5 footlong sandwich deal because it couldn't afford to do business here at that price. When you're done crying over that incredible injustice, you might as well console yourself with some free visits to S.F.'s finest cultural institutions.

You cannot enjoy this!

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For the first time in history, the San Francisco Architectural Heritage will cosponsor a panel on historic preservation with the GLBT Historical Society. The San Francisco Architectural Heritage is a misunderstood organization, falsely believed to be monomaniacal about the city's most elite landmarks. Seeking greater collaboration and new audiences, both organizations prioritize significant physical locales associated with the community. "These Walls Can Speak: Telling the Stories of Queer Places" will explore the ways in which queer historic sites are being preserved, documented, and interpreted.

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Project Frog

Since its completion in 2011, the Hunter's Point Community Center has dedicated itself to building a sustainable community. Bayview-Hunters Point is one of the fastest growing communities in San Francisco, with over 34,000 ethnically and economically diverse residents. The 5,000 square foot Community Center serves a population dominated by families, meaning that 89 percent of the community's households have children. The pre-fab building tries to cater to all residents, functioning as a recreational center, in addition to job training, arts education, public meetings, and events.

Next month, Project Frog Architects Courtney Dill Glander and John Jackson will lead an interior tour of the community center, followed by a discussion. Project Frog is a company which combines green technological aspects of building materials with the aesthetic values of architecture. The community center is an excellent example of their work, which highlights the historic industrial area while accounting for its urban context.

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