The 33-story office building at 333 Market Street is the 39th tallest building in the Bay Area planned or built with a rooftop height of 472 feet tall. The skyscraper was built between 1979 and 1981 by developer Shorenstein Properties in SoMa, San Francisco. With diamond-shaped precast concrete columns extending uninhibited from the street to the parapet, the modernist tower is the design of Los Angeles-based Gin Wong & Associates.
The 40th tallest skyscraper in the Bay Area planned or built is the Hartford Building at 650 California Street. The office building is in San Francisco’s Financial District and Chinatown, rising 466 feet above the street. The modernist tower was among the first in a wave that establishes San Francisco’s urban core as we know it today. It faced fierce opposition from many locals, leading then-mayor George Christopher to tell the SF Chronicle in 1962, “Our city is getting a reputation among investors of perhaps encouraging too much opposition. They feel they have to satisfy not only legalities but the artistic whims of the community.” The Hartford Building became the tallest building in San Francisco when Hartford Insurance completed it in 1964.
Coming in as the 46th tallest tower in the Bay Area planned or built is One California Street in the Financial District of San Francisco. While it is not high on the list, the building holds an extraordinarily prominent position looking over two entrances to the busy Embarcadero BART station along Market Street and nearby the San Francisco Ferry Building. The building topped out in 1969 at 438 feet, making it the fifth tallest skyscraper in the city until 1971.
The Russ Building, located at 235 Montgomery Street, is the forty-ninth entry on SFYIMBY’s countdown of the fifty-two tallest proposed or finished towers in the Bay Area. With a rooftop height of 435 feet, it is tied as the 48th tallest skyscraper. It is the first on our list to not be in SoMa, to share its position with another building, and to have once held the title as tallest in the city. It is also the second oldest skyscraper on our list, having opened in 1927. It contains modernized office space in San Francisco’s Financial District. After a 2016 renovation, it received LEED Platinum certification. Shorenstein Properties manages the building, with the Swig Company as the property owner.
Once the tallest building in the west of the United States, 555 California Street still stands out in the San Francisco skyline half a century later. The 1969-era skyscraper has long been symbolic of the city’s Financial District, second only to the Transamerica Pyramid. Currently, the building is majority-owned by Vornado Realty Trust, holding 70% of ownership, with a 30% partnership deal with the President’s Trump Organization. Vornado announced this week that they have temporarily ceased efforts to sell the building, as well as the 1290 6th Avenue tower in Manhattan, also part-owned by the President’s company, stopping the search for a potential $5 billion transaction. If made, the Trump Organization stood to gain $1.5 billion. Efforts to sell are expected to restart in 2021.
