Citing bad reception in many parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the project to build a tall TV & radio antenna on top of one of the tallest hills in the city was initiated in the 1960s. The antenna, known as Sutro Tower, replaced a much smaller antenna that was part of the original Sutro Mansion at the same location. The 977-foot-tall, three-legged steel structure was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates (Los Angeles) with engineer Furman L. Anderson Jr. of the Kline Iron & Steel Tower Division, which specialized in TV towers. Diverging from the typical, straight cylinder tower design, the three-legged approach with a widened base and top was designed for both function reasons—to withstand strong seismic forces, and aesthetic reasons—responding to pop-culture design approaches of the post-World War II era, as in Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola bottle design. Sutro Tower started servicing the Bay Area with TV and radio signals in 1973.

Citing bad reception in many parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the project to build a tall TV & radio antenna on top of one of the tallest hills in the city was initiated in the 1960s. The antenna, known as Sutro Tower, replaced a much smaller antenna that was part of the original Sutro Mansion at the same location. The 977-foot-tall, three-legged steel structure was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates (Los Angeles) with engineer Furman L. Anderson Jr. of the Kline Iron & Steel Tower Division, which specialized in TV towers. Diverging from the typical, straight cylinder tower design, the three-legged approach with a widened base and top was designed for both function reasons—to withstand strong seismic forces, and aesthetic reasons—responding to pop-culture design approaches of the post-World War II era, as in Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola bottle design. Sutro Tower started servicing the Bay Area with TV and radio signals in 1973.

Citing bad reception in many parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the project to build a tall TV & radio antenna on top of one of the tallest hills in the city was initiated in the 1960s. The antenna, known as Sutro Tower, replaced a much smaller antenna that was part of the original Sutro Mansion at the same location. The 977-foot-tall, three-legged steel structure was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates (Los Angeles) with engineer Furman L. Anderson Jr. of the Kline Iron & Steel Tower Division, which specialized in TV towers. Diverging from the typical, straight cylinder tower design, the three-legged approach with a widened base and top was designed for both function reasons—to withstand strong seismic forces, and aesthetic reasons—responding to pop-culture design approaches of the post-World War II era, as in Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola bottle design. Sutro Tower started servicing the Bay Area with TV and radio signals in 1973.

Citing bad reception in many parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the project to build a tall TV & radio antenna on top of one of the tallest hills in the city was initiated in the 1960s. The antenna, known as Sutro Tower, replaced a much smaller antenna that was part of the original Sutro Mansion at the same location. The 977-foot-tall, three-legged steel structure was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates (Los Angeles) with engineer Furman L. Anderson Jr. of the Kline Iron & Steel Tower Division, which specialized in TV towers. Diverging from the typical, straight cylinder tower design, the three-legged approach with a widened base and top was designed for both function reasons—to withstand strong seismic forces, and aesthetic reasons—responding to pop-culture design approaches of the post-World War II era, as in Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola bottle design. Sutro Tower started servicing the Bay Area with TV and radio signals in 1973.

Citing bad reception in many parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the project to build a tall TV & radio antenna on top of one of the tallest hills in the city was initiated in the 1960s. The antenna, known as Sutro Tower, replaced a much smaller antenna that was part of the original Sutro Mansion at the same location. The 977-foot-tall, three-legged steel structure was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates (Los Angeles) with engineer Furman L. Anderson Jr. of the Kline Iron & Steel Tower Division, which specialized in TV towers. Diverging from the typical, straight cylinder tower design, the three-legged approach with a widened base and top was designed for both function reasons—to withstand strong seismic forces, and aesthetic reasons—responding to pop-culture design approaches of the post-World War II era, as in Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola bottle design. Sutro Tower started servicing the Bay Area with TV and radio signals in 1973.