Picture San Franciscans spending a decade hating this pyramidal tower, only to watch it become the city's most beloved symbol. The Transamerica Pyramid was designed by architect William Pereira and completed in 1972 after years of controversy about its unconventional pyramidal shape. Critics called it the Pereira's Prick; the city's planning commission fought the design; architecture critics piled on.
The building rose anyway, 853 feet tall, the tallest in San Francisco, with a distinctive tapering form that its defenders said would minimize the shadow cast on the streets below and allow more light and air to reach the ground. Within a decade, the argument was over: the Pyramid had become the city's defining skyline element, as recognizable as the Eiffel Tower or the Chrysler Building. This corner of the Financial District has older history beneath it.
Montgomery Street, one block east, was the original shoreline of San Francisco Bay in 1849; the blocks between here and the Embarcadero are built on bay mud and landfill. The 1906 earthquake shook the fill area worst of all, and the fires started here and burned westward. The Transamerica company moved out in 1994; the building was sold to a German investment firm in 2020.
Four faces taper toward a single spire far above the street.