The new SFMOMA is disorientingly beautiful.

On your first visit, your eye darts to all the corners and stairwells, the world a series of stark intersecting lines. This will be triply so if you remember the old museum, with its 1990s-modern black and white interior. You will spin trying to orient yourself to the cylindrical dome atrium (it survives), but nothing else makes sense.

With your head firmly gazing upward and outward, you might entirely miss coat check, the welcome desk, and even the ticket counters. The SFMOMA is prepared just for this possibility — an army of red-shirt helpers routinely wander up to the confused, bewildered masses to lend a guiding hand over to a map.

This isn’t to say the building trumps the art. It is just to say that the building is the first piece of art you’ll be thrown by.

Whereas modern architecture can come off as cold and removed (which was can be used to great effect too), the new SFMOMA combines large wood elements and organic touches like its living wall that warm up the interior and give your mind a break from all the crisp white.

A friend suggested starting at the 7th floor and working our way down. This is an entirely logical approach, that we haven’t managed to stick to on our two visits. There’s so much to see, you see. And Bean and I approach the museum not unlike errant ants, finding delicious bits and bobbles in every corner, then jumping floors because a stranger approached us and told us we just had to see the airplane on the 3rd floor. A MUST.

If I’m being honest, this is all directed at the 3-year old. I always worry about bringing a child into a museum, I worry that I’ll get sneers from people who would prefer their art without a side of preschooler interpretation.

It’d be an understatement to say she’s been embraced by the SFMOMA and its clientele. No, she is basically anointed every time we’ve walked in.

Modern art aficionados have a magnetic attraction to little kids in their midst. Bean has been smiled at, gasped at, fawned over by entire tours, played peek-a-boo with (twice). She has shaken people’s hands, given out high fives, and been thoughtfully and seriously listened to as she told me what she thought about a certain painting. That was just today’s tally.

Which makes the SFMOMA a perfect spot for kids. There is this idea in modern art that we should all harken back to the innocent eyes and minds of a child, where art is pure emotion and expression, all before realism is stuffed down our collective throats. Bean’s unfiltered, uncynical opinion matters. More people than I can count have sidled up and whispered to me that, “really, she should be giving US the tour! You know what I mean?”

Plus, the galleries, perhaps emboldened by their vivacious and cheeky artwork, are loud with the hum of people talking and discussing. This isn’t a quiet hallowed museum.

The museum architecture and galleries offer a pleasant balance to each other as you make your way through the museum. The galleries are expectedly minimalistic white walls and open doorways, with white benches with creme seating pads on top. The art is the main show. Once you feel a bit “museumed out”, you can return to the sun-flooded funhouse of the museum, where stairwell walls unnoticeably taper and balconies beckon you to unexpected views.

Once you’re hungry, and you will be because the new museum is vast, a rooftop terrace cafe on the 5th floor is an ideal spot to rest and regroup. (You’ll recognize it as the old rooftop terrace cafe, now with large addition looming.) A coffeeshop on the 3rd floor serves Sight Glass coffee and a handful of pastries, and is decked out with comfortable lounge…swirly poofs? Like lozenges you can rest on.

If you are feeling even more worn out than that, a quiet lounge room on the 2nd floor has groupings of chairs and poofs and art books for you to peruse.

With two visits down, we still haven’t seen the entire museum. This might just be our new summer project.

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

151 Third Street, SF in Union Square

Open 10am to 5pm, Open until 9pm on Thursdays

Tickets for Adults are $25, Seniors $22, Ages 19-24 $19, and all children under 18 are free

The Dual Membership is a great deal, if you can find someone to share it with. $150 for the two of you (so $75 each), and you can each bring in guests. I’ve split a membership with a friend, and now we both get to go the museum with our husbands for free.