• Hyatt Regency Hotel
• 100 First Street Building
• 135 Main Street Building
• De Young Museum
• Abbreviations

The [Golden Gateway Redevelopment] Center is introduced on Market Street by the Hyatt Regency Hotel, completed in 1973 and one of Portman's most successful atrium hotels. The great interior space has a monumental spherical sculpture of aluminum tubing by Charles Perry titled Eclipse. Seen from the Embarcadero, the staggered floors of the hotel recall an old-fashioned typewriter keyboard. A dreadfully dull main entrance addresses the automobile rather than acknowledging its important gateway corner to pedestrians (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 34).

John Portman Jr.'s Hyatt Regency (9) stands at the foot of California Street right next to the cable car stop. Terraced with a revolving, circular restaurant on the roof, the building has a huge interior atrium with hanging vines, fountains, and glass elevator shafts, perhaps best known as the setting of Mel Brooks's hilarious portrayal of a psychiatrist with vertigo in High Anxiety (Wiley 2000: 159).

A schematic design with assorted elements of different scales that don't do much for this very prominent tower (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 32).

A disconcerting attempt at monumentality on the ground floor but very discreet above. Behind the building is a network of alleyways, some landscaped, that offer the pedestrian shortcuts and relief from the streets (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 36).

The idea presented by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron was for a copper skin. The idea came about after Herzog took pictures in Golden Gate Park of dappled sunlight filtering through leafy trees. Conceptually, the idea of mimicking the pattern on copper was seen as inspired. Practically, it had never been done on that scale.

Frieden found a solution for the building's metal skin in a Kansas City firm specializing in architectural panels. A computerized engineering system enabled the 7,602 panels that make up the skin to be individually cut, punched and embossed. A total of 950,000 pounds of copper was used -- including recycled drain pipes and wiring -- making it the largest copper-clad building in the world.

Herzog said he wanted the museum to be reflective of San Francisco. He sees the city as a place where diverse elements coexist.

The museum is the largest cultural gift ever given in San Francisco and is considered one of the largest private gifts given to a public institution in the United States. More than 7,000 people donated amounts ranging from $5 to $10 million.

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