Architecture of San Francisco

Last updated July 01, 2024

The architecture of San Francisco is not so much known for defining a particular architectural style; rather, with its interesting and challenging variations in geography and topology and tumultuous history, San Francisco is known worldwide for its particularly eclectic mix of Victorian ^[1] and modern architecture.^[2] Bay windows were identified as a defining characteristic of San Francisco architecture in a 2012 study that had a machine learning algorithm examine a random sample of 25,000 photos of cities from Google Street View.^[3]

Icons of San Francisco architecture include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Coit Tower, the Palace of Fine Arts, Lombard Street, Alamo Square, Fort Point, the Transamerica Pyramid, and Chinatown.^[4] Included below are summaries of the historical significance of some of these great San Franciscan architectural achievements.

Fort Point

At the foot of the Golden Gate bridge is Fort Point, built to protect the Bay from naval attacks. Designed to allow cannons to hit enemy ships at water level, Fort Point is the only one of its kind in the west. It was originally constructed under the leadership of Spanish Lieutenant Jose Joaquin Moraga. Moraga had been sent up from Monterey, about 100 miles south of San Francisco, to build fortifications in the San Francisco Bay in order to secure Spanish control over the whole area. In 1792, he built a Presidio style fort, which had sufficient fortifications, but was clearly not strong enough to truly act as the main defense of the harbor.

In 1796, Moraga redesigned the fort and gave it the name, Castillo de San Joaquín. Unfortunately, the fort was built from adobe brick and constructed on sand, meaning that the adobe cracked when one of the cannons was fired and that each winter the Fort would be heavily damaged from the weather. After the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Spanish were forced to abandon all of posts in California, including the Castillo. Once the fort was abandoned, the Mexican government attempted to maintain it and others of its kind, but the young government simply did not have the resources to do so. All of the forts in California were abandoned by 1835.

After California was granted statehood in 1850, the fort still sat unused until 1856, when the United States government allotted $500,000 (about $14 million in today's money) to install fortifications in California. The people in charge of the fortifications decided to rebuild The Castillo de San Joaquín, but using much more modern materials and building techniques. The fort was built on a granite foundation with masonry walls 12 feet thick. The fort was loaded with weapons and renamed Fort Point. At the time, the fort was incredibly impressive and served as the main fortification protecting the San Francisco bay. It was also the most powerful heavily fortified fort on the west coast when it was built. However, after the civil war, masonry forts of its type were rendered technologically obsolete, leaving Fort Point as simply a testament to San Francisco's pre-Civil War military might.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is the most instantly recognizable structure in the city of San Francisco. The bridge spans almost two miles across the Golden Gate, the narrow strait where San Francisco Bay opens to meet the Pacific Ocean, connecting the city with Marin County, California.

The concept of a Golden Gate Bridge started with a journalist named James Wilking. Wilking promoted the idea that a bridge across the Golden Gate would bring many benefits. The idea for this bridge had surfaced forty years earlier, but over time people had lost interest, at least until Wilking revived the idea. In 1919, authorities commissioned Joseph Strauss to conduct a survey of the proposed site for the bridge. The main argument in favor of the bridge's construction was that it would help encourage development north of San Francisco.

Strauss became fascinated with the bridge, and began drawing up plans and making calculations for the bridge's construction. After 10 years of planning, the Golden Gate Bridge Company was formed and Strauss was appointed chief engineer for the project. Engineers Charles Alton Ellis and Irving Morrow also joined the project, with Ellis being appointed as the San Francisco representative. These three men can be credited for the design elements featured in the Golden Gate today.

By 1930, the Golden Gate project had gained sufficient support from the public to ensure passage of a $35 million bond to finance the construction of the bridge. Construction of the bridge started in 1933 and would last until May 27, 1937. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world upon its completion and was considered a masterful feat of architectural engineering, designed to hold 5,700 lb/ft on its roadway and 2,000 lb/ft on its walkways.

Gallery

Examples of architecture in San Francisco

San Francisco in 1851
San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest and one of the largest in North America.
Chinatown at the intersection of Clay Street and Grant Avenue, which is one of the oldest streets in Chinatown
The Ambassador Hotel is an example of the architecture closer to downtown.
Cars navigate Lombard Street to descend Russian Hill.
The Conservatory of Flowers (front entrance) in Golden Gate Park
The Palace of Fine Arts at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, painted by Colin Campbell Cooper
These Victorian rowhouses are in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, California.

Related Research Articles

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula—to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. It also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and is designated as part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95. Recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Wonders of the Modern World, the bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California.

San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, financial, and cultural center in Northern California. With a population of 808,437 residents as of 2022, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of California behind Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles at the upper end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated major U.S. city behind New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind four of New York City's boroughs. Among the 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022.

