Civic Center, San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco The Civic Center in San Francisco, California, is an area of a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas (Civic Center Plaza and United Nations Plaza) and a number of buildings in classical architectural style. The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (formerly the Exposition Auditorium), the United Nations Charter was signed in the War Memorial Veterans Building's Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations. It is also where the 1951
San Francisco Public Library W. Kelham, opened in the Civic Center. Ten major murals by California Tonalist Gottardo Piazzoni were installed in 1931–1932; four more were completed in 1945, but left uninstalled until the 1970s. In 2018 "Library Journal" awarded it the Library of the Year award. In addition to the Main Library, the San Francisco Public Library has 27 branch libraries. In 1930, San Francisco voters approved a charter amendment to increase taxes to fund the construction of the Anza Branch Library. Using the site of the old Lafayette School, architect John W. Reid, Jr. designed and landscaped the new branch building. The