de Young

I never saw the old de Young museum - It's been a construction site since I arrived in San Francisco almost 5 years ago. As a result, the various controversies surrounding said construction and it's architectural design mean very little to me. It's just a new museum housed in a progressive and highly considered new building. In a city as small as San Francisco, that doesn't happen everyday. It's pretty great.

To celebrate the de Young opened for 31 straight hours and let everyone in for free.

I'm not a big fan of crowded museums... but had to go anyhow. We arrived to a very long line around 9:30pm last night. It moved surprisingly quickly. We probably waited around 45 minutes total. Once inside, there's a lot to see. The design of the building encourages exploration - I've never seen a more welcoming museum. I don't think we saw much. It was too crowded to really stand still an appreciate the works they have on display. What I did see, I loved. Especially the room dedicated to the Hudson River School... Martin Johnson Heade is a straight up madman.

I can't wait to go back.

See also: SFist's excellent write up. Lane took some great photos.