The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences is a luxury residential

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

in the

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 ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The residences are built atop the historic Old Chronicle Building, sometimes called the de Young Building, which was constructed in 1890. It is the first skyscraper built in California.

History

In 1888, M. H. de Young, owner of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'', commissioned

Burnham and Root Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root. During their eighteen years of partnership, Burnham and Root designed and ...

to design a signature building to house his newspaper. Finished in 1890, the Chronicle Building stood ten stories, with a clock tower reaching in height, becoming San Francisco's first skyscraper and the tallest building on the West Coast. In 1905, a celebration of the re-election of Mayor

Eugene Schmitz Eugene Edward Schmitz (August 22, 1864 – November 20, 1928), often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician and politician, the 26th mayor of San Francisco (1902-7), who was in office during the 1906 San Francisco earthqu ...

stopped in front of the building and launched fireworks, which ignited the wooden clock tower atop the building. The damaged clock tower was removed and de Young added two additional floors along Market Street and a 16-story annex along Kearny Street. The Chronicle Building survived the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

but was badly damaged by the ensuing fire, which gutted the interior. The building was rebuilt by architect

Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw t ...

, who ran the San Francisco office of Burnham and Root. In 1924, the ''Chronicle'' moved to its present location at Fifth and Mission streets, and the old Chronicle Building became a normal office building, thenceforth known as the de Young Building or Old Chronicle Building. In 1962, in an effort to modernize the building, its owners covered the original masonry facade with a new facade of aluminum, glass, and porcelain paneling. By 2004, new owners received approval to restore the original facade, convert the building to residential use, and add eight stories to the existing structure. The Old Chronicle Building was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 243 in 2004. The building re-opened as the

Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational company that operates the luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 luxury hotels and resorts in 30 countries and territories with 29,158 rooms, in addit ...

Club and Residences in November 2007.

Gallery

File:Chronicle Building, San Francisco, 1901.jpg, Old Chronicle Building in 1901 File:Chronicle Building 1906.jpg, The Old Chronicle Building after the 1906 earthquake and fire File:Chronicle Building, San Francisco, 1915.jpg, Old Chronicle Building in 1915 File:PostcardSanFranciscoFountainPalaceHotelChronicleEntrance1915.jpg, Entrance to the Old Chronicle Building (left) and the Palace Hotel, ca. 1915 File:Palace Hotel and Lotta's Fountain.jpg, The de Young Building (left) as it appeared with its modern skin from 1962 to 2005

References

External links

* {{Buildings in California timeline Residential skyscrapers in San Francisco Financial District, San Francisco Newspaper headquarters in the United States Commercial buildings completed in 1890 San Francisco Designated Landmarks Buildings and structures destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake San Francisco Chronicle

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links