SOMA - South of Market

As the San Francisco business district grows and consumes more office space in the area, this neighborhood becomes trendier by the day. Warehouses that used to house discounted clothing and other merchandise South of Market -SOMA), are now being converted into office space for the burgeoning Web-related businesses. If nightclubs and trendy restaurants figure prominently in your travel plans, SOMA is a great choice for you.

SOMA is also home to the Moscone Convention Center, the Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Sony Metreon. SOMA is where many local clothing designers sell their overstock and seconds at bargain prices. An annual book, Bargain Hunting in the Bay Area by Sally Socolich, details just where to find the best deals.

SFMOMA

Conveniently located in the flourishing Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district, SFMOMA offers the West Coast's most comprehensive collection of 20th-century art as well as an ever-changing program of special exhibitions.

www.sfmoma.org

Metreon
Four floors and 350,000 square feet jam-packed with ways to entertain and escape into a whole new reality. You have to see it to believe it. Metreon combines the best of Sony with the original efforts of artists, technologists, writers, chefs, architects, animators, and digital masterminds. Get ready for Unbelievable movie experiences with 15 theatres and a SONY•IMAX®. Delectable restaurants featuring the best of the Bay Area. Unbelievable attractions that push you into a whole new reality. One-of-a-kind shopping in a collection of stores found only in Metreon.

www.metreon.com

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opened nine years ago with much fanfare and expectation. Our promise then: that the Center would include, respect and celebrate the people and ideas that energize our myriad communities; that we would present exciting local artists in context with their national and international peers; and that we would provide the Bay Area with an eclectic and wide-ranging slate of exciting exhibitions, performances, films and educational programs.

We continue to fulfill this vision with groundbreaking work in all program areas and are beginning to see the fruit of our unique Artist-in-Residence program, established to help artists develop new work, providing them the luxury of time, space and the freedom to take creative risks. Residents utilize the Center's spaces to develop unusual new projects, explore fresh directions and forge stimulating collaborations with other artists.

www.yerbabuenaarts.org

Through our Artist Residencies and other programs, the Center becomes a gathering place for artists and communities; a multidisciplinary "idea house" where artists are nurtured, supported, exhibited and presented; a place where contemporary art thrives with a new kind of attitude.

The Moscone Center is San Francisco's premier meeting and exhibition facility situated on two adjacent 11-acre blocks bounded by Mission, Folsom, Third and Fourth Streets. Situated in the heart of downtown, the center is within convenient walking distance of nearly 20,000 hotel rooms. Owned by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and developed by the City and County of San Francisco, The Moscone Center is managed by SMG.

The existing 1.2 million square foot convention center anchors the central blocks of the 87-acre Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. The bustling and vibrant district includes the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Rooftop at the Gardens and the Sony Metreon. The Rooftop at the Gardens, atop Moscone South, is a haven for children of all ages and home to Zeum (a technology and arts center), the Yerba Buena ice skating and bowling centers and a state-of-the-art childcare facility. The complex also features a unique 1906 carousel, hands-on interactive children's garden, a café and concession stands. Across the street, the resplendent Yerba Buena Gardens rests atop Moscone North encompassing six-acres of the neighborhood and includes a "sister cities" garden, two cafes and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

www.moscone.com

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