In late May 2021, Apple updated a number of its San Francisco 3D building models, replacing them with more detailed and true-to-life models:

The updated buildings include Salesforce Tower (San Francisco’s tallest building), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Apple Union Square, and Cliff House.

During its WWDC keynotes, Apple typically demos new Apple Maps features—with the background map almost always centered on San Francisco. So we may be seeing Apple touching up the map in preparation for this year’s WWDC.

⚠️ UPDATE #1 | JUNE 1, 2021

In the time since this was published, Apple has added a new, more detailed model of San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center:

⚠️ UPDATE #2 | JUNE 17, 2021

The updated 3D models ended up being the buildings that Apple gave special treatments to in its cartographic redesign (unveiled at WWDC 2021):