Peace Pagoda

The Peace Pagoda stands at the center of the Peace Plaza as a five-tiered concrete structure reaching one hundred feet into the air. It was a gift from San Francisco's sister city, Osaka, and was officially dedicated in nineteen sixty-eight. The architect, Yoshiro Taniguchi, chose to move away from traditional wood construction to embrace modern materials, reflecting a blend of ancestral forms and contemporary engineering. Taniguchi drew direct inspiration for the tiered shape from the Million Pagodas, which were tiny wooden monuments commissioned by Empress Koken in the eighth century.