PacBell Building

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Coordinates: 37°47′12″N 122°24′00″W / 37.78667, -122.4

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PacBell Building
PacBell Building's front entrance.
Information
Location	140 New Montgomery Street San Francisco
Status	Complete
Groundbreaking	1924[1]
Constructed	1925[1]
Use	Office[1]
Height
Antenna/Spire	460 ft (140 m)[1]
Roof	435 ft (133 m)[1]
Technical details
Floor count	26[1]
Elevator count	10[1]
Companies
Architect	Miller and Pflueger[1]

The PacBell Building or 140 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco's South of Market district is a Neo-Gothic, 435 feet (133 m) office tower located close to the St. Regis Museum Tower and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.^[2] The 26-floor building was completed in 1925 and was San Francisco's first significant skyscraper development when construction began in 1924.^[2] The building was the tallest in San Francisco until the Russ Building tied the PacBell Building's 435 foot (133 m) height two years later in 1927.^[3] The building is illuminated at night.^[2]

The building was originally called the "Pacific Telephone Building." At the time of its construction, the operating telephone company it housed was Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, a member of the Bell System. The building had a bell motif in many places on its façade, most notably surrounding the arch over the main entrance doors on New Montgomery Street. After the breakup of the Bell System (AT&T) and the formation the regional so-called Baby Bell companies, Pacific Telephone changed its name to "Pacific Bell." The tower has an "L" shaped floor plan and the architecture decoratively incorporates spotlights to light the outside of the building. The building is one of the few large Art Deco buildings extant in San Francisco.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Russ Building
• List of tallest buildings in San Francisco

[edit] References