COW HOLLOW, Union St. between Van Ness Ave. and Fillmore St. Original location of milk-producing area populated mostly by cows. Developed into area of specialty shops, art galleries, and bookshops. Many shops in restored Victorian homes.

OCTAGON HOUSE, 2645 Gough. One of only two remaining examples in city of this mid-19th-century architectural form. Eight-sided homes were thought to bring luck. Now a museum and center for National Society of Colonial Dames of America.

ENCHANTED CRYSTAL, 1771 Union St. Fine decorative crystal and art glass.

IMAGES OF THE NORTH, 1782 Union St. Superb Eskimo art from Alaska and Canada.

LAURA ASHLEY, 1827 Union St. A touch of Edwardian elegance.

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, 1974 Union St. Pre-1935 American quilt collection. Charming stuffed animals made of vintage quilt bits.

WEDDING HOUSES, 1980 Union St. Built in the late 1870s. Farmer sold property to a father as wedding presents for his two daughters. Since 1963 has been tastefully transformed to charming flower-decked shops and cafes.

PREGO, 2000 Union St. For young, rich, and trendy. Check out latest in food and finery.

VEDANTA TEMPLE, 2963 Webster, corner Webster at Filbert. 1995 architectural cocktail may be the most unusual structure in San Francisco. It's a patiche of Colonial, Queen Anne, Moorish, and Hindu opulence. Has Taj Mahal dome, Saracenic crescent, onionesque Russian dome, iron filigree balconies, Victorian gingerbread, Moorish arches, turrets, and bay windows.

FASHIONABLE SHOPS, Fillmore between Union to Greenwich. Small fascinating shops. Top dealers in Oriental art.

PANORAMA OF BAY AND GOLDEN GATE, half block down Fillmore between Broadway and Vallejo. White, low-rise Marina District at base of hill. Palace of Fine Arts at west end of Marina. Green forests blanket the Army Presidio. Profile view of Art Deco Golden Gate Bridge.

ANDREW HAMMOND MANSION, 2252 Broadway. Edwardian red brick town house built about 1905. In 1956 converted into Stuart Hall for Boys.

JAMES LEARY FLOOD MANSION, 2222 Broadway. Stateliest house ever erected is a three-story Italian Renaissance palace. Converted to Sacred Heart High School and convent.

JOSEPH DONOHOE GRANT MANSION, 2200 Broadway at Webster. Added to the school of the Sacred Heart as an elementary school.

BOURN MANSION, 2550 Webster near Broadway. Massive Georgian brick mansion built in 1896 for William B. Bourn who had inherited a Mother Lode gold mine.

HAMLIN SCHOOL, 2120 Broadway. Built of wood, it is designed to look like a stone palazzo. Twin gray marble lions guarding steps are nicknamed Leo and Leona. Built in 1901 by James Leary Flood.

2040 BROADWAY. Built in 1987, zoning requires new buildings to fit into their environment. This four-story building has 12 units in postmodern French mansard style. Cornice garnish with heroic-size grape clusters.

2000 BROADWAY. With no strict zoning in 1973, this new style is called Concrete Brutalism.

VIEW FROM LAGUNA ST. Catch a glimpse of Mt. Tamalpais across Golden Gate.

2535 LAGUNA. Built in 1904 is one of the earliest row houses to accommodate the newly-introduced automobile. Elaborate paneled black wood and clear glass double garage doors.

OTTTILIE R. SCHUBERT HALL, 2099 Pacific. California Historical Society's important research library. 4l5,000 books, 350,000 historic photographs, 8,000 manuscript collections.

WHITTIER MANSION MUSEUM/CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 2090 Jackson at Laguna. Massive red sandstone Whittier Mansion built in 1896 and has been headquarters for society since 1956. Only a chimney toppled over during 1906 earthquake.

2045 JACKSON ST. Grand condominiums with lofty ceilings present an air of classical formality. Rusticated stucco base links symmetrical pair.

2030 AND 2040 JACKSON ST. Pair of Mediterranean-style houses form U shape. Decorated bays, grill-work balconies, molded ornament.

2020 JACKSON ST. Dates from about 1902. Formal Ionic colonnades line the side entranceway. After earthquake and fire in 1906, this house became headquarters of the Wells Fargo Bank.

2010 JACKSON ST. Two-story Neoclassic contemporary house with two statues and a pergola on its second story.

VIEW AT JACKSON AND OCTAVIA. Fine view of the bay and the cluster of simple clapboard, green-roofed buildings at Fort Mason.

WEST GERMAN CONSULATE, 1950 and 1960 Jackson. Twin Georgian-style brick-and-terra-cotta houses. Lovely white marble statue seen through right-hand gate. South-facing front garden in the court almost always has flowers in bloom. Fine view of entrance to harbor.