The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Gate</span> Strait between the Marin and San Francisco peninsulas in California, United States

The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire shoreline and adjacent waters throughout the strait are managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Fort Point, known historically as the Castillo de San Joaquín is a masonry seacoast fortification located on the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin Headlands</span> Southernmost peninsula of the Marin Peninsula in California, United States

The Marin Headlands are a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Headlands are famous for their views of the Bay Area, especially of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California with a park of the same name. Located in the Western Addition, its boundaries are Buchanan Street on the east, Turk Street on the north, Baker Street on the west, and Page Street Street on the south.

State Route 480 was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway, the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and the proposed and unbuilt section in between. The unbuilt section from Doyle Drive to Van Ness Avenue was to have been called the Golden Gate Freeway and the Embarcadero Freeway as originally planned would have extended from Van Ness along the north side of Bay Street and then along the Embarcadero to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the second-most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15.6 million visitors in 2022. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.

The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco, California. It was created in 1938 by the San Francisco Down Town Association to showcase the city's major attractions and natural beauty during the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Aquatic Park Historic District is a National Historic Landmark and building complex on the San Francisco Bay waterfront within San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

San Francisco Bay in California has been served by ferries of all types for over 150 years. John Reed established a sailboat ferry service in 1826. Although the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge led to the decline in the importance of most ferries, some are still in use today for both commuters and tourists.

Depictions of San Francisco in popular culture can be found in many different media. San Francisco is frequently used with its iconic landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and cable cars; social change of the Asian immigration, Summer of Love and the economic California Dream of the Gold Rush and Silicon Valley.

Finnila's Finnish Baths—a.k.a. Finnila's—was a Finnish bathhouse and a health club in San Francisco, California. It served the general public from circa 1910 to September, 2000. Finnila's was located in the Castro District of San Francisco for its first 75 years.

Gertrude Comfort Morrow was an American architect who frequently collaborated with her husband, Irving Morrow.

The Dragon Gate is a south-facing gate at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, marking a southern entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown, in the U.S. state of California. Built in 1969 as a gift from the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the style of a traditional Chinese pailou, it became one of the most photographed locations in Chinatown, along with the older Sing Fat and Sing Chong buildings.

The Hilton San Francisco Financial District is a skyscraper hotel located east across Kearny Street from Portsmouth Square on the border between the Financial District and Chinatown neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. It opened in 1971 on the site formerly occupied by the San Francisco Hall of Justice, which had served as the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department until 1961. The Chinese Culture Center leases approximately 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m²) within the building for rotating exhibitions at a nominal cost due to lobbying from the local Chinese-American community.

The Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge is a prominent architectural landmark in Chinatown, San Francisco that spans over Kearny Street from Portsmouth Square to the second floor and third floor of the Hilton San Francisco Financial District hotel, which houses the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.

References

↑ Prentice, Helaine Kaplan (1987). Rehab Right . Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-172-4. Includes descriptions of numerous different Victorian and early 20th Century architectural styles common in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Oakland, and detailed instructions for repair and restoration of details common to older house styles.
↑ Wiley, Peter Booth (2000). National trust guide- San Francisco: America’s guide for architecture and history travelers. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-471-19120-9. OCLC 44313415.
↑ Harris, Derrick (10 August 2012). "Big data magic trick: Show me a doorway, I'll tell you the city". GigaOM . Retrieved 21 October 2012.
↑ Woodbridge, Sally Byrne and John M. (2005). San Francisco Architecture: An Illustrated Guide to the Outstanding Buildings, Public Artworks, and Parks in the Bay Area of California. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. pp. 19–27. ISBN 978-1580086745.

External links

Golden Gate Bridge
Great Buildings Online: Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Architectural Heritage, SF nonprofit
List of Official SF Landmarks at Friends of 1800 Market website
List of SF Landmarks with Photos at NoeHill.com
San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection at SF Main Library
Amy Westervelt . San Francisco Architecture & Landmarks at HowStuffWorks
San Francisco Architecture Profiles on individuals and firms practicing during the first 100 years of San Francisco's growth.
Rising Steel: Two Centuries Of San Francisco Architecture (From San Francisco City Guides: Walking Tour Descriptions)

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[1] Prentice, Helaine Kaplan (1987). Rehab Right . Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-172-4. Includes descriptions of numerous different Victorian and early 20th Century architectural styles common in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Oakland, and detailed instructions for repair and restoration of details common to older house styles.

[2] Wiley, Peter Booth (2000). National trust guide- San Francisco: America’s guide for architecture and history travelers. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-471-19120-9. OCLC 44313415.

[3] Harris, Derrick (10 August 2012). "Big data magic trick: Show me a doorway, I'll tell you the city". GigaOM . Retrieved 21 October 2012.

[4] Woodbridge, Sally Byrne and John M. (2005). San Francisco Architecture: An Illustrated Guide to the Outstanding Buildings, Public Artworks, and Parks in the Bay Area of California. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. pp. 19–27. ISBN 978-1580086745.

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