140 New Montgomery

140 New Montgomery Street, also known as the PacBell Building, in San Francisco's South of Market district is an Art Deco office tower located close to the St. Regis Museum Tower and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.^[1]

The 26-floor building was originally called the Pacific Telephone Building when it was completed in 1925, and it was San Francisco's first significant skyscraper development when construction began in 1924.^[1] The building was the first high-rise south of Market Street,^[3] and the tallest in San Francisco until the Russ Building matched its height two years later in 1927.^[4] Along with the Russ Building, it remained the city's tallest until it was overtaken by 650 California Street in 1964. AT&T sold the building in 2007, and as of 2013, Internet company Yelp is the main tenant.

Construction and original tenant

At the time of its construction, it housed Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, a member of the Bell System. The building once 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) in 1982 and the formation the regional so-called Baby Bell companies, Pacific Telephone changed its name to "Pacific Bell." However, Pacific Bell was forbidden from using the former Bell System trademark and the granite-colored, terra cotta exterior panels that had bells on them were replaced with plain panels.

Statues of eight eagles (each 13 feet in height) perch atop the tower's crown.^[5][6] The building has an L-shaped floor plan, and the architecture decoratively incorporates spotlights to show the exterior's terra cotta ornamentation day and night.^[7]

In 1929, Winston Churchill visited the building and made one of the first transatlantic telephone calls.^[8]

For 44 years until 1978, the top of the roof was used to convey official storm warnings to sailors at the direction of the US Weather Bureau, in the form of a 25 foot long triangular red flag by day, and a red light at night.^[9]

140 New Montgomery entrance  140 New Montgomery eagles

In the 21st century

In 2007, the PacBell Building was sold by AT&T to Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany Sullivan for US$118 million.^[10] In 2008, the new owners filed plans to convert the tower into 118 luxury condominiums. However, those plans were put on hold during the 2008 financial crisis, and the building sat empty for nearly six years.^[11]

Following a surge in office demand in 2010–2011, Wilson Meany Sullivan changed the plans back to office space.^[11] Major renovation work began in February 2012 to improve the building's seismic performance, install all-new mechanical, electric, plumbing and fire sprinkler systems, and preserve and restore the building's historic lobby, at an estimated cost of $80–100 million.^[12] In 2012, Yelp announced it had signed a lease on the building's 100,000 square feet of office space through 2020.^[13] After two expansions, the company held a total of almost 150,000 square feet on 13 floors as of fall 2015.^[3]

See also

• South of Market, San Francisco (SOMA)
• Eliel Saarinen's Tribune Tower design
• Russ Building
• List of tallest buildings in San Francisco

External links

• 140 New Montgomery
• Alexis C. Madrigal: A 26-Story History of San Francisco. The Atlantic, March 19, 2014

References