• Former Standard Oil Building
• Zen Center
• Security Pacific Building
• Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
• California Commercial Union
• "Doelger City" houses
• Embarcadero West (Former Federal Reserve Bank)
• YMCA
• Heritage Retirement Community
• Temple Emanu-El
• Abbreviations

Besides its richly detailed exterior, this building has a Mediterranean crown--a loggia capped with a red tile roof supported by a heavy, corbeled cornice (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 31).

For the mighty Standard Oil Company, one building was not enough. In the early 1920s George Kelham designed a larger building across the street at 225 Bush, modeled after New York's Federal Reserve Bank (Wiley 2000: 162).

The second oldest Standard Oil Co. building in San Francisco, located across the street from the older building at 200 Bush. The front facade is modeled after York and Sawyer's widely publicized winning competition design for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The more interesting view of this building, however, is from the rear where the wings, stair tower, and corbeled cornice provide a picturesque view from Market Street. The originally L-shaped building was completed as a U in a 1948 addition by Harry Thomsen which exactly matches the original. In composition, a two part vertical block with an attic and Renaissance ornamentation derived from a Florentine palace. Steel frame construction B (Corbett and Hall 1979: 192).

One of Julia Morgan's most gracious small institutional buildings, originally designed as the Emanuel Sisterhood (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 136).

This building [the San Francisco Zen Center] was designed by Julia Morgan as the Emanu-El Sisterhood Residence, a home for single Jewish women. As home to one of the most successful Buddhist sects in the Western hemisphere, the Zen Center epitomizes Californians' love affair with Eastern culture, which dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. The Zen Center owns Green Gulch Farm in Marin County, the Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason, and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Big Sur (Wiley 2000: 297-98).

A building remodeled to conform to the tasteful modern Classicism of the 1940s with great success. The ground floor remained intact, contributing an impressive colonnade to the street. The banking hall, refurbished by Baldwin-Clarke in 1978, is worth seeing as is the lobby inside the 300 Montgomery St. entrance with its fine marble walls and Moderne lighting fixtures (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 28).

An important building with monumental frontages on three streets in the form of Ionic colonnades at the ground level. The present appearance of the building is the result of a major addition and remodeling in 1941 by the Capitol Co. (L. J. Hendy, architect and L. H. Nishkian, structural engineer) for the new head offices of the Bank of America. The California Street and most of the Montgomery Street facade, the mezzanine levels and fenestration above them, all remain from the original George Kelham design. The rusticated shaft of the original two part composition had a very literal relationship to the Merchant's Exchange (F32) next door. This was replaced by a less literal but equally successful shaft with modernistic suggestions of vertical piers that culminate in a restrained cornice surmounted by an attic story.

The remodeling left the superb original banking hall largely intact at the north end of the building, and inserted a Moderne elevator lobby and bank at the south end. The original bank has recently been refurbished, including the remarbelizing of its columns. The 1941 bank has been remodeled. Other interior features include art work by Maynard Dixon and Haig Patigian, some of it in upper level executive offices.

In 1942 in an article on the structural design of the addition, the Architect and Engineer wrote that ten years had passed "since the construction of tall steel frame buildings occurred with some frequency in San Francisco," and that the design of this building reflected structural engineering advances of the previous decade. These advances were not dramatic but indicated "psychological" changes: "the engineer now approaches his problems in a more realistic manner than in the 1920s." Certain "taboos" which had resulted from a more rudimentary understanding of developing structural techniques were discarded, resulting in more sophisticated designs that, for example, shifted some of the burden of the load, and of resistance to lateral foraces, to concrete curtain walls. This building was among both the first and the last to reflect the particular structural changes of the period, as it was followed by another long period of building inactivity. B (Corbett and Hall 1979: 206).

This neighborhood house was established in 1919 by the Presbyterian Church to serve the Russian immigrants who had been settling on the hill since 1905. Morgan's reputation for designing successful small institutional buildings won her this job, which she executed with her usual concern for context in the informal design of this rustic shingled building with a welcoming entry and lobby areas (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 155).

At the turn of the century a new ethnic contingent settled on Potrero Hill when some two thousand Russian immigrants, mainly from the Volga and Caucasus regions, arrived after fleeing Czarist oppression. Known as the "Molokani," the milk drinkers, they were a puritanical sect who worshiped at a modest little church where the women and men were segregated during services. At the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, designed by Julia Morgan, the Russians took classes in the English language and learned how to use sewing machines. The charming, brown-shingled Neighborhood House, at 953 De Haro Street, is still in use today as a meeting hall and cultural center. It is an official San Francisco Landmark (Alexander and Heig 2002: 185).

Under the Executive Director, Enola D. Maxwell, the Neighborhood House continues to be a safe and turf-free environment, where all members of the community participate in over 30 programs and ativities offering an array of social services to low income residents of Potrero Hill and to other communities in San Francisco year round, including: Juvenile Probation Programs: Intensive Home Base Supervision (LaVette Virden, case manager), Omega Boys Club and Peer Counseling Services (Jack Jacqua, co-founder), Zap Project (Martha Henderson, director), Head Start (Dave Pearson, director), SFUSD Tutorial Services in collaboration with Enola D. Maxwell Middle School (James Johnson, co-ordinator), Experiment in Diversity, MYEEP (Camille Wilson, co-ordinator), Good Faith Employment Program (Edward Hatter and Ben Bailon, heads), Golden Gate Regional Center (Katherine Rairigh, manager), and Social Development Center and the Senior Adaptive Centers (Potrero Hill Neighborhood House Programs and Activities. 2001. Potrero Hill Neighborhood House).

