Ballast by Richard Serra

Installed on the UCSF Mission Bay campus in 2005, Ballast is Richard Serra at his most architectural. Two plates of weathered steel — each roughly 50 feet high by 15 feet wide — stand in a plaza and divide it into three equal intervals. The effect is exactly what Serra does best: space becomes something you feel before you understand it. The plates are overwhelming in person, imposing in the way a building is imposing, but with none of a building’s function to soften the encounter.

Ballast sits conveniently close to the UCSF/Mission Bay Muni light rail stop, and only a few stops from the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design — which makes for a worthwhile afternoon circuit if the combination of industrial sculpture and craft appeals.

Location: Gene Friend Way, between 3rd and 4th Streets, UCSF Mission Bay Campus