GREENLEAF TERRACE APARTMENTS, 1925-55 Jackson. Flats step uphill almost pueblo-like. Palm trees were old Victorian favorites and give the right exotic touch. Visible far overhead are the trees atop the salmon-colored luxury apartment building at 2006 Washington St., another example of the ability to grow a plant absolutely anywhere.

HAAS-LILIENTHAL MUSEUM/FOUNDATION FOR SAN FRANCISCO'S HERITAGE, 2007 Franklin. Built in 1886 at an original cost of $20,000. Survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. Carefully-kept rooms offer an intriguing glimpse into turn-of-the-century taste and lifestyle. Best view across Franklin at northeast corner of Clay. Manipulated gables make it appear that building has hitched roof but actually has flat roof, corner turret strictly decorative with windows ten feet off tower floor.

GOLDEN GATE SPIRITUALIST CHURCH, 1901 Franklin at Clay. Baroque revival. Appears to be stone, actually built of wood. Gumdrop-shaped evergreens characteristic in 1840s.

1950 CLAY. High-rise concrete apartment building in Art Deco style built in 1930 with green canvas canopy. Metal grille and plate-glass door, bay windows, Art Deco roofline with jazzy ornament.

1963-80 CLAY. Group of three-flat apartment houses built about 1938. Set back in sidewalk in staggered pattern with landscaped planter-gardens set in front. Views of Nob Hill's high-rises on other side of hill.

ST. REGIS APARTMENTS, 1925 Gough. Beaux Arts luxury apartment house built about 1925 and surrounded on three sides by park land.

2000 GOUGH, northeast corner of Clay. Fine Eastlake-Queen Anne house built in 1886.

BELDON-BUCK HOUSE, 2004-10 Gough. Large Queen Anne built in 1889. Central chimney through center with two-story cylindrical bay to right and one-story round bay to left. Large carved masklike face set in carved foilage. Large stained-glass window depicting Bay set in west side of house.

2030 AND 2040 GOUGH. Tudor revival stucco and red brick Georgian revival built with ample garages underneath. Dissimilar houses share similar form and unite to create a U shape.

2000 WASHINGTON. Luxurious seven-story, seven units Beaux Arts apartment building with fine views over the Bay.

2006 WASHINGTON. One of the finest "community" apartment houses. Each floor is a separate unit as large as a sizable house. Designed to face Spreckles Mansion and Golden Gate. Large garden with curving ramp leads to underground garage, figure of Pan playing his pipes decorate approach.

SPRECKELS MANSION, 2080 Washington at Octavia. Imposing residence. Architect also designed European Museum and California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Distinguished by paired columns, French Windows, and balconies with richly scrolled metal balustrades.

2100 WASHINGTON, corner of Octavia. White, French-style city mansion. Front yard walled in and attractive pergola introduced at its entrance.

2108 WASHINGTON. Built about 1880, moved to this site in 1921, completely remodeled in 1925 and faced in red brick. First-floor bow "window" solarium across front added in 1988.

2120 WASHINGTON. Classical Revival Box built in 1908. Banished bay windows, though one appears on west side.

MARY PHELAN MANSION, 2150 Washington. Buff brick Renaissance Revival.

WASHINGTON TOWER, 2190 Washington. Behind a glitzy sidewalk is a Miami modern import of 1960 which makes no effort to relate to its surroundings.

LAFAYETTE PARK. Crowns highest point in Pacific Heights at 378 feet. Fine views of Twin Peaks to southwest and Bay to north. Oasis for sunbathers and dog-and-Frisbee teams.

1900 BLOCK OF SACRAMENTO ST., south side. Five small Victorian houses (1911, 1913, 1915, 1919, and 1921) built in late 1860s and early 1870s.

FRANJKLIN STREET APARTMENT BUILDING, 1745, 1755, and 1740 Franklin. Upscale apartment buildings replaced Victorian houses between 1906 and 1930. Viewed from across the Bay, they are the countless facets of white, cubist San Francisco.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, corner of Franklin and California. Tuscan-style handsome square tower makes a nice pair with the round turret of 1701 Franklin St.

BRANSTON HOUSE, 1735 Franklin. Red-brick-veneered, two-story, Georgian-style. Spacious lawn. Entrance on the side. Large bay window on the street facade.

EDWARD COLEMAN HOUSE, 1701 California. One of the most beautiul old buildings in the city. Great round corner tower with curved glass windows accommodates very large bay attached to principal rooms. Restored and converted into law offices in 1975.

LILIENTHAL-PRATT HOUSE, 1818 California. Sits atop a graded rock with high retaining wall capped by black iron fence. Richly ornamented facade is enlivened with redwood ornament.

