Market Street
Pacific Building
Pacific Building
821 Market Street
Built to the design of C.F. Whittlesey Co. in 1908, this nine-story building was at that time the largest reinforced-concete building in the world -- a tribute, no doubt, to the impression wrought by the earthquake and fire. The Moorish style of the building is highlighted by green Italian tile, a colorful contrast to predominant Market Street Gray.
821 Market Street
Built to the design of C.F. Whittlesey Co. in 1908, this nine-story building was at that time the largest reinforced-concete building in the world -- a tribute, no doubt, to the impression wrought by the earthquake and fire. The Moorish style of the building is highlighted by green Italian tile, a colorful contrast to predominant Market Street Gray.
Citizens' Federal Savings and Loan Building
The Citizens’ Federal Savings and Loan
Building (originally the Mutual Building)
700 Market Street
This building provides an excellent example of preservation combined with a thoughtful modern enlargement. William Curlett designed the building in 1902 on a site which did not include the corner lot. When the present owners decided to renovate the structure, they purchased the corner lot and commissioned Clark and Beuttler to design a new annex. This addition in modern in materials and basic concept yet entirely compatible with the original building’s Mansarded style. Sensitivity and imagination have given the owners an exceptionally fine Market Street headquarters.
700 Market Street
This building provides an excellent example of preservation combined with a thoughtful modern enlargement. William Curlett designed the building in 1902 on a site which did not include the corner lot. When the present owners decided to renovate the structure, they purchased the corner lot and commissioned Clark and Beuttler to design a new annex. This addition in modern in materials and basic concept yet entirely compatible with the original building’s Mansarded style. Sensitivity and imagination have given the owners an exceptionally fine Market Street headquarters.
The Monadnock Building
Monadnock Building (1907)
685 Market Street, Suite 550
Architect: Frederick H. Meyer
Construction on the exquisite Beaux-Art style Monadnock Building began in 1906. Before its west wall was even completed, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire struck. Somehow the building managed to survive not only those calamities, but two separate attempts by the U.S. Army to destroy it with dynamite, hoping to create a firebreak that was intended to save the original Palace Hotel.
Hidden Treasure:
There is a twenty-four foot barrel-vaulted atrium lobby has outstanding Tieolo-inspired trompe l'oeil murals, featuring famous people from the city's past, by the Evans and Brown Co.
The theme of this mural is "San Francisco Renaissance." It is painted in the Renaissance Baroque style trompe l'oeil (which means to fool the eye) and chosen because the facade of this building was inspired by that period. That is why all these San Francisco and California characters are dressed in such costumes.
Click Here> to read more about these outstanding murals and the history of the building.
The Chronicle Building
The Chronicle Building (1890)
343 Market Street
Architect: Burnham & Root
The four-story clock story, ballyhooed by the Chronicle newspaper as "the only bronze one in the United States", lasted only to 1905, when it was set ablaze by skyrockets set off by supporters celebrating the re-election of Mayor Eugene Schmitz, who the Chronicle had opposed, as they paraded past its offices. The next year was even worse. The building survived the Great San Francisco earthquake, but a fire broke out in the top floor, sending the heavy typesetting equipment plunging all the way through to the basement.
In the 1960's, long after the Chronicle moved to a new location in 1924, the old building underwent a disfiguring "modernization" that saw Root's original facades covered over in aluminum and glass.
You can see what that atrocity looked like, and the re-unveiling of Root's original Richardsonian entrance arch, in Curbed/SF's sequence of photos.
The Chronicle Building
The Chronicle Building (1890)
343 Market Street
Architect: Burnham & Root
The four-story clock story, ballyhooed by the Chronicle newspaper as "the only bronze one in the United States", lasted only to 1905, when it was set ablaze by skyrockets set off by supporters celebrating the re-election of Mayor Eugene Schmitz, who the Chronicle had opposed, as they paraded past its offices. The next year was even worse. The building survived the Great San Francisco earthquake, but a fire broke out in the top floor, sending the heavy typesetting equipment plunging all the way through to the basement.
In the 1960's, long after the Chronicle moved to a new location in 1924, the old building underwent a disfiguring "modernization" that saw Root's original facades covered over in aluminum and glass.
You can see what that atrocity looked like, and the re-unveiling of Root's original Richardsonian entrance arch, in Curbed/SF's sequence of photos.