As I stroll through the Yerba Buena Gardens for my daily lunch, I make my way toward the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. It’s at the heart of YBG and a place where many in the neighborhood flock to for a quiet moment.
The memorial itself, titled Revelation, was built in 1993 and is the United States’ second largest Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The memorial leads visitors down a path that runs underneath a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool and just behind a 50’x20’ ft. wall of cascading water. The inner walls are lined with glass panels, etched with a selection of MLK Jr. quotations, and translated into the languages of San Francisco’s thirteen sister cities. In a city that is bursting with sound, this memorial is a place for residents to rest and reflect, undisturbed by the sounds of the surrounding city.