by Karen Warren | United States
San Francisco is famous for its colourful and provocative street art. You can find it everywhere, with a thousand or more murals across the city. But the greatest concentration is in the Mission District, with whole streets full of vibrant murals and mosaics. Balmy...
by Karen Warren | United States
San Francisco is built on 49 hills – not just ordinary slopes, but tall steep inclines. Yet the city’s early planners and developers chose to lay out the roads in a grid pattern, paying no heed to contours. This resulted in some very steep streets, causing problems...
by Karen Warren | United States
One of the pleasures of San Francisco is its historic architecture. Of course, the city is full of the impressive modern buildings that you’d expect in any American city. However there are also rows of well preserved Victorian houses. They seem to be everywhere, on...
by Karen Warren | United States
The links between San Francisco and Japan stretch back to the end of the 19th century, when the first emigrants arrived in the city. Today San Francisco has the largest remaining Japantown area in the US. And in 1957 it strengthened its relationship with Japan by...
by Karen Warren | United States
I stood in the central plaza of Los Angeles Union Station and marvelled at the building, an eclectic mix of Art Deco and other architectural styles. I love railway stations. It’s partly the romance of travel, not just the destination but the journey itself. But it’s...
