The editors’ selection

The Letterform Archive is one of the US’s best independent repositories of fonts, typefaces and printed design. Opened in 2015 and accessible by appointment only, it houses more than 60,000 standout examples of typography, including books, posters and calligraphy. A highlight is original logo work for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, designed by Lance Wyman. 

Opened in 1967 by sound engineers Stan Shaff and Doug McEachern, Audium is a theatre built for cutting-edge performances and experiments with sound. A total of 176 speakers (each tailored to emphasise a different soundwave) are installed in the space, which hosts weekly live sound-art shows. 

While it’s the sheer size of Golden Gate Park that often draws visitors across its leafy threshold, it’s one of the park’s smaller enclaves that is, arguably, one of its most charming spots. The Shakespeare Garden, a walled, landscaped space, was inaugurated in 1928. It is planted with more than 200 trees, flowers and plants that appear in the Bard’s plays and poetry: there are violets and daisies from the comedy Love’s Labours Lost; poppies and lilies which respectively feature in the tragedies Othello and Henry VIII; and roses “red and white” from Sonnet 130.