WORMSER-COLEMAN HOUSE, 1834 California. Italianate style. East wall shows handsome architectural elaboration. West wall is purely utilitarian with windows poked in where needed and pipes and telephone wires visible.

1700 CALIFORNIA. Eleven-story building combines parking, ground floor commercial spaces, five stories of offices, and atop that five luxury condominiums. Urn finials give a post-modern touch.

ST. LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, southeast corner of Van Ness and Clay. Splendid interior surrounded on four sides by glowing stained-glass windows, many of them of angels.

BUDDHIST CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1881 Pine St. at Octavia. Up broad staircase is second-floor hondo or worship hall. Recessed gilded altar flanked by painted screens of peacocks. Timbers inset with intricate gilded ornamented panels.

BUDDHIST CHURCHES OF AMERICA, 1710 Octavia. Mounted on a facade is a copper wheel of life with eight spokes.

BINET-MONTESSORI SCHOOL, 1715 Octavia. View from across street to appreciate unique facade. Styled in Japanese dress with green tile roof with upturned eaves, arched entrance treated like a gate, and top a colossal green copper "cloud" finial. Green copper Madonna and child with Japanese features in ornate white niche.

SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION FOR THE JAPANESE, 1801 Octavia at Pine. Green tile roof with turned-up eaves and richly decorated dark green Japanese-style, gate-like entrance porch. Stained glass windows depict St. Francis Xavier and other Roman Catholic missionaries to Asia. Garden surrounds church on three sides.

1801-65 LAGUNA. One of the most photographed rows of Victorians in the city. Eleven Eastlake or Stick-style houses built in 1889. Gables, turrets.

1800-32 LAGUNA. Six Italianate row houses with slant-sided bay windows built in 1887.

OLD BUSH STREET SYNAGOGUE CULTURAL CENTER/JUDAH L. MAGNES WESTERN JEWISH HISTORY CENTER, 1881 Bush near Laguna. Venetian-Moorish redwood gingerbread facade, Venetian columns, two square Moorish towers. Became history center in 1988.

KONKO CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1909 Bush St. at Laguna. Uses post-and-lintel form of traditional Shinto architecture, dramatic Japanese roof.

1740 LAGUNA. New building but would be taken by most to be turn-of-the-century building.

CHRIST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1700 Sutter at Laguna. Brown wood trim, thin square tower, large diagonal skylight.

SOTOZEN MISSION SOKJOJI, 1691 Laguna at Sutter. Modern Japanese-style Buddhist temple with projecting roof timbers forming an X. Under-exposed wood eave over entrance is thin wood tablet with fine calligraphy, most artistic sign in Japantown.

NICHI BEI KAI CULTURAL CENTER, 1759 Sutter. One of most Japanese of urban renewal Japantown designs. Small Japanese garden with stone lantern behind rustic fence.

JAPANESE-AMERICAN CITIZENS LEAGUE, 1765 Sutter. Traditional San Francisco frame architecture with Japanese circular second-floor window. Civil rights organization.

WESTERN ADDITION YWCA, 1830 Sutter. Walled-in structure has high tile-capped wall and tile roof with upturned eaves.

JAPANESE CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTER OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, 1840 Sutter. Fine historical archive. Houses various community service organizations.

1825 SUTTER. Two-story, bay-windowed San Francisco Italianate row house built in 1878. Black steel abstract sculpture Streetlight in front garden.

1717-19 WEBSTER. Handsosme example of early Victorian houses of 1860s and 1870s. Fine cornice and window moldings. Tiny garden with baby tears groundcover and small-leafed plantings.

VOLLMER HOUSE, 1735-37 Webster. Moved here so it could be restored rather than demolished. Basic San Francisco row house box with rich redwood gingerbread facade.

2101-01½ BUSH. Building with corner shop and five-sided corner bay window that projects out over public sidewalk at second floor.

STANYAN HOUSE, 2006 Bush. One of oldest houses in city, dates from post-Gold Rush city. Gable roof, open porch. Clapboard house that New Englanders and other Easterners built in sandy San Francisco in early 1850s. Steeply-pitched roof proved to be unnecessary in a climate where it rarely rains and never snows.

2000-12 BUSH, near Buchanan. Two houses have flat-roof lines, bay windows rather than open porches, and machine-carved ornamental trim.

NIHONMACHI MALL, 1700 block of Buchanan between Sutter and Post. Modern "Japanese Village." Stark, modern concrete-and-timber architecture faces Sutter north. Tall square tower faces Post at south. Fine steel fountains look like folded steel flowers. School children made side-panels of benches by casting dough figures in concrete.

