Russ Building
- Architect
- George W. Kelham
- Year
- 1927
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- San Francisco, CA
The Russ Building is a Neo-Gothic office tower in the Financial District, designed by George W. Kelham and completed in 1927 at 436 feet with 32 floors, including the city's first indoor parking garage. It was San Francisco's tallest building from 1927 to 1964, and Architect and Engineer magazine praised it at the time as "the Center of Western Progress," a building that came to typify the city itself.
the building
First indoor parking garage. Among the Russ Building's 32 floors was San Francisco's first indoor parking garage, a novelty feature when the tower opened in 1927.
The PacBell twin. At 133 meters (436 feet), the Russ Building matched the height of its "twin," the PacBell Building to the south, and the two towers dominated the skyline together before later high-rises arrived.
the style
Built in the Neo-Gothic idiom, the tower carries Gothic detailing up its full height, a vocabulary architect George W. Kelham used across several of his 1920s San Francisco high-rises.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
George W. Kelham designed many of San Francisco's prominent 1920s high-rise buildings, of which the Russ Building is one of the most prominent examples.
significance
The Russ Building was the tallest building in San Francisco from 1927 to 1964, though the wave of "Manhattanization" between 1960 and 1990 later surrounded the tower with taller neighbors and diminished its prominence.
nearby
- San Francisco Curb Exchange Building
- Commercial Union Assurance Building
- 555 California Street
- Hallidie Building
- Mills Building
- San Francisco Fire Department Engine Co. Number 2