The Hilton San Francisco Union Square reopened its 46th-floor bar Cityscape earlier this week after a summer-long closure, permitting 360-degree views at what’s billed as the city’s tallest bar. Along with your altitudinal cocktail, you can see newly uncovered mid-century modern artwork from 1964, when the hotel first opened.
These art panels are called the Celestial Sisters and feature divine goddesses of the night sky. They were originally installed in San Francisco’s gorgeous Fox Theatre, built in 1929 and criminally demolished in 1963. (To see a similar—and similarly named—movie palace, visit the Fox Theater across the bay in Oakland.)
The panels were hidden after the theater closed and then airlifted to the Hilton via helicopter, where they were displayed in various spots through the hotel until being covered up.
Recently, they’ve been rediscovered and restored and serve as the centerpiece to the newly-envisioned Cityscape, thanks to a redesign by Graham-Wells and Edward Perotti. Their vision for the space encompasses the starry universe and its timeless patterns. General manager Brian Howard has also borrowed the interstellar nature of the panels to create a new, complementary cocktail menu called Cocktails of the Cosmos.
Visit Cityscape for a drink or two, or go all out and book a room at the hotel with the Cityscape Weekend Escape package, which comes with a $50 credit at the bar.