Civic Center: the Beaux-Arts plaza and the Tenderloin edge
The domed City Hall, the Asian Art Museum and the library, and the murals and grit of the Tenderloin streets. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. United Nations Plaza
Start at the long granite plaza laid out to mark the 1945 signing of the UN Charter, which happened a few blocks away. The fountain is often dry and the plaza has seen hard years; read it honestly, then walk west toward the dome that anchors everything.

2. City Hall
The Beaux-Arts city hall has a gilded dome taller than the US Capitol's, rebuilt grandly after 1906 to say the city had recovered. The rotunda inside is open on weekdays and free; stand under the dome and look up the grand stair. Closed weekends, so come on a weekday.

3. Asian Art Museum
On the north side of the plaza, in the old main library building reworked behind its 1917 stone front. One of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia. You don't have to go in for the walk, but the converted interior is worth a ticket if you have the time.

4. San Francisco Public Library (Main)
The granite main library closes the plaza's east side, its skylit central atrium rising the full height inside. Step in — it's free, and the upper-floor reading rooms look back across the plaza to the dome. A calm break before the Tenderloin streets.

5. Tenderloin National Forest
Cut into the Tenderloin to Cohen Place, a former dead-end alley turned into a community garden and mural yard, gated but often open by day. The murals here are the neighbourhood telling its own story. Be respectful; this is a lived-in block, not a backdrop.

6. Powell Street, the edge of downtown
Walk east out of the Tenderloin toward Powell, the grit giving way to the shopping streets within a couple of blocks. The change is abrupt and tells you something about the city. BART and Muni Metro are under Powell for the way out.

Civic Center: the Beaux-Arts plaza and the Tenderloin edge