Southern Pacific Building

The Southern Pacific Building is one of three office buildings comprising One Market Plaza along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. The historic E-shaped 11-story, 65-metre (213 ft) building, also known as "The Landmark", was started in 1916^[2] and completed in 1917.^[3][4]

Southern Pacific Building
The Market street facade of One Market Plaza
Location within San Francisco Show map of San Francisco Southern Pacific Building (California) Show map of California Southern Pacific Building (the United States) Show map of the United States
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Location	1 Market Street San Francisco, California United States
Coordinates	37.79396°N 122.39496°W / 37.79396; -122.39496
Completed	1917
Cost	US$1.5 million
Owner	Morgan Stanley Real Estate Paramount Group, Inc.
Height
Roof	65 m (213 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	12
Floor area	420,000 sq ft (39,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Walter Danforth Bliss William Baker Faville
Structural engineer	Tipping Mar + Associates (1999 retrofit)
References
[1]

History

The building served as the headquarters for the Southern Pacific Railroad after it relocated from the Flood Building in 1917, ten years after SP had moved into the Flood Building. At its completion, the building's first floor was devoted to retail except for the portion facing the rear courtyard (opening to Mission Street), which was reserved for Southern Pacific.^[4][5] SP rented the second floor to a tenant, but occupied floors three through ten with various offices.^[5] For many years, the building was topped with a large sign emblazoned with a gothic "S·P".^[6]

It was later incorporated into the 1976 One Market Plaza development which includes Spear Tower and Steuart Tower.^[7] By 1995, Sam Zell owned One Market Plaza.^[8] However, Union Pacific Railroad was still the owner of One Market Street until the building was sold for US$50,000,000 (equivalent to $96,457,738 in 2024) to The Martin Group (TMG) in 1998.^[9][10] TMG invested another $50 million to renovate the property,^[9] including a seismic retrofit, completing work in 1999.^[11] Equity Office Properties Trust sold One Market Street to The Blackstone Group in February 2007, and Blackstone, in turn, sold One Market to Morgan Stanley in June 2007 as part of a large real estate acquisition.^[12][13] Morgan Stanley sold approximately half of One Market Plaza to The Paramount Group in July 2007.^[14] One Market Plaza was owned jointly by Morgan Stanley (49% share) and The Paramount Group (51% share) until Morgan Stanley sold its share to Blackstone Real Estate Partners in 2014 for US$600,000,000 (equivalent to $796,935,620 in 2024).^[15]

Design

When completed, One Market Street was hailed as the tallest steel-framed structure west of the Mississippi.^[16] The building is planned in the form of the capital letter "E", with the longest side, 275 ft (84 m) long, along Market Street. The wings on Spear and Steuart Streets are each 210 ft (64 m) long, and the central arm is occupied by elevators.^[5] It is designed in the Italian Renaissance style with details executed in Roman brick and terra cotta.^[5] The lobby was fitted with Colorado yule marble walls and an ornamental plaster ceiling.^[5]

During the 1998–99 refurbishment, two of the eight original passenger elevators were eliminated and custom-sized modern elevator cabs were installed in the other six shafts, running on the original guide rails. The elevators had received a major redesign in 1956, when elevator operators were eliminated by automatic operation.^[16]

Gallery

• 
  Soon after completion in 1917
• 
  In 2023, seen from the end of Market Street
• 
  The "S·P" sign from The Embarcadero (1956)
• 
  Rear courtyard opening on Mission (1917)
• 
  Cross-section drawing (parallel to Spear/Steuart)

Former Tenants

• Southern Pacific
• Del Monte Foods
• Salesforce.com^[17]

Current Tenants

• Autodesk
• Google^[18]

See also

• San Francisco Bay Area portal

• San Francisco's tallest buildings

References

1. "Southern Pacific Building". Emporis. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
2. "S.P. Will Build S.F. Skyscraper". Los Angeles Herald. May 20, 1916. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
3. "Southern Pacific Building Nears Completion". Mill Valley Record. July 21, 1917. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
4. Hofsommer, Don L. (1986). The Southern Pacific, 1981–1985. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-60344-127-8.
5. Jennings, Frederick (November 1917). "The Southern Pacific General Office Building". The Architect & Engineer of California. LI (2): 60–70. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
6. King, John (May 30, 2014). "Readers weigh in: S.F.'s lost architectural landmarks". SFGate [blog]. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
7. "One Market Plaza". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
8. Adams, Gerald D. (April 3, 1995). "An investment in eye candy". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
9. "One Market bagged for $50 million". San Francisco Business Times. February 15, 1998. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
10. "The Martin Group is Bullish on San Francisco: The Martin Group Acquires Waterfront Historic One Market Street Building" (Press release). PRNewswire. April 15, 1998. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
11. "The Landmark at One Market Street". Tipping Structural Engineers. 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
12. Drummer, Randyl (February 26, 2007). "Morgan Stanley Grabs Equity's San Francisco Assets". CoStar News. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
13. Hollis, Robert (June 19, 2007). "A partial payment of taxes / Blackstone Group spent billions for S.F. buildings but disputes city's levy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
14. Dineen, J.K. (July 3, 2007). "Paramount Group buys half interest in One Market Plaza". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
15. "Blackstone Pays $600MM to Buy One Market Plaza in San Francisco". The Registry SF. July 3, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
16. Wagner, Karen L. (June 1, 2001). "Floor, please?". Building Design+Construction. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
17. Salesforce grabs more office space in S.F.
18. Google signs massive SF office lease at former Salesforce headquarters

• Patricia Yollin (July 4, 2003). "Flood of Memories". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 6, 2010.