You’re walking up a residential hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Heights. Houses on both sides. Normal Tuesday. Then you round a corner and—wait.
The staircase ahead isn’t concrete. It’s alive. Blues swirl into golds. Fish become birds become stars. 163 steps of handmade mosaic tiles flow upward like someone painted the ocean and asked it to climb toward the sky.
This is the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps. Built by neighbors. Climbed by thousands.
The Story Written in Tiles
In 2003, Jessie Audette was using the 16th Avenue Steps as her personal Stairmaster—just raw concrete climbing 80 feet up a San Francisco hill. But she kept thinking about Rio de Janeiro, where she’d lived for five years working for a wind energy company. She remembered climbing the Santa Teresa stairs—Jorge Selarón’s wild, tile-covered masterpiece that took 12 years to build.
One day, walking up those gray steps with her Brazilian husband, she said it out loud: “Wouldn’t it be neat if neighbors could get together and decorate these steps?”
She dropped a note in the mailbox of Alice Yee Xavier, who lived right next to the staircase. They were strangers. But when they met, they clicked instantly—same energy, same enthusiasm, same vision. Alice had been gardening the hillside for years, watching people trudge up and down utilitarian stairs that did nothing but get you from point A to point B.
They pitched the idea to the neighborhood. No city money. No corporate sponsors. Just a grassroots campaign asking neighbors if they’d take a chance on something that had never been done in San Francisco before. Over 220 people sponsored handmade tiles—fish, birds, stars, flowers—with names carved into them. Three hundred volunteers showed up to mosaic workshops to help create the panels.
Irish ceramicist Aileen Barr and San Francisco mosaic artist Colette Crutcher couldn’t be chosen between, so the neighborhood asked them to team up. Over two and a half years, they designed and fabricated 163 mosaic panels—over 2,000 handmade tiles built from 75,000 fragments of glass, mirror, and ceramic.
The design flows like a story: sea creatures and coral at the bottom, land animals in the middle, birds rising upward, then moon and stars at the top. Sea to sky. Ocean floor to cosmos.
On August 27, 2005, lion dancers led the opening ceremony. The mayor of Caltagirone, Italy flew in—his city’s Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte became the steps’ sister stairway. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd declared it “16th Avenue Tiled Steps Day.”
Alice joked while they were installing tiles that buses full of tourists would come to see it. Everyone laughed. She was right.
What Makes It Worth the Trip
The magic isn’t just the art. It’s the joy of stumbling on something this vibrant in a quiet neighborhood.
The steps live between residential homes on 16th Avenue—not hidden exactly, but tucked away from the typical tourist route. You have to want to find them. And when you do, you get the thrill of discovering something most San Francisco visitors rush past on their way to Fisherman’s Wharf.
The climb itself becomes pure delight. You’re not just walking up stairs. You’re moving through a story, watching colors shift underfoot, turning around every few steps to see how the whole thing comes together from different angles. Sunlight catches the glass fragments. The design reveals itself piece by piece.
At the top? Grandview Park and a view of the city that feels earned.
The Perfect Hunt For
Couples: A date that’s weirdly romantic—climbing art together, pausing on landings, taking photos for a future “remember when?”
Families: Kids treat it like a treasure hunt. “Find the octopus!” “Count the stars!” Suddenly climbing 163 steps is the highlight of the day.
Solo explorers: The kind of find that makes you feel like you know the city a little better.
Anyone avoiding the guidebook route: Skip the crowds. Find the stairs built by neighbors who believed their corner of the city deserved something beautiful.
How to Find It
Address: 16th Avenue & Moraga Street, Golden Gate Heights
Getting there: Park near the base of 16th Avenue. The staircase sits between residential homes. You’ll know it when the first tiles catch sunlight.
Best time: Golden hour makes the tiles glow. Weekday mornings are quieter if you want the steps mostly to yourself.
Pro moves:
- Bring a wide-angle lens for the full view
- Climb to the top—Grandview Park is right there with city views
- Don’t rush it—sit on a step, notice the details, see which animals you can spot
- The Hidden Garden Steps are a 10-minute walk away (same artists, different vibe)
Good to know: It’s free, it’s always open, and it’s worth the trip.
It’s public art that doesn’t announce itself. It just waits for you to show up.
And when you do, you’re part of a tradition that started with 300 people deciding stairs could be more than functional. They made a stairway that sings—not with sound, but with color, community, and the simple magic of discovery.
The world is a game. Join the adventure early. We’re mapping cities clue by clue. Be among the first explorers when we launch.
Photo by Mickey Løgitmark, CC BY 3.0