SOKO HARDWARE, 1698 Post. Run by merchant family since 1925. Beautifully-crafted Japanese tools for gardening and carpentry. Seeds of Japanese vegetables. Long-sleeved, back-fastening Japanese aprons.

GENJI KIMONOS AND ANTIQUES, 1731 Buchanan. Wood chests in back are noteworthy.

JAPANTOWN CENTER. Five-acre complex includes shops and showrooms selling Japanese products.

PEACE PAGODA. Gift from people of Japan. Twelve rectangular pillars support five copper-clad roofs. Above topmost roof is nine-ringed spire supporting flaming golden ball.

GINZA DISCOUNT IMPORTS, East Building. Trinket city.

IKENOBO IKEBANA SOCIETY. To left, before floor rises for Webster St. bridge. Flower arrangements, books.

INTERNATIONAL GUILD SOCIETY, right side of Webster bridge. Nineteenth-century and contemporary prints.

KINOKUNIYA BOOKSTORE, West building, second floor. Japanese and English language books, art books, guides to Japan.

ASAKICHI JAPANESE ANTIQUES AND ART, first floor of West building in front of castle model. Antiques and art.

KABUKI HOT SPRINGS, West building, entry at 1750 Geary. Recently remodeled Japanese-styled bathhouse with private and communal baths.

GEARY EXPRESSWAY. Two-block underpass walls have four brightly-colored metal graphics. South wall, West African cow and Ghanan spirit symbol. North wall, two Japanese family crests.

FILLMORE WEST AUDITORIUM, 1807 Geary at Fillmore. Dates back to 1912. Leased in 1967 for six-days-a-week "Summer of Love" rock concerts, accompanied by novel light shows projected from the walls. Web site

CANTICLE OF THE SUN, DUQUETTE PAVILION, 1839 Geary at Fillmore. "Celebration environment" in honor of St. Francis is part shrine, part giant's jewel box. Archangels loom in amethyst, seashells, and peacock feathers (25-foot). Weird towers and totem poles.

FILLMORE CENTER, three blocks bounded by Fillmore, Steiner, O'Farrell, and Turk. Nine-acre commercial and residential complex. Design promises extensively landscaped and waterscaped gardens.

CHINA CONSULATE, 1450 Laguna at Geary. Complex built for Salvation Army but bought for consulate general. Red flag with yellow stars flies here in neutral nondescript far from Chinatown with its predominately Nationalist sympathies. Web site

ST. FRANCIS SQUARE, Geary from Webster to Laguna. On south side of Geary are cypress trees bordering parking lots of co-operative housing projects developed by Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Unions.

THE SEQUOIAS, 1400 Geary between Gough and Laguna. Elegantly-designed white concrete tower is retirement and hospital facilities built by Northern California Presybterian Homes. Design is modern sculpture blown up to gargantuan size.

ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION, 1111 Gough at Geary. Enclave known as Cathedral Hill. Dedicated in 1971. Seats 2,500 around central altar. Spectacular cascade of 7,000 aluminum ribs. Four stained-glass windows: blue north window, water; light-colored south window, the sun; red west window, fire; green east window, earth. Spacious plazas.

VIEWS FROM ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL. Leave cathedral through western door behind great organ. Fine view of city to the southwest. From terrace on east (downtown), interesting view of towers all around.

FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, 1187 Franklin at Star King Way. Modern addition is contemporary concrete with redwood trim and two courtyards. First Unitarian service in 1850 and Unitarian Society organized in 1852. Web site

CITY HALL, Polk St. between Grove and McAllister. Great domed City Hall is centerpiece of San Francisco's Beaux Arts Civic Center. Baroque masterpiece of granite and marble modeled after Capitol in Washington is 400 feet long and 300 feet wide with 186-foot-high rotunda. 301-foot-high copper dome. Ring of free-standing Doric columns surmounted by tall urns surrounds drum of dome on exterior. Formal gardens with fountains, walkways, occasional flower beds. Web site

SAN FRANCISCO ART COMMISSION GALLERY, 151 3rd St., in Veterans Building. Contemporary art exhibit.

WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE, south of Veterans Building. Opened in 1932. Largest opera company west of New York City.

LOUIS M. DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL, south of Grove on Van Ness. Made of glass and concrete.

LARGE FOUR-PIECE RECLINING FIGURE, Van Ness and Grove. Henry moore sculpture.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA HOUSE SHOP, 199 Grove. Books, T-shirts, posters, gift items.

SAN FRANCISCO ART COMMISSION WINDOWS, 155 Grove St. Exhibits in windows.

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, Larkin St. across plaza from City Hall. San Francisco History Room and Archives, third floor. Web site

UNITED NATIONS PLAZA, Market and Fulton Sts., east of Civic Center.