555 California Street

555 California Street
555 California Street
Former names	Bank of America Center
Record height
Preceded by	44 Montgomery
Surpassed by	Transamerica Pyramid
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Commercial offices
Location	555 California Street; San Francisco, California
Elevation	35 ft (11 m)
Completed	1969
Owner	Vornado Realty Trust (70%); The Trump Organization (30%)
Management	HWA 555 Owners LLC
Height
Roof	779 ft (237 m)
Technical details
Floor count	52; 4 below ground
Floor area	1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m2)
Lifts/elevators	38
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Wurster, Benardi and Emmons
Structural engineer	H. J. Brunnier Associates
Main contractor	Dinwiddie Construction
References

555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story 779 ft (237 m) skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the second tallest building in the city, the largest by floor area,^[6] and a focal point of the Financial District.

Completed in 1969, the tower was the tallest building on the West Coast (until the completion of the Transamerica Pyramid in 1972, and the world headquarters of Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank, when the company moved its headquarters to the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[7] A 70 percent interest was acquired by Vornado Realty Trust from foreign investors in March 2007 with a 30 percent limited partnership interest still owned by Donald Trump, managed by the Vornado Realty Trust.^[8]

Background

Colloquially known as "Triple Five", 555 California Street was meant to display the wealth, power, and importance of Bank of America. Design was by Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with architect Pietro Belluschi consulting; structural engineering was by the San Francisco firm H. J. Brunnier Associates. The skyscraper has thousands of bay windows thanks to its unique design, meant to improve the rental value and to symbolize the bay windows common in San Francisco residential real estate. The irregular cutout areas near the top of the building were designed to suggest the Sierra mountains.^{[citation needed]} At the north foot of the skyscraper a plaza named in honor of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini is usually in shadow during the day and is criticized as cold and windswept.

In the plaza the 200-ton black Swedish granite sculpture "Transcendence" by Masayuki Nagare resembles a liver but is derisively known as the "Banker's Heart". Nearly the entire block—the skyscraper, the banking hall, the plaza, the stairways, and the sidewalks—is clad in costly polished or rough carnelian granite. A restaurant, the "Carnelian Room", was on the 52nd floor. The elevator to this restaurant is one of the few publicly accessible high-speed elevators in San Francisco. The restaurant closed at midnight New Year's Eve 2009.^[9]

In 1971, 555 California Street, then just two years old, appeared at the beginning of the film Dirty Harry, where it is the roof from which Scorpio snipes a woman in the now-closed pool atop what is now the Hilton Financial District hotel on Kearny Street. The film shows panoramic views of San Francisco from the roof of the building. In 1974, 555 California Street was again used for a box-office hit, this time in Irwin Allen's blockbuster The Towering Inferno, in which the outside plaza substituted for that of the film's fictional skyscraper, the infamous Glass Tower which on the night of its dedication, catches on fire. Many scenes were also filmed in the interior ground-floor lobby. The granite stairs coming up from California Street to the A.P. Giannini plaza were used for several key specific scenes including the opening dedication ceremony, the arrival of fire trucks and the final scene on the steps with the characters played by Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The rooftop setting of the building used in Dirty Harry was also used a decade later in the Chuck Norris film An Eye for an Eye (1981).

The southeast corner of California and Kearny is about 35 feet (11 m) above sea level, so the top of the building is over 800 feet (240 m).^[5] With the Transamerica Pyramid, 555 California Street shows the direction San Francisco's downtown was moving during the 1960s before campaigns against high-rise buildings in the 1970s and 1980s forced development to move south of Market Street. The Transamerica Pyramid is taller, but because of its top spire, 555 California has the highest habitable space.

The corner of California and Montgomery is built on landfill and the lowest level of the parking garage is below the level of the bay, so pumps, audible from the garage, keep water out.^{[citation needed]} The building is built on two huge Teflon slabs meant to slide over each other in case of an earthquake, state of the art design when it was built.^{[citation needed]}

Major tenants

References

^ "555 California Street". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
^ 555 California Street at Emporis
^ "555 California Street". SkyscraperPage.
^ 555 California Street at Structurae
^ ^a ^b "Comments and Responses on Draft EIR: Transit Center District Plan and Transit Tower" (PDF). San Francisco Planning Department. 2011-09-28: C&R-38. Retrieved 2013-11-15. The Bank of America Building is at an elevation of about 35 feet, SFD, so its roof is some 814 feet in elevation. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ "Largest Office Buildings in San Francisco". San Francisco Business Times. 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
^ "Bank of America in Charlotte Center City Branch - Hours & Locations". www.banksnearyou.com. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
^ Joseph Machnow (March 16, 2007). "Vornado to Acquire 70% Controlling Interest in 1290 Avenue of the Americas and 555 California Street". Vornado Realty Trust. Retrieved 2010-01-14.
^ Food and Wine Staff (3 September 2009). "Carnelian Room Calling it Quits". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-14. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

Official website

[1] "555 California Street". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.

[2] 555 California Street at Emporis

[3] "555 California Street". SkyscraperPage.

