Bernard Maybeck designed the Palace of Fine Arts to evoke melancholy and the passage of time. Drawing on the paintings of Arnold Bocklin and the Roman ruins he had studied, Maybeck created a rotunda and colonnade that looked ancient from the day they were built. Weeping women atop the columns gazed inward, away from the viewer. The reflecting lagoon mirrored the structure, doubling its apparent scale. The effect was deliberate: Maybeck wanted visitors to feel the sadness of beauty passing, a theme particularly resonant for a structure designed to be demolished.

After the exposition closed in 1915, the Palace of Fine Arts was the only major structure not demolished. The plaster and burlap deteriorated steadily, creating an effect that paradoxically fulfilled Maybeck's intention -- the structure became an actual ruin, not just an imitation of one. For fifty years, the crumbling palace sat beside its lagoon, growing more picturesque as it grew more fragile. Finally, in the 1960s, the structure was completely demolished and rebuilt in reinforced concrete, preserving the form while replacing every piece of the original.

Today the Palace of Fine Arts is one of the most visited sites in San Francisco, its rotunda reflected in the lagoon where swans glide among the water plants. The surrounding park is used for weddings, photography, and contemplation. The building houses a theater venue. The irony of Maybeck's creation is complete: he designed a temporary structure to evoke the beauty of impermanence, and the city made it permanent because the beauty was too good to let go.