Begin
at the foot of Market Street.
Justin Herman Plaza is home to one of the city's most controversial
pieces of public art: sculptor Armand Vaillancourt's fountain. At Market
and California, in front of Bliss & Faville's 1916 monumental Southern
Pacific Building (1 Market), catch the California St. cable car for
a steep, rolling view of architectural beauties. Stand out on the platform
to get the best view.
On the north side of the street, watch for Crim and Scott's 1909 Tadich
Grill (240 California); Bliss & Faville's 1907 Bank of California
(400 California), a classic Greco-Roman structure with a Corinthian
colonnade; and Percy & Polk's 1904 Kohl Building (400 Montgomery),
with its wonderful articulated top. Get off at Stockton St. for coffee
and a croissant at the elegant Ritz Carlton (600 Stockton) in the former
Metropolitan Life Building, designed in 1909 by Lebrun and Sons.
Walk back down the south side of California St., where you will find
Anshen & Allen's 1960 International Building (601 California); Wurster,
Bernardi, Emmons/ SOM's 1968 Bank of America World Headquarters (555
California); Willis Polk's 1913 Insurance Exchange (433 California);
D.H. Burnham & Co.'s 1903 Merchant's Exchange (465 California);
and the Dollar Building (301-333 California), designed in 1919 by Charles
McCall.
At Sansome, walk one block north to the old Federal Reserve Building
(400 Sansome), the 1924 creation of George Kelham. The law offices boast
beautiful lobby murals by Jules Guerin.
Other points of interest are the Pacific Stock Exchange (301 Pine),
designed in 1915 by J. Milton Dyer and remodeled in 1930 by Miller &
Pflueger; the former Standard Oil Building (225 Bush), designed in 1922
by George Kelham; Hertzka & Knowles/SOM's 1959 Crown Zellerbach
Building (1 Bush), San Francisco's first glass-walled tower; MacDonald
& Applegarth's 1910 Heineman Building (130 Bush); and George Kelham's
1929 Shell Building (100 Bush). End at one of the city's best-loved
sculptures, Douglas Tilden's 1894 Mechanic's Monument.
Walk west to Sutter Street. Note Havens & Toepke's 1913 Flatiron
Building (540-80 Market), the Romanesque revival arch of Schaltze and
Weaver's 1926 Hunter-Dulin Building (111 Sutter), and the unique glass
curtain wall on the Hallidie Building (130-50 Sutter), designed in 1917
by Willis Polk.
At the former Crocker Bank Building (1 Montgomery), designed in 1908
by Willis Polk, visit the roof garden designed in 1983 by Skidmore Owings
and Merrill. At Belden and Bush is the venerable Sam's Grill (415-421-0594),
a long-time favorite for seafood. Tiny Belden St. is lined with restaurants
that have sidewalk seating during the warm months.
After lunch, walk west on Bush St. to Louis Brouchoud's 1913 Notre Dame
des Victoires (564 Bush), the historic center of San Francisco's French
colony. Heading back to Market, notice the boldly designed 1908 Pacific
Telephone & Telegraph Building (333 Grant) by Ernest Coxhead, and
Albert Pissis' 1908 White House (255 Sutter), once a department store.
Turn off Grant into Maiden Lane to see Frank Lloyd Wright's 1949 Circle
Gallery (140 Maiden Lane) with its interior spiral, a convention Wright
later utilized in New York's Guggenheim Museum.
In elegant Union Square, stop for a drink in the Compass Rose Bar of
Bliss & Faville's 1904 St. Francis Hotel (301 Powell), and don't
miss the stained glass rotunda at Neiman Marcus, all that's left of
the City of Paris department store that once stood on the site, its
demolition the occasion of a major preservation battle. Stop at the
Ellis and O'Farrell parking garage to see Christopher Sproat's fluorescent
and stainless steel public art installation, "Spine."