[4] 555 California Street at Structurae

[elevation-5] "Comments and Responses on Draft EIR: Transit Center District Plan and Transit Tower" (PDF). San Francisco Planning Department. 2011-09-28: C&R-38. Retrieved 2013-11-15. The Bank of America Building is at an elevation of about 35 feet, SFD, so its roof is some 814 feet in elevation. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[6] "Largest Office Buildings in San Francisco". San Francisco Business Times. 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-12-04.

[7] "Bank of America in Charlotte Center City Branch - Hours & Locations". www.banksnearyou.com. Retrieved 2016-03-04.

[8] Joseph Machnow (March 16, 2007). "Vornado to Acquire 70% Controlling Interest in 1290 Avenue of the Americas and 555 California Street". Vornado Realty Trust. Retrieved 2010-01-14.

[9] Food and Wine Staff (3 September 2009). "Carnelian Room Calling it Quits". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-14. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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v t e Tallest buildings in San Francisco
Skyscrapers over 500 feet (150 m)	Salesforce Tower Transamerica Pyramid 181 Fremont 555 California Street 345 California Center Millennium Tower One Rincon Hill The Avery Park Tower at Transbay Salesforce West 101 California Street 575 Market Street Four Embarcadero Center One Embarcadero Center 44 Montgomery One Market Plaza Spear Tower One Sansome Street The Harrison One Front Street First Market Tower McKesson Plaza 425 Market Street 706 Mission Street One Montgomery Tower
Highrises over 400 feet (120 m)	333 Bush Street Hilton San Francisco Union Square Tower I Pacific Gas & Electric Building 50 California Street 555 Mission Street St. Regis Museum Tower 100 Pine Center 45 Fremont Street 333 Market Street 650 California Street 100 First Plaza 340 Fremont Street 399 Fremont Street 500 Folsom One California San Francisco Marriott Marquis Russ Building 140 New Montgomery Jasper MIRA The Infinity II JPMorgan Chase Building The Paramount Providian Financial Building Three Embarcadero Center Two Embarcadero Center Salesforce East 595 Market Street 123 Mission Street 101 Montgomery Embarcadero West 100 Van Ness Avenue LUMINA Fifteen Fifty
Highrises over 300 feet (91 m)	One Maritime Plaza Four Seasons Hotel 415 Natoma Street Westin St. Francis 33 Tehama Street 456 Montgomery Plaza 535 Mission Street Shell Building Park Central Hotel San Francisco 222 Second Street 199 Fremont Street One Market Plaza Steuart Tower Hilton San Francisco Financial District 425 California Street 100 Montgomery Street Grand Hyatt San Francisco Fox Plaza 101 Second Street NEMA 580 California Street 601 California Street The Infinity I Hilton San Francisco Union Square Tower II 450 Sutter Street InterContinental San Francisco Stevenson Place BridgeView 150 California Street 225 Bush Street 505 Montgomery Street Blue Shield of California Building Fairmont San Francisco 180 Montgomery Street KPMG Building Central Plaza The Summit W San Francisco 353 Sacramento Street 555 Market Street Bank of California Building Phillip Burton Federal Building Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences San Francisco Marriott Union Square 88 Kearny Street 388 Market Street Commercial Union Assurance Building Hunter-Dulin Building One Bush Plaza McAllister Tower Apartments 301 Howard Street Mark Hopkins Hotel Mills Tower Central Tower Solaire
Under construction	Oceanwide Center I & II
Planned and proposed	Palace Hotel Residential Tower Treasure Island development 5M Project 524 Howard Street
See also: San Francisco Designated Landmarks, Buildings and structures in San Francisco

v t e Bank of America
Divisions	Bank of America Home Loans Bank of America Private Bank BofA Securities Merrill
Historical components	Banc of America Securities Bank of America, Los Angeles Bank of America NT&SA Bank of Italy Bank of New England BankBoston Barnett Bank Baybank Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan Boatmen's Bancshares Cassatt & Company Central Bank and Trust Citizens & Southern National Bank Commercial National Bank Continental Illinois Countrywide Financial E. A. Pierce & Co. Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles First Franklin First Republic Bank Corporation Fleet Bank Fourth Financial Corporation G. H. Walker & Co. Gibraltar Savings and Loan Gibraltar Savings Association LaSalle Bank Mercury Asset Management MBNA/Maryland National Bank Michigan National Bank Montgomery Securities National Westminster Bank USA NationsBank North Carolina National Bank Provident Institution for Savings Rainier Bancorp Robertson Stephens Seafirst Bank Security Pacific Bank Shawmut Bank Standard Federal Bank Sovran Bank Summit Bancorp Suretrade Western Savings and Loan White Weld & Co.
Buildings	555 California Street (San Francisco) 701 Brickell Avenue Albuquerque Plaza American Security and Trust Company Building (Washington, D.C.) Bank of America Building Baltimore Midland Oakland Bank of America Center Baltimore Houston Los Angeles Norfolk Tulsa Bank of America Corporate Center (Charlotte) Bank of America Plaza Atlanta Charlotte Chicago Dallas Fort Lauderdale St. Louis Tampa Bank of America Tower Jacksonville Manhattan Phoenix St. Petersburg Boulder Towers Hearst Tower (Charlotte) Miami Tower Museum Tower
Executives	Amadeo Giannini Ken Lewis Brian Moynihan
Category Commons

Background

Major tenants

See also

References

External links