Front St, Financial District

I've worked on Front Street for nearly five years now. It's interrupted several times along its brief length between Market Street and the Embarcadero. At the Market Street end, it's your typical Financial District street. Lots of traffic. High rise buildings filled with office workers. Deserted at night.

Heading north from there, the first interruption is Building #1 of the Embarcadero Center mall/office complex. It's not the best shopping in San Francisco, but it's awfully convenient to hit the shops at lunch time--not to mention the restaurants. After hours and on weekends, Landmark's Embarcadero theater is the place in San Francisco for art house films.

Front Street continues interrupted for three blocks, Maritime Plaza and the Golden Gateway Center are next, however you can continue straight ahead if you ascend a flight of stairs or an escalator and utilize walkways above street level. It's worth doing this at least once to see the hidden fountains and sculptures along the way. The Golden Gateway Center, incidentally is a commercial and residential building. Stores like Safeway and a jewelry store are on the ground floor of a major multi-building apartment complex.

When Front Street resumes, it forms the western border of the utterly charming one-block-square Sidney Walton Park. Filled with gentle hills, grass, and trees that bloom in springtime, the small park also features a surprising number of lovely scuptures and a fountain. It's a boon to residents and office workers alike.

Continuing past Broadway, Front Street runs past several media outlets and other mixed-use commercial spaces, eventually dead-ending into the lovely and relaxing Levi Strauss Plaza. Front Street has a lot to appreciate along it's short, not well-traveled length!