Transamerica Pyramid

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline ^[1].

Built on the location of the historic Montgomery Block, it has a structural height of 260 meters (853 feet) and contains 48 floors of retail and office space. Construction began in 1969 and finished in 1972. It is currently ranked as the 98^th tallest building in the world ^[2].

Its unique shape is the result of the desire by Transamerica to have a building whose top would be looked up to by the executives on the highest floor of the 555 California Street^{[citation needed]}, which is not only tall but also sits upon a substantially higher elevation. The land use and zoning restrictions for the parcel limited the number of square feet of office that could be built upon the lot, which sits at the northern boundary of the financial district. The pyramid is an innovative solution to this design challenge, and when viewed from the East Bay forms a prominent and unique skyline projection, forming an important element of San Francisco's "signature skyline".

Although it no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. The building is evocative of San Francisco and has become one of the many symbols of the city. Designed by architect William Pereira, it faced considerable opposition during its planning and construction, and was sometimes referred to by detractors in derogatory slang.

In 1999, Transamerica was acquired by Dutch insurance company AEGON. When the non-insurance operations of Transamerica were later sold to GE Capital, AEGON retained the building as an investment.

The building is a tall, four-sided pyramid with two "wings" on opposite sides of the building. The wing to the east of the building contains an elevator shaft, while the wing to the west contains a stairwell and a smoke tower. The top 64.6 meters (212 feet) of the building is the spire. There are four cameras pointed in the four cardinal directions at the top of this spire forming a virtual observation deck. Four monitors in the lobby, whose direction and zoom can be controlled by visitors, display the cameras' views 24 hours a day. An observation deck on the 27th floor was closed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and replaced by the virtual observation deck. The top of the Transamerica Pyramid is covered with aluminum panels. During the Christmas holiday season, Thanksgiving, and 4th of July, a bright, white light is lit on top of the pyramid.

The Transamerica Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi from 1972-1974 (surpassing the nearby 555 California Street), at which point it was surpassed by the Aon Center in Los Angeles, which was designed by Pereira's former business partner Charles Luckman.

The building is considered to have been the intended target of a foiled terrorist attack, involving the hijacking of airplanes as part of Oplan Bojinka, which was foiled in 1995.

Trivia

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• The building's façade is covered in crushed quartz, giving the building its pure white color.
• The four-story base of the building contains a total of 16,000 cubic yards (12,233 m³) of concrete and over 300 miles (483 km) of steel rebar.
• It has 3,678 windows.^[3]
  • The building's foundation is 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and was the result of a 24-hour continuous concrete pour.
  • Only two of the building's 18 elevators reach the top floor.^[3]
    • The original Transamerica building, located just down the street, is also a triangular-shaped building — now occupied by the Church of Scientology of San Francisco.
    • The original proposal called for a 1,150 ft (350.5 m) building, which would have been for one year the second-tallest completed building in the world. The proposal was rejected by the city planning commission on the grounds that it would have interfered with views of San Francisco Bay from Nob Hill.^[3]
      • The building occupies the site that was the temporary home of A.P. Giannini's Bank of Italy after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed its office. Giannini founded Transamerica in 1928 as a holding company for his financial empire. Bank of Italy later became Bank of America.
      • The Transamerica Pyramid is often called the "Pyramid Building" by tourists. Locals sometimes refer to it as "the dunce cap" or "the Great Alien Ring-Toss." From a distance it somewhat resembles a "giant ice-cream cone stuck upside-down in the ground."^{[citation needed]}
      • During his show's May 2007 stint in San Francisco, Conan O'Brien introduced a new character called the "Transgendered Transamerica Pyramid." The character is essentially a walking, humanoid model of the building with a bra, feather boa and more. It is reminiscent of other skyscraper-esque characters created for Late Night with Conan O'Brien’s trips to Chicago (the Sears Tower dressed in Sears clothing) and Toronto (the CN Tower, which was pitted in a head-to-head match against Seattle's Space Needle).
      Image:DSCN3152.JPG

      The Transamerica Pyramid with a bright light at the pinnacle.
      • There is a plaque commemorating two famous dogs, Bummer and Lazarus, at the base of the building.
      • The hull of the whaling vessel Niantic, an artifact of the 1849 California Gold Rush, lies almost exactly beneath the Transamerica Pyramid, and is marked by a historical plaque outside the building (California Historical Landmark #88).

      Appearance in Popular Culture

      • The 2007 film Zodiac features a time-lapsed scene of the building's construction between 1971 and 1972. The effect was achieved with computer generated imagery.
      • The building can briefly be seen at the beginning of the Star Trek: Voyager episode Non Sequitur.
      • The bottom floors of the building can be seen in a long, extended scene in the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home looking down Columbus Avenue from the intersection at Kearny Street.
      • The building is featured in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill when the villain Max Zorin's plan to destroy Silicon Valley fails and Zorin flees in an airship kidnapping James Bond's girlfriend Stacey Sutton, with Bond catching and hanging onto a mooring rope. Zorin's airship flies right over the Transamerica Pyramid, and Bond still hangs on to the airship rope even though he crashes into an antenna on the building.
      • In one scene of the 1993 movie "Mrs. Doubtfire", the camera scans the building from top to bottom. Additionally, the character Miranda, played by Sally Fields, is depicted in her office inside the building.
      • The building features on the cover of The Doobie Brothers 1977 album Livin' on the Fault Line, but not in downtown San Francisco. It is on the beach next to a rocky cliff, and partially submerged in the ocean on the rear cover.
      • A near-identical structure can be seen as part of the Death Star, in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
      • The building was parodied in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; in the game it was called the "Big Pointy Building", with "Big Prick" jokes strictly forbidden. It also appeared in the videogames Driver: You Are the Wheelman" and "Midtown Madness 2.
      • The building is frequently featured in the WB series Charmed along with other popular San Francisco landmarks as an intermission between scenes.
      • The building appeared in a key scene in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, appearing to separate two main characters (one of whom would be revealed to be a villain a moment later).
      • The Transamerica Pyramid makes an appearance as an Alliance-controlled building in the Sierra game Manhunter 2: San Francisco.
      • The building is also featured in Christopher Moore's novel, Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story.
      • The building is a destroyable landmark in Godzilla: Unleashed, the videogame.
      • Fritz Leiber award-winning novel Our Lady of Darkness (1977) features the building as a source of megapolisomantic power.
      • The building is briefly shown in the opening of the Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? computer game, since the headquarters of the fictional detective agency, ACME, is located in San Francisco.

      See also

      • 49-Mile Scenic Drive
      • List of tallest buildings in San Francisco

      References

      1. ^ SF Gov. Visitor Info. www.sfgov.org (2007-07-18). Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
      2. ^ Emporis.com Official World's 200 Tallest High-rise Buildings. www.emporis.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
      3. ^ ^{a b c} Emporis Research, Transamerica Pyramid [1]

      
      

      External links

      • The Pyramid Center official website
      • SF Gate article on the Pyramid
      • Transamerica Pyramid in the Structurae database
      • Transamerica Pyramid is at coordinates 37°47′43″N 122°24′10″W / 37.7952, -122.4029 (Transamerica Pyramid)Coordinates: 37°47′43″N 122°24′10″W / 37.7952, -122.4029 (Transamerica Pyramid)
        • Surrounding area map and national location from the United States Census Bureau
      • SkyscraperPage - side-by-side diagrams of SF skyscrapers

      Preceded by 555 California Street

      Tallest building west of the Mississippi 1972—1973 260m

      Succeeded by Aon Center (Los Angeles)

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