650 California Street, also known as the Hartford Building, is a 34-story, 142 m (466 feet)

office An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

tower on the northwestern edge of San Francisco's

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

. The tower is located on California Street on the edge of Chinatown, and not far from

555 California Street 555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the fourth tallest building in the city as of February 2021, and in 2013 was the largest by floor area. Completed in 1969, t ...

. 650 California is visible from every direction except from the southeast, where the Financial District skyscrapers block the view.

Description

The building was designed by

Edward Charles Bassett Edward Charles "Chuck" Bassett (1921–1999) was an American architect based in San Francisco. History Edward Charles Bassett was born on September 12, 1921 in Port Huron, Michigan. Between high school and college Bassett worked for his fathe ...

of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Hartford Insurance, its initial tenant. It is architecturally significant, featuring a tall

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

lobby, high ceilings, and an exterior skeleton of floor-to-ceiling windows recessed into a square gridwork of

precast Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...

white reinforced concrete. When this tower was completed in 1964, it was the second in San Francisco larger than . For a time it was also California's tallest building, replacing both the Russ Building in San Francisco and the

Los Angeles City Hall Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Cente ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It is one of 39 San Francisco high rises reported by the U.S. Geological Survey as potentially vulnerable to a large earthquake, due to a structural deficiency. 650 California was acquired for by the Pivotal Group in 2000, and later sold to private investors, A-650 California St. LLC, and

AEW Capital Management AEW Capital Management (AEW) is an American real estate investment firm headquartered in Boston. The firm is the real estate asset management platform of Natixis Investment Managers. In 2022, the firm was ranked by PERE (under Private Equity I ...

in 2007. The tower was acquired by

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate. History The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer. In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70-s ...

and partner Prudential Real Estate Investors in 2012 for about . Tishman undertook a renovation, which included a remodeled lobby by New York-based firm MdeAS Architects. Tishman sold 650 California to Columbia Property Trust Inc. in September 2014 for . 650 California Street passed the certification requirements for the Gold Level of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in June 2011. The LEED building certification system is a program for rating the design, construction and operation of environmentally and socially responsible buildings. The building is the fictional setting of Doris Martin's workplace in ''

The Doris Day Show ''The Doris Day Show'' is an American sitcom which was originally broadcast on CBS from September 1968 until March 1973, remaining on the air for five seasons and 128 episodes. The series is remembered for its multiple format and cast chang ...

''. After Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company ceased paying rent for its 30th floor office rental. In response, the building's landlord filed court papers in San Francisco State Court.

Tenants

Key tenants include Access Communications, Affirm, AppDirect,

Analysis Group Analysis Group, Inc. (AG), founded in 1981 by economists Bruce E. Stangle and Michael F. Koehn, is an economic consulting firm based in North America. It provides economic, financial, and strategic analysis and expert testimony to law firms, cor ...

, CrossInstall, Credit Suisse, Omnicom Group Inc., Recommind, and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

."Significant 4Q10 Lease Transactions"
, '' MarketBeat San Francisco Office Report,'' Cushman & Wakefield, Oct-Dec 2010.

References

{{Buildings in San Francisco, state=collapsed Office buildings completed in 1964 Skyscraper office buildings in San Francisco Financial District, San Francisco Skidmore, Owings & Merrill buildings Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings 1964 establishments in California

Description

Tenants

See also

References