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| 555 California Street | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Bank of America Center Location within San Francisco Show map of San Francisco Bank of America Center Bank of America Center (California) Show map of California Bank of America Center Bank of America Center (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Former names | Bank of America Center |
| Record height | |
| Tallest in San Francisco from 1969 to 1972[I] | |
| Preceded by | 44 Montgomery |
| Surpassed by | Transamerica Pyramid |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Commercial offices |
| Location | 555 California Street San Francisco, California |
| Coordinates | 37°47′31″N122°24′14″W / 37.7919°N 122.4038°W /37.7919; -122.4038 |
| Elevation | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Completed | 1969 |
| Owner | Vornado Realty Trust (70%) The Trump Organization (30%) |
| Management | HWA 555 Owners LLC |
| Height | |
| Roof | 779 ft (237 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 52 4 below ground |
| Floor area | 1,969,979 sq ft (183,017.0 m2) |
| Lifts/elevators | 38 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Wurster, Benardi and Emmons |
| Developer | HWA 555 Owners LLC |
| Structural engineer | H. J. Brunnier Associates |
| Main contractor | Dinwiddie Construction |
| References | |
| [1][2][3][4][5] | |
555 California Street, formerlyBank of America Center, is a 52-story 779 ft (237 m)skyscraper inSan Francisco, California. It is the fourth tallest building in the city as of February 2021,[6] and in 2013 was the largest by floor area.[7] Completed in 1969, the tower was the tallest building west of theMississippi River until the completion of theTransamerica Pyramid in 1972, and the world headquarters ofBank of America until the 1998 merger withNationsBank, when the company moved itsheadquarters to theBank of America Corporate Center inCharlotte, North Carolina.[8] It is currently owned byVornado Realty Trust andThe Trump Organization.
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Colloquially known as "Triple Five" and/or "Triple Nickel", 555 California Street was meant to display the wealth, power, and importance ofBank of America. Design was byWurster, Bernardi and Emmons andSkidmore, Owings and Merrill, with architectPietro Belluschi consulting; structural engineering was by the San Francisco firm H. J. Brunnier Associates. It is the75th tallest building in the United States, one foot taller thanOne Worldwide Plaza inNew York City and just 1 foot shorter than the 68th tallest building in the US, which is also owned byBank of America, theBank of America Center inHouston,Texas at 780 ft (238 m), and just 2 feet shorter than the 67th tallest building in the US,30 Hudson Street inJersey City, New Jersey at 781 ft (238 m). Some sites round the heights of all four buildings to 780 ft (238 m) making those four buildings tied as the 67th tallest buildings in the country. As of February 2021, 555 California Street is the 89th tallest building in the United States, and the 103rd tallest in North America.[9]
The skyscraper has thousands ofbay windows, meant to improve the rental value and to symbolize the bay windows common in San Francisco residential real estate. The irregular cutout areas near the top of the building were designed to suggest theSierra Nevada.[10] At the north side of the skyscraper is a broad plaza named in honor of Bank of America founderA.P. Giannini.
In the plaza the 200-ton black Swedish granite sculpture "Transcendence" byMasayuki Nagare is known as the "Banker's Heart".[11] Nearly the entire block—the skyscraper, the banking hall, the plaza, the stairways, and the sidewalks—is clad in costly polished or roughcarnelian granite. A restaurant, the "Carnelian Room," was on the 52nd floor. The elevator to this restaurant is one of the few publicly accessible high-speed elevators in San Francisco. The restaurant closed at midnightNew Year's Eve 2009.[12]
The southeast corner of California and Kearny is about 35 feet (11 m) above sea level, so the top of the building is over 800 feet (240 m).[5] With theTransamerica Pyramid, 555 California Street shows the direction San Francisco's downtown was moving during the 1960s before campaigns againsthigh-rise buildings in the 1970s and 1980s forced development to movesouth of Market Street. With its top spire, the Transamerica Pyramid is taller, but 555 California has the higher habitable space.
In April 2018, the United States Geological Survey included 555 California Street in a list of 39 high-rise buildings in San Francisco constructed during a period when welding techniques were employed that may jeopardize structural integrity during a strong earthquake.[13][14]
A 70 percent interest was acquired by Vornado Realty Trust from foreign investors in March 2007 with a 30 percent limited partnership interest still owned by The Trump Organization[15] In 2019, the building generated $86 million in net operating income ($60 million going to Vornado and $26 million to Trump Organization), and it had $543 million of debt attached to it in 2020.[16] Trump's stake in 555 California Street is one of his largest holdings as of 2020.[17]Forbes estimated in 2020 that Trump owes $162 million to an unknown creditor for this object alone; the loan comes due in 2021.[18] At least one tenant in this building whose rent benefits Trump, theQatar Investment Authority, is an empty office as of 2020.[19] On May 19, 2021, Trump announced that a $1.2B loan had closed on the property at an interest rate of 2% annualized.[20]
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Since its opening 56 years ago in 1969, the building has been purportedly haunted with unexplained activity throughout, such as moving cold air spots,landline phones lifting the receivers by themselves, and files and paperwork flying off shelves.[21]
In1971, the building appeared at the beginning of the filmDirty Harry, where it is the roof from which Scorpio snipes a woman in the now-closed swimming pool atop the Holiday Inn Chinatown (nowHilton Financial District hotel) onKearny Street. The film shows panoramic views of the city from the roof; the building can be seen under construction in the1968 filmBullitt.
In1974, it was again used for a box-office hit, this time inIrwin Allen's blockbusterThe Towering Inferno, in which the outside plaza substituted for that of thefilm's fictional skyscraper, the infamousGlass Tower which on the night of its dedication catches fire. Many scenes were also filmed in the interior ground-floor lobby. The granite stairs coming up from California Street to theA.P. Giannini plaza were used for several key specific scenes: the opening dedication ceremony, the arrival of fire trucks, and the final scene on the steps withPaul Newman,Steve McQueen, andFaye Dunaway.
The rooftop setting used inDirty Harry was also used a decade later in theChuck Norris filmAn Eye for an Eye (1981). The building is featured as a landmark in the 2003 video gameSimCity 4, under its previous name. InGodzilla (2014 film), 555 California Street can be seen during the climactic battle betweenGodzilla and theMUTOs, with the skyscraper taking damage when the female MUTO is pushed into it by Godzilla's atomic breath. It also appears in the2015 filmSan Andreas as the 'RIDDICK' skyscraper.
The Bank of America Building is at an elevation of about 35 feet, SFD, so its roof is some 814 feet in elevation.
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Tallest building in the United States west of Mississippi River 1969–1972 | Succeeded by |
