Hallidie Building

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Hallidie Building

Site overview

Designed by Willis Polk as an investment for the University of California, the Hallidie Building was dedicated in 1918 to Andrew S. Hallidie, an early Regent of the University who is best known for his invention of the cable car in 1872-73. The building is a steel frame and masonry loft structure with an iron and glass street facade suspended beyond the supporting pillars. The building’s refined glass wall, one of the earliest instances of this modernistic engineering feat, advanced commercial design and set a precedent for the mass-produced, curtain-walled office and residential towers of the 1950s and 60s.

Primary classification

Commercial (COM)

Terms of protection

National Register of Historic Places, San Francisco Landmark

Designations

U.S. National Register of Historic Places, listed on November 19, 1971 | San Francisco Landmark #37, designated April 4, 1971

Author(s)

| | 2/1997
| | 6/1998

How to Visit

AIA-SF headquarters: see schedule for public programs and events

Location

130 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA, 94104

Country

US
More visitation information

Designer(s)

Other designers

Willis Polk, architect
Commission

1916

Completion

September 1918

Commission / Completion details

Commission 1916(c), completion September 1918(e).

Current Use

Retail at ground floor with offices above.

Current Condition

The glass wall above the ground floor is largely unaltered. the ground level has been extensively remodeled. At the office spaces on some floors partitions have been added inward from the glass.

General Assessment

The Hallidie, a steel-frame and masonry loft structure with an iron and glass street facade suspended beyond the supporting pillars, is the first known glass-fronted building. The refined glass wall Willis Polk developed here advanced commercial design to a remarkable degree and clearly set a precedent for the mass-produced, curtain-walled office and residential towers of the 50s and 60s. Sigfried Gideon, in Space, Time and Architecture, makes reference to this building (along with the Bauhaus in Dessau) as demonstrating an intermediate step between the glass exhibition buildings of the late nineteenth century and modern curtain-walled structures.

References

https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp/GetAsset?assetID=5c095250-b034-4981-9b3c-ecc3e9defb18