What are the conditions of modernity that shaped San Francisco modernism? From Market Street to Coit Tower, no street tells that story better than Montgomery. This walk reveals how finance, technology, and risk remade the city—and how architects, artists, and filmmakers answered with skyscrapers, social-realist art, film noir, and domestic modernism.
Note: this tour has been rescheduled from July 25 to September 26, due to sudden, unforeseen circumstances. We apologize if you had already purchased a ticket and the new date does not work for you. Please request a refund on Eventbrite and we’ll respond promptly. We hope to see many - if not all - of you in September!
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This two-hour tour transforms Montgomery Street and Telegraph Hill into a hands-on exploration of how the conditions of modernity have shaped San Francisco since the late nineteenth century. These conditions include finance, mass media, real estate speculation, surveillance, automobiles, and all types of risk, from financial to natural. We will see how artists, architects, and filmmakers responded to these conditions of modernity.
On this tour, architecture, painting, sculpture, and film tell the story of how Thoroughly Modern Montgomery Street is shaped. You will see how steel-frame towers, glass curtain walls, POPOS, noir films, and social-realist murals reveal the bigger systems at work in our city. By the end of the walk, you will understand downtown San Francisco as a place shaped by modernity and reflected by modernism. You will see how modernist styles both celebrate progress, like light, speed, and order, and question its mental, environmental, and social costs.
The tour begins at the One Post Street Plaza and travels up Montgomery Street to Telegraph Hill. The tour will formally close at the end of Montgomery Street below the Filbert Steps. Participants will receive a guide to interpret the social-realism murals at Coit Tower.
When: Saturday, September 26, 2026 / 10:00 am - 12:00 pm [rescheduled from July 25]
Where: One Post Plaza, San Francisco, CA
Ticket Prices: $20 Docomomo-US/NOCA Members with Promo Code / $30 Non-Members
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DOCOMOMO US/NOCA MEMBER PROMO CODE:
Docomomo-US members can unlock discounted pricing by entering our Members Promo Code at checkout. On Eventbrite, click GET TICKETS and enter the Promo Code. If you don’t remember the Promo Code, contact us at info@docomomo-noca.org.