With its sunny courtyard and generous cased windows, this uplifting 1922 building is an interfaith landmark. Since 1969, the San Francisco Zen Center (sfzc.org) has been home to one of the largest Buddhist communities outside of Asia. Before she built Hearst Castle, Julia Morgan (California's first licensed woman architect) designed this Italianate brick structure to house the Emanu-El Sisterhood, a residence for low-income Jewish working women – note the ironwork Stars of David on the 1st-floor loggia.
Watch sunlight fill the Zendo during free morning zazen (5:25am daily), and check out events: half-day garden meditations, workshops blending breathwork with beatboxing and Trans Sangha, meditation by and for the trans community (7pm every other Thursday).
