Fugazi Bank Building
- Architect
- Charles Peter Paff
- Year
- 1909
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- San Francisco, CA
The Fugazi Bank Building at 4 Columbus Avenue was built in 1909 for Giovanni "John" Fugazi to house his Banca Popolare Operaia Italiana. Architect Charles Peter Paff gave it a flatiron shape with a cupola crowning its sharp point, a design later mirrored across the street by Reid & Reid's 1913 Colombo Building, so the pair now frames the gateway into Columbus Avenue and North Beach.
the building
Terra cotta and a lost cupola. Paff clad the building in white terra cotta and originally topped it with a cupola at its narrow prow. The cupola was later removed and a third story added, changing the silhouette from the two-story original design.
the style
The Fugazi Bank Building is classed as Neoclassical, expressed here through its formal white terra cotta cladding rather than through any single showpiece of ornament.
More on Neoclassicalthe architect
Charles Peter Paff (1865-1942) designed the building in 1909. It also served as a design reference for Reid & Reid's nearby Colombo Building of 1913, whose matching flatiron shape mirrors Paff's original.
significance
Named a San Francisco Designated Landmark on March 5, 1973, the building sits within the Jackson Square Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
nearby
- Colombo Building
- Transamerica Pyramid
- International Hotel
- Sentinel Building
- Bank of Italy Building
- Italian American Bank