Have some time & the itch to visit a museum? Head over to the Stanford campus to check out this…read morebeautiful center! * Location: Car accessible (free museum parking), or 20 min walk from Palo Alto Caltrain station. * Admission: Free! Walk-in & say hello to the front desk staff to get your center map via QR code and recommendations. * Exterior & interior architecture are beautiful in their own right, Rodin sculpture garden makes it even better. * Center is relatively compact but contains great range of collections - antiquities from around the world, 16th-18th century European art, modern 21st century, & more. Roaming the many halls is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon! Tip: Checkout their website for an overview of temporary exhibits and guest speakers.

This is a great free art museum on the Stanford Campus. We visited on a Saturday so there was ample…read morefree parking in the lots right in front of the building. It's a beautiful building and well laid out, it took us maybe an hour and a half to two hours to see most of the exhibits. They have a great collection of different eras and regions of art. Many artists I've heard of thought not their most famous paintings. I really enjoyed the modern gallery too. The highlight for me was the extensive collection of Rodin sculptures including details on how he constructed the spectacular "Gates of Hell" that is replicated outdoors. I visited the Rodin museum in Paris a long time ago and this collection, while small, was still really good and informative. I also love a good Richard Serra steel sculpture and there is one outdoors on the other side of the museum from the Rodin garden.

1 of only 3 Public Frank Lloyd Wright sites in CA and they only allow visitors twice a year so…read morecount yourself an architecture nerd and a lucky-one if you do get a spot on the tour. Older review from before Covid, you can email hannahouse@stanford.edu for next tour dates. You can take as many pictures as you want outside but no pictures of the interior so I added some I found online. This is what makes this design unique compared to other FLW works: -Hexagons/honeycomb, back in 1936 imagine the precision that had to be done by hand to make the huge structure a honeycomb as well as small details like the stone tiles. One cut slightly wrong would have snowballed into huge misalignments. -First FLW work in non-rectangular structures -First FLW work in the Bay Area It's not as epic and grand as Fallingwater or as contemplative as Taliesin West and it is smaller than some of the US public FLW sites but it's only 1 of 3 in Cali you can see the interior of and you get a more complete picture if you can see inside/out and hear the docents anecdotes about the design and house.

Hanna House is one of the few northern California buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Located…read morein a residential neighborhood within the boundaries of the sprawling Stanford University campus, the home is currently occupied by a private party and is not open to the public. However, it once served as the official residence for the Provost where the university regularly held alumni and fundraising events and one might reasonably assume the home may someday return to it's previous semi-public stature. Although visitors are discouraged from trespassing on the property, the house has been magnificently maintained and is visible from the street below. A relatively new arrangement with the Stanford Historical Society will enable the public to tour the house twice each year. Interested parties should contact hannahouse@stanford.edu to receive information about future tour dates and booking arrangements.

This review is long overdue from 2020; I for visited this spot in 2016 or so and loved it so I…read morebrought my husband here during the Covid shut down in 2020 and we took a nice walk, it was awesome to check it out, explore the vacations cacti and spend some time in nature. Parking can be difficult. Overall a great and well kept garden e

This is beautiful little spot on Stanford Campus. A true gem of cacti of all kinds. I've been here…read moreabout 3-4xs times now, and it's always lovely to just walk around. It's definitely a beautiful greenery backdrop for photos as I did a photoshoot for a client here a few months ago. We took a bunch of photos here, and then we walked over to the Quad for an outfit change and a change of scenery. We saw *the* Robert Downey Jr. at the Quad that day! That was awesome! :D I usually come here on a Saturday or Sunday and just park at the medical clinic, which is basically right next to this spot.

This place is a hidden gem in Palo Alto, in an industrial area surrounded by factories. It is a…read moremuseum of the work of Tony Foster, an artist from UK who paints beautiful watercolor landscapes. It's free, and a nice place to visit for an hour or so ... highly recommended.

What to do after brunch on Sunday in Palo Alto? Head to the Foster! Parking is a breeze, the…read moreadmission is free, and the experience works for all ages! As a dabbler in watercolors, I was transfixed--some of these paintings are huge--and he does not use photographs! As an educator, my mind was brimming with opportunities to integrate his work into humanities and human geography classes. The Foster website has excellent resources. This is a must see if you are in the area!

