We now have the official list of the top 15 Landmarks in San Francisco, as determined by over 300 unique voters!
We will also be labelling these newly official 15 Landmarks on the the Upland map later today!
1. Transamerica Pyramid (600 MONTGOMERY ST)
The Transamerica Pyramid at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington “Streets in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, United States, is a 48-story futurist building and the second-tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. It was the tallest building in San Francisco from its inception in 1972 until 2018 when the newly constructed Salesforce Tower surpassed its height. The building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, which moved its U.S. headquarters to Baltimore, Maryland. However, the building is still associated with the company by being depicted on the company’s logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, the building stands at 853 feet (260 m). On completion in 1972 it was the eighth-tallest building in the world.”
2 . Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral (660 CALIFORNIA ST)
“The Old Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception is a proto-cathedral and parish of the Roman Catholic Church located at 660 California Street at the corner of Grant Avenue in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It was built in 1854 in the Gothic Revival style, and was made a Designated San Francisco Landmark on April 11, 1968.”
3. Painted Ladies (710 STEINER ST)
“One of the best-known groups of “Painted Ladies” is the row of Victorian houses at 710–720 Steiner Street, across from Alamo Square park, in San Francisco. It is sometimes known as “Postcard Row;” they are also known as the Seven Sisters. The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 by developer Matthew Kavanaugh, who lived next door in the 1892 mansion at 722 Steiner Street. This block appears very frequently in media and mass-market photographs of the city and its tourist attractions and has appeared in an estimated 70 movies, TV programs, and ads, including in the opening credits of the television series Full House and its sequel Fuller House.”
4. Ghirardelli Square (851 BEACH ST)
Ghirardelli Square is a landmark public square with shops and restaurants and a 5-star hotel in the Marina area of San Francisco, California. A portion of the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company. The square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants. Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square.
5. Union Square (220 GEARY ST)
“Union Square is a 2.6-acre (1.1 ha) public plaza bordered by Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. “Union Square” also refers to the central shopping, hotel, and theater district that surrounds the plaza for several blocks.[citation needed] The area got its name because it was once used for Thomas Starr King rallies and support for the Union Army during the American Civil War, earning its designation as a California Historical Landmark.”
6. Castro Theater (429 CASTRO ST)
The Castro Theatre is a popular San Francisco movie palace which became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, in the Castro district, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage — in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche — to the recently rebuilt basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland’s Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California in that period. The theater has over 1,400 seats (approx 800 downstairs and 600 in the balcony). The theater’s ceiling is the last known leatherette ceiling in the United States and possibly the world. Another leatherette ceiling was demolished just a few years ago. To make the ceiling look as though it is leather requires a special technique regarded as lost today.
7. Audiffred Building (1 MISSION ST)
“The Audiffred Building is a three-story historic commercial building in San Francisco, California, United States, formerly the location of waterfront bars and of the headquarters of a seamen’s union, and now housing Boulevard restaurant. It is City of San Francisco Landmark number 7, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.”
8. Haslett Warehouse (680 BEACH ST)
“Located near the Powell Street Cable Car terminus, Aquatic Park, and Fisherman’s Wharf, the building now known as the Haslett Warehouse was commissioned by the California Fruit Canner’s Association at the same time as the adjacent Cannery building and was built in 1907–1909.”
9. Flood Building (870 MARKET ST)
“The Flood Building is a 12-story highrise located at 870 Market Street on the corner of Powell Street in the downtown shopping district of San Francisco, California completed in 1904 and designed by Albert Pissis. Situated on Powell and Market streets, next to the Powell Street cable car turntable, Hallidie Plaza and the Powell Street BART Station entrance, it is one of the few structures that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.”
10. Bush Street Temple (1881 BUSH ST)
“The building was built in 1895 in a Moorish Revival-Venetian style designed by Moses J. Lyon. The arches across the front are copied form the Doge’s Palace. It was extensively renovated in 2003, at which time it was joined to a new adjacent structure. The building is constructed almost entirely of redwood. Originally, much of the interior was painted in Trompe l’oeil to resemble marble. In its original configuration it featured a pair of elaborate towers, since lost.”
11. Federal Reserve Bank Building (301 BATTERY ST)
“The Old Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Building, now known as the Bently Reserve, was the main headquarters building of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for nearly sixty years. The building is located at 400 Sansome Street, in the Financial District of San Francisco. Designed by George W. Kelham, the building has an Ionic colonnade that is pure Beaux-Arts, while the upper building is in the new Moderne fashion of 1924. The banking lobby at the Sansome Street entrance contains a mural by Jules Guerin, the artist who created the palette for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The Old Federal Reserve was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.”
12. Donaldina Cameron House (920 SACRAMENTO ST)
“Founded in 1874, Cameron House has a unique place in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, where we have served the changing needs of individuals and families in the community for generations.”
13. San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (301 VAN NESS AVE)
“The complex was developed in the 1920s on two blocks on Van Ness Avenue facing San Francisco City Hall from the west. The “War Memorial” name commemorates all the people who served in the First World War, which ended seven years before the project commenced. It was designed by Arthur Brown Jr in 1927–1928, and is one of the last Beaux-Arts style structures erected in the United States. The project resulted in the construction of a matched pair of buildings across a formal courtyard park: the War Memorial Opera House; and the multi-purpose Veterans Building next door. Both were completed and opened in 1932.”
14. Solari Building (468 JACKSON ST)
“The Solari Building East was constructed circa 1852 by Nicholas Larco, prominent merchant and leader of the Italian colony in San Francisco, who occupied the building until 1877. During the mid-1850’s, Larco was chairman of the Italian (Sardinian) Committee to celebrate the Allied victory over the Russians at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. In 1863, he was president of the Italian Benevolent Society, which had its offices here at varying times during the 1860's.”
15. Hobart Building (582 MARKET ST)
“The building was constructed for the Hobart Estate Company on the site of the company’s previous offices. The location was reportedly chosen by founder Walter S. Hobart in the 1880s for its prominent location at the head of 2nd Street, originally one of the city’s major streets leading to the fashionable Rincon Hill neighborhood. Said to be the favorite commercial building of its designer, Willis Polk, its sculpted terra cotta exterior with Baroque ornamentation and handcrafted brass and Italian marble interior are a noted example of neoclassical architecture.”
In preparation for Fresno, today we released an update that includes the labelling of the predetermined Landmarks that were reserved prior to voting!
The Reserved Landmarks that are marked:
Pier 39, Ferry Building, Palace of Fine Arts, Coit Tower, Oracle Park, and Chase Arena.
We thank all Uplanders who have participated in the Landmark vote and are proud of our community for engaging in this practice in self governance!
Note: As a precaution, we looked at the results with all potentially suspect multi-accounts excluded, and verified that it hasn’t changed the final list. We will follow up with the suspect accounts to see if there are any issues that justify sentencing to Alcatraz. As a reminder, we excluded the votes of Visitor accounts created after Friday.
Llamaste,
-The Upland Team
