As a kid, Andrew Mann spent hours imagining house designs and sketching floorplans. That passion never wavered, and today, the San Francisco architect is sought after by clients for his clean, elegant design aesthetic and careful attention to scale, proportion and natural light. Influenced by luminaries like Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and William Wurster, as well as William Turnbull–with whom he worked for a decade–his work builds on the tradition of Bay Area Style, refreshing it for modern life. He serves on the design committee at The Sea Ranch, Northern California’s iconic community of modernist residences designed to live in harmony with their natural surroundings. Andrew–who appreciates quality craftsmanship, whether a beautifully made home or tasty artisanal bread–takes us along on his ideal Sunday in San Francisco.
9 a.m. I’d start my day at The Mill, a local coffee shop and bakery. They have fabulous coffee and some of the best sourdough bread in San Francisco. The baker is a guy named Josey Baker. I’d have coffee and toast, get a loaf of bread to go, and enjoy either sitting in the café or sitting out on the street and watching people come and go.
10 a.m. I would take a trip to my local Sunday farmer’s market at Grove and Divisadero, in the Nopa neighborhood. It is filled with the bounty of California–fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, smoothies and flowers.

11 a.m. Within that neighborhood, along Divisadero, there are a bunch of small local boutique-type stores, which are always interesting to poke through. There’s The Perish Trust, which has vintage items and cards and books. Also, I like Rare Device, which sells ceramics, jewelry and kids’ toys. If you ever need a birthday gift or a gift for a host who’s inviting you for dinner, it’s the place to go. There’s also Tanner Goods, which has great bags, leather stuff and clothing–beautifully made. Then there are two smaller clothes stores–Onyx and Topo Designs–and it’s always fun to poke in and see what interesting stuff they have.
1 p.m. I would then have lunch at A Mano in Hayes Valley, which serves fabulous Italian food. You can sit outside, watch the crowds, have a glass of Frascati or some other wonderful Italian white wine. Have a plate of pasta, split a salad with a friend.
4 p.m. I would also go to my favorite building in San Francisco, the San Francisco Art Institute on Russian Hill. The building is composed of an original building built in the 1920s that’s poured-in-place concrete, clay tile roofs, metal windows and Spanish colonial-style architecture. You walk into a fabulous courtyard with an arcade around it, and there’s a tile fountain and trees in the middle–it takes you to another place.
Within this original building, there’s a fabulous gallery space that is the quintessential architecture of that period with a wood-beamed ceiling. There’s a beautiful Diego Rivera mural there–such a treat–and that gallery space is usually showing student artists’ work. And then there’s a part of the building that was built in the ’60s that’s also concrete, but much more in a Brutalist, modernist vocabulary.
