__NOTOC__ The Russ Building is a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

office tower located in the Financial District of

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 17t ...

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 ...

. It was designed by architect George W. Kelham, who was responsible for many of San Francisco's other prominent high-rise buildings in the 1920s. The building was completed in 1927 and had 32

floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the expected load ...

s as well as the city's first indoor parking garage. It was the tallest building in San Francisco from 1927 to 1964 and one of the most prominent, along with its "twin", the PacBell Building to the south. Upon completion, the building was iconic enough that ''Architect and Engineer'' wrote, “In nearly every large city there is one building that because of its size, beauty of architectural design and character of its use and occupancy, has come to typify the city itself ... Today the Russ Building takes this place in San Francisco. By its size and location and by the character of its tenants the building becomes indeed—'The Center of Western Progress'.” However,

Manhattanization ''Manhattanization'' is a neologism coined to describe the construction of many tall or densely situated buildings, which transforms the appearance and character of a city to what is similar to Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New ...

from 1960 to 1990 has shrouded the tower in a shell of skyscrapers, removing the tower's prominence. 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 pa ...

s architecture critic John King described the Russ Building as "the embodiment of Jazz Age romance, a full block of ornate Gothic-flavored masonry that ascends in jagged stages from Montgomery Street with a leap and then a scramble to a central crown". The tower is a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

. Until the emergence of

Sand Hill Road Sand Hill Road, often shortened to just "Sand Hill" or "SHR", is an arterial road in western Silicon Valley, California, running through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Woodside, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. The road ...

in the 1980s, many of the largest

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

firms held offices in the Russ Building.

References

External links

The Russ Building
at

Shorenstein Properties Shorenstein is a real estate investment company based in San Francisco that owns interests in of office space throughout the United States. The company has sponsored twelve closed-end real estate funds, with total equity commitments of $8.8 bill ...

The Russ Building's Tenant Handbook

at The Swig Company {{Buildings in San Francisco Office buildings completed in 1927 Landmarks in California Skyscraper office buildings in San Francisco Swig Company Financial District, San Francisco

See also

References

Further reading

External links