Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a hotel located at the foot of

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

and The Embarcadero 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 for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The hotel is a part of the

Embarcadero Center Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers, two hotels, a shopping center with more than 125 stores, bars, and restaurants, and a fitness center on three levels located in San Francisco, California. There is an outdoor ice sk ...

development by

Trammell Crow Fred Trammell Crow (June 10, 1914 – January 14, 2009) was an American real estate developer from Dallas, Texas. He is credited with the creation of several major real estate projects, including the Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center in Atla ...

David Rockefeller David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...

, and

John Portman John Calvin Portman Jr. (December 4, 1924 – December 29, 2017) was an American neofuturistic architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atria. Portman also had a pa ...

. 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 Michael H. de Young. The ...

's architecture critic John King has described the 1973 building as a "temple of hermetic urbanism" in a "self-contained sci-fi" style that by 2016 had become "dated", albeit remaining "still visually dazzling, in a futuristic sort of way." The ''Regency Club Lounge'' was once the ''Equinox'', a rooftop

revolving restaurant A revolving restaurant or rotating restaurant is usually a tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on ...

, but is now a stationary elite club for certain hotel guests offering 360-degree views of the city and the bay. The atrium holds the Guinness world record (as of 2012) for the largest hotel lobby, with a length of 107 meters, width of 49 meters and height of 52 meters (15 stories). Hyatt Regency SF

Ownership history

The building was sold by its owner, Strategic Hotel Capital LLC, in January 2007 for close to to Dune Capital Management and DiNapoli Capital Partners – roughly $250,000 for each of the hotel's 802 rooms. In December 2013, the hotel was purchased by Aliso-Viejo, CA-based Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc., for $262M.

In popular culture

The Hyatt Regency's atrium lobby served as the lobby of the Glass Tower in 1974's ''

The Towering Inferno ''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The Towe ...

''. Replicas of John Portman's trademark pill-shaped elevators were built for use in the film and are featured throughout, including in an extended sequence where one is lifted from the stricken tower by helicopter. The hotel was also featured in the 1977 Mel Brooks Comedy ''

High Anxiety ''High Anxiety'' is a 1977 American satirical comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first speaking lead role (his first lead role was in ''Silent Movie''). Veteran ...

'', the film '' Telefon'' from 1977, and in '' Time After Time'', a tale of H.G. Wells chasing Jack The Ripper into the future of 1979. As well as being a setting for numerous films, the lobby is itself inspired by a film. Architect John Portman has stated that its design was suggested to him by viewing the 1935 science fiction film '' Things to Come''.

References

External links

{{Commons
Hyatt Regency San Francisco official website
Skyscraper hotels in San Francisco Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Market Street (San Francisco) Hotel buildings completed in 1973 Hotels established in 1973 John C. Portman Jr. buildings Modernist architecture in California

Ownership history

In popular culture

References

Further reading

External links