Maiden Lane

Maiden Lane is a pedestrian mall located in San Francisco. A former section of the city's red light district, Maiden Lane is now home to high-end boutiques and art galleries. The street also serves as the location of San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. Today, the street is a pedestrian mall lined with boutiques. The pedestrian mall stretches two blocks, between Kearny and Stockton Streets. The street is blocked from traffic from 11 am until 5 pm by wrought iron gates, reopening in the evening to traffic. The most notable building on the street is the V. C. Morris Gift Shop, which is a San Francisco Designated Landmark. The building is the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed space in the city. In 2016, the Chronicle's urban design critic John King revisited Jacobs' 1958 essay and found that much of it no longer applied: 'Maiden Lane feels mighty generic these days ... posh but pallid, a testament to the dangers of prosperity when it has more to do with the global scene than the local one.'