Bank of America Center (San Francisco)

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Information
Bank of America Center
The Bank of America Center as seen from Pine Street, disappearing into the morning fog.
Location	555 California Street San Francisco
Status	Complete
Constructed	1969
Roof	237 meter (779 foot)
Floor count	52
Companies
Architect	Wurster, Benardi and Emmons and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Structural Engineer	H. J. Brunnier Associates
Services Engineer	H. J. Brunnier Associates
Owner	Hudson Waterfront Associates

The Bank of America Center is a 52-story, 237 meter (779 ft.) skyscraper at 555 California Street in San Francisco, California, the second tallest in the city and the focal point of the Financial District. Completed in 1969, it was the world headquarters of Bank of America prior to its merger with NationsBank, at which point the company moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. The building is sometimes called Triple Five Cal based on its street address.

On September 22, 2005, it was announced that the building had been sold by its owners, a group known as 555 California Street Partners, to Hudson Waterfront Associates, a New York real estate concern, for a reported $1.05 Billion USD. The building will continue to be managed by the Shorenstein Company.

The Bank of America Center was meant to be a deliberate and unmistakable display of Bank of America's wealth, power, and importance. To that end, the center was handled by top architecture firms Wurster, Benardi and Emmons and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with famed architect Pietro Belluschi consulting. The structural engineering was performed by the renowned San Francisco firm H. J. Brunnier Associates. The skyscraper incorporates thousands of bay windows thanks to its unique design, meant to improve the rental value. At the north foot of the skyscraper is a large plaza named in honor of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini that is often shaded during the day, leading to it being criticized as cold and windswept by many. Within the plaza is a large black sculpture by Masayuki Nagare that is locally known as the "Banker's Heart." Nearly the entire block—the skyscraper, the banking hall, the plaza, the stairways, and the sidewalks—is clad in costly polished or rough carnelian granite. An exclusive restaurant, the Carnelian Room, is located on the 52nd floor.

A view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge taken from the roof of the Bank of America Center in 1971, as shown in the film Dirty Harry

In 1971 the building, then just two years old, was featured at the beginning of the film Dirty Harry. It was from the roof of the building that the killer shoots his victim swimming in a pool below. The film shows wide panoramic views of San Francisco taken from the roof of the building.

In 1974, the building was again used extensively for filming of a box-office hit, this time The Towering Inferno, in which the outside plaza substituted for the film's fictional skyscraper, the infamous Glass Tower.

Together with the Transamerica Pyramid, the Bank of America Center is evidence of the direction San Francisco's downtown was moving during the 1960s before numerous campaigns against high-rise buildings in the 1970s and 1980s forced development to move south of Market Street.