The Lathrop house sits in the middle of San Mateo's governmental center. Originally built in 1862,…read moreit has been moved twice, became a house of ill repute, was converted to a boarding house in WWII, and now has been restored to its condition following the residence of the first three owners. The house is now in very good condition, is being elegantly decorated for the holidays, and offers excellent docent-led tours that reveal the wonderful charm of this vintage house. Hours are limited. Plan ahead. It is definitely worth it if you are at all a history buff.

The house move in November is now May and just happened and is resting above the new foundation! I…read moretook probably 200 pictures, some of them are in here showing the move and the hydraulic system to save this beautiful historic 1863 Steamboat Gothic style house. it is nestled up against the SAN mateo history museum across the street from its former location on Hamilton Street. Once it is lowered onto the new foundation in about a week it will reopen again after about 120 days to make sure that everything is secure and safe. They also need to reattach the stairs and add a handicapped ramp. It had quite a history and it's time which you can read a lot online. One of the most prominent owners was Sheriff Joel Mansfield who was the sheriff of Redwood City for quite some time and was loved by many and buried in the Union cemetery nearby with his wife Mary. Hopefully this new location will bring more visitors and hopefully more donations to help preserve this wonderful mansion.

I brought my friend to come visit here as she never been. We dropped by around 6:20pm, it wasn't…read morecrowded at all. There was only one person sitting around. We got rest of the entire area on our own. If you never been here, I highly recommend for you to check out this place. It is worth a visit at least once.

Remarkable sculpture in Stanford Memorial Court…read more I stopped by during a tour of the campus earlier this week, and stopped by again late in the evening to take pictures without being photo bombed! The sculpture depicts the heroic Burghers of Calais, and is hauntingly beautiful, depicting courage during moments of adversity and impending death. Worth a visit if you're on campus.

Admission to this museum that features American modern and contemporary art is free!…read more It's pretty sizable with two floors and several interesting pieces. If you're there on a weekend look out for the free pubic in-person tours on Saturdays and Sundays at 12:30pm and 2:30pm. We took one and it was better than wandering around the exhibits ourselves. Worth a stop if you're visiting the Stanford campus.

Disclaimer: I give any free museum five stars. Well, it will cost you your zip code. I just gave…read morethem 58008, hoping they'd realize later what it spells upside down. This is one of the world's most outstanding private assemblies of postwar American art, gifted by Bay Area collectors Harry W. "Hunk" and Mary Margaret "Moo" Anderson and their daughter Mary Patricia Anderson Pence, who looks more like Moo but acts like Hunk. The museum, which opened in 2014, houses 121 paintings and sculptures and is known for its focus on movements like Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, and Pop Art. The collection is celebrated for featuring canonical works by some of the 20th century's most significant American artists. Key figures and their works include: Jackson Pollock: The monumental drip painting "Lucifer," considered by many to be the outstanding drip painting still in private hands before it was gifted to Stanford. Mark Rothko: The signature color-field work, "Pink and White over Red." Clyfford Still: A large, imposing piece called "1957-J No. 1 (PH-142)." Richard Diebenkorn: Works like "Ocean Park #60," which displays his progression into abstract forms using geometric shapes and a subdued color palette. Other Masters: The collection also includes works by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, and Helen Frankenthaler. The museum building itself is spacious, which means it feels mostly like space. The coolest thing was the meticulous library that felt too nice to even touch. Be sure to see the Cantor Arts Museum next door. Random Notes: One exhibit had a music video by Nick Cave on repeat, which was annoying and a little out of place, echoing throughout the museum. Oddly, it was not the Nick Cave you are thinking off (i.e. Bad Seeds). It was a different Nick Cave. Which is weird. It's like saying "Oh, yeah, no, that painting of the flower over there is actually Georgia O'Queef." 1. One of the collection's anchor pieces, a major painting by Clyfford Still, was acquired a jockey who had won the famous 1950s television quiz show, "The $64,000 Question," and then retired to open an art gallery in San Francisco. 2. Mark Tansey's painting "Yosemite Falls (Homage to Watkins)" (1993), depicts the famous waterfall, but instead of falling water, the cascade is made up of cameras and tripods. I looked into an art textbook to try to interpret it and apparently it means I am gay.