A Renaissance Revival design with a touch of local color in the medallions on either side of the entrance; one shows a California bear shambling over the skyline (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 27).

A fine example of the generation of San Francisco office blocks of the early 1920s that, to a greater or lesser degree, followed the type established here by the Merchant's Exchange (F32). Like the Merchant's Exchange, this is a three part vertical composition with a dominant brick shaft and a belvedere on the roof. The shaft is the nicely textured brown brick wall with paired windows that constitutes the standard background material of downtown area street facades. Renaissance/Baroque ornamentation of the base and capital is executed in glazed cream terra cotta. The base is defined by piers and a mezzanine with a giant entrance arch. The upper "capital" zone is an arcade crowned by a cornice. The original entrance and elevator lobby was a skylit basilica with giant columns. Only the shallow entrance lobby still exists, now housing the elevators.

The building is extremely handsome in its proportions and workmanship. It is a major piece of the characteristic downtown fabric which forms important elements in the streetscapes of both Montgomery and Pine streets. As is so often the case with juxtapositions of old and new, in this instance this building with the Bank of America (F34), the new is immeasurably enriched by its proximity to the old. The pedestrian walkway (formerly Summer Street) from Montgomery up to the Bank of America tower that passes between the lower banking pavilion and the California Commercial Union Building is one of the finest such justapositions in the city A (Corbett and Hall 1979: 207).

Although not exclusively developed by the Doelger Bros., their many years of building activity in this area prompted the name Doelger City (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 171).

By far the greatest number of houses in the Sunset were built in the post-World War II decades. Most were products of the Big Five: the Gellert Brothers, the Stoneson Brothers, the Doelgers, Chris McKeon, and Ray Galli, who began building in the 1920s and 1930s. Soon they were caught up in the boom in middle-income housing created by the lending policies of the Federal Housing Administration, established in 1934. Soon miles of bare land in the Sunset were carpeted with homes, some of them completed by Henry and Frank Doelger at the rate of two a day. So-called Doelger City, located roughly between 27th and 39th Avenues and Kirkham and Quintara Streets, suggests the magnitude of the Doelger's operations. In fact, from 1934 to 1941 they were the largest single home builders in the country.

Although methods of rationalizing the mass production process varied, the Doelger's approach was similar to that of other builders. A potpourri of styles--English Cottage, French Provincial, Regency, Colonial, and International Style Modern or Modernistic--provided variations on the general theme of homes uniformly scaled and placed on 25-by-100-foot lots. Henry Doelger professed a strong commitment to building well for the average family. The Doelgers used redwood for the house frame and worked with their team to create the best possible plan for prospective buyers, who soon responded in droves. The last step was "putting on the architecture." Elevations of the various facades were pinned on the wall individually and shifted about until a satisfying composition resulted, which was then drawn up and built. Neighborhood planning was not left out of the process. From the beginning the Big Five put utilities underground and located commercial strips for which they made an effort to attract merchants.

After World War II the Veterans Administration GI loan program created an unprecedented housing boom. The Sunset blocks developed in the post-war decades show the effect of increased costs for labor and materials. Traditional styles, still in demand, become attenuated, appearing like cardboard cut-outs compared to the earlier models. The transition to modern architecture is evident in the variations on the ranch house theme that replace some of the period revival styles (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 170).

A design in transition from the academic Beaux-Arts tradition on the gound level to Le Style Moderne on the upper part, as you can see by comparing the Ionic capitals of the free-standing columns with those of the giant pilasters above. The lobby, with murals by Jules Guerin, and the former banking hall are worth a visit (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 29).

A variation of a two part vertical composition with an attic--with upper and lower zones of about equal height and a giant order in each. The dominant element in the composition is the Ionic colonnade on a raised porch with freestanding eagles on the entablature. The building is making clear reference to San Francisco's tradition of temple form banks, and at the same time to the federal government's increasing association at the time with monumental architecture. The best features of this rather stiff design are the lobby and banking hall. The murals in the lobby are by Jules Guerin B (Corbett and Hall 1979: 217).

A handsome facade long obscured by the only recently demolished Embarcadero Freeway decks (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 36).

The YMCA (5) at 166 Embarcadero was designed by Carl Werner in 1924. To the south, Tower Architects created a nautical bookend for the larger YMCA with Bayside Plaza (6) at 188 Embarcadero (Wiley 2000: 222).

Julia Morgan designed a number of buildings for benevolent organizations; they are notable for their logical plans and quiet dignity. The Heritage organization, originally a refuge for homeless Gold Rush children, has an L-plan with a pleasant and protected south-facing garden court (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 43).

The large brick building on the southeast corner of Laguna and Bay is the Heritage retirement Community (2) (1925) by Julia Morgan (Wiley 2000: 346).

A monumental Neo-Byzantine Roman temple with a handsome forecourt. The interior is richly appointed and well worth visiting. The stained-glass windows, Fire and Water, installed in 1972-73, are by Mark Adams (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 103).

Temple Emanu-El (52), the house of worship built in 1926 by the city's prominent German Jewish families. Emanu-El was established after Polish and German Jews split in 1854. According to a member of one of the pioneering German Jewish families, after 1861 "the Hinterberliner [those from east of Berlin] could not hope to pass" through the doorways of Emanu-El, which is no longer true.⁷³ This massive Byzantine structure was designed by Bakewell and Brown with assistance from Sylvan Schaittacher and advice from Bernard Maybeck, G. Albert Lansburgh, and Edgar Walter. Bruce Porter did the interior decoration (Wiley 2000: 281).

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