100 McAllister Street
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San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, owned and operated by the University of California, Hastings College of the Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law is a public law school in San Francisco, California, located in the Civic Center neighborhood....
. It includes mixed-use offices on various floors, and on the 24th floor, San Francisco's first cocktail lounge with a panoramic view: the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
-style "Sky Room".
Conceived as an unusual combination of a large church surmounted by a hotel, construction of the building brought architectural dispute. Initially designed by Timothy L. Pflueger
Timothy L. Pflueger
Timothy Ludwig Pflueger was a prominent architect, interior designer and architectural lighting designer in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of the 20th century. Together with James R...
in the style of Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, the investors fired his firm and hired Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis Parsons Hobart was an American architect whose designs included San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, several California Academy of Sciences buildings, and the 511 Federal Building in Portland, Oregon....
, who changed little of Pflueger's design. In a resulting lawsuit, Pflueger won nearly half the damages he asked for. The building opened in 1930 as the William Taylor Hotel and Temple Methodist Episcopal Church. However, extra construction expenses had put the congregation at greater financial risk, and the church-hotel concept did not prove popular. No profit was made in six years, and the church left, losing their investment. In the late 1930s the building housed the Empire Hotel, known for its Sky Room lounge, then from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to the 1970s, 100 McAllister served as U.S. government offices.
Reopening as university housing and offices in 1981, McAllister Tower is home to some 300 law students and their families. "The Tower" is sited one block from the administrative and scholastic center of Hastings College of the Law, and is the most prominent building in the district.
Church and hotel
The skyscraper at 100 McAllister began in 1920 with a plan formulated by Reverend Walter John Sherman to merge four of the largest Methodist Episcopal congregations in San Francisco, sell their various churches and properties and combine their assets to build a "superchurch" with a hotel on top of it. From their initial $800,000 they bought property at McAllister and Leavenworth streets and hired the architectural firm of Miller and PfluegerMiller and Pflueger
Miller and Pflueger was an architectural firm that formed when James Rupert Miller named Timothy L. Pflueger partner. Pflueger, at the time a rising star of San Francisco's architect community, had begun his architectural career with Miller and Colmesnil sometime in 1907 or 1908, under the tutelage...
to design the edifice. Timothy L. Pflueger was chosen as the designer. The new hotel, intended to be "dry" (serving no alcoholic beverages) in the "sinful" city, was to be named after William Taylor
William Taylor (bishop)
William Taylor was an American Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1884. Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana, carries his name.-Ancestry and birth:...
, a Methodist Episcopal street preacher and missionary who formed the first Methodist church in San Francisco. The large church was named Temple Methodist Episcopal Church, or simply "Temple Methodist".
Beginning in 1925, Pflueger designed a 308 ft (94 m), 28-story, step-back skyscraper made of brick framed with steel, along the lines of his just-completed Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company Building
PacBell Building
The PacBell Building or 140 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco's South of Market district is a Neo-Gothic, office tower located close to the St. Regis Museum Tower and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The 26-floor building was completed in 1925 and was San Francisco's first significant...
. Its main decorative theme was neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, expressed strongly in the three Gothic arches which formed the main street-level entrance for the church. The Great Hall, the large worship area located within the second, third and fourth floors was to seat 1,500 churchgoers and a smaller chapel was designed for 125 more. A grand pipe organ from Skinner Organ Company
Aeolian-Skinner
Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. — Æolian-Skinner of Boston, Massachusetts was an important American builder of a large number of notable pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner , Arthur Hudson Marks ,...
was installed with four manuals
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
controlling 3,881 pipes. A stained glass window was placed 80 feet above the sanctuary, representing Faith, Love and Hope in three tall, narrow panels. Two assembly halls could be combined to hold 1,100 attendees for theatrical or athletic events. Some 500 guest rooms and 32 tower apartments were intended to bring a steady flow of visitors and a source of profit to the church. Though never the tallest building in San Francisco, it was to be the tallest hotel on the Pacific Coast for many decades.
In a dispute, the architectural firm of Miller and Pflueger was fired from the project, and was replaced by Lewis P. Hobart. Miller and Pflueger sued for $81,600, alleging that Hobart's design was little changed from Pflueger's original. Three months after the hotel and church opened in January 1930, Miller and Pflueger won $38,000 in a favorable court decision.
Dedication of the church's pipe organ took place August 31, 1930. The combined congregation was very satisfied with their new place of worship.
Eventually costing ($ million in current value), the building's completion required several rounds of new financing from its investors in order to overcome unanticipated expenses. Unfortunately for the congregation, the idea of a hotel above a church didn't attract the requisite number of guests and the venture failed to turn a profit.
Empire Hotel
By November 1936, enough debt had accumulated that a bondholder's protective committee foreclosed on the property, buying it back for $750,000. The Temple Methodist congregation lost its investment and was asked to leave. The Skinner Opus pipe organ was removed to be sold to Occidental CollegeOccidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
in Los Angeles and rebuilt in their Thorne Hall. The three-piece stained glass window was removed and exhibited, eventually making its way to Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
where it was installed in the Morris Chapel at the University of the Pacific. The 100 McAllister building itself was refurbished: the church's floor area was given over to parking, a coffee shop was built in part of the first floor lobby and the new enterprise opened again as the Empire Hotel, noted for completing, in 1938, the first view lounge in the area, the Sky Room on the 24th floor. With plush carpeting, a large Art Deco-style oval bar, and plate glass windows on all sides, the Sky Room provided a panoramic view of the city. Architect & Engineer wrote of the luxurious bar in April, 1938, that it "has no prototype west of New York", referring to Manhattan's Rainbow Room
Rainbow Room
The Rainbow Room was an upscale restaurant and nightclub on the 65th floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-Cuisine:...
which opened three-and-a-half years earlier.
Federal offices
At the beginning of direct American involvement in World War II, the U.S. government bought the building and converted it to federal offices, officer billets, spaces used by the Army's Ordnance Procurement department, a passport agency and an induction center run by the local draft board. The high vaulted ceiling of the Great Hall worship center was hidden by a dropped ceilingDropped ceiling
A dropped ceiling is a secondary ceiling, hung below the main ceiling. They may also be referred to as a drop ceiling, false ceiling, or suspended ceiling, and are a staple of modern construction and architecture. The area above the dropped ceiling is called the plenum space, as it is sometimes...
. After the war, the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
moved offices into the building.
Many federal groups at 100 McAllister moved their offices in 1959–1960 to the newly-built federal building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, later named the Phillip Burton Federal Building
Phillip Burton Federal Building
The Phillip Burton Federal Building is a massive 21 floor, federal office building located close to San Francisco's Civic Center and the San Francisco City Hall. The building was finished in 1959, one of the earliest office towers for San Francisco....
. Occupancy at 100 McAllister was low, though the United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
moved their San Francisco District offices there in the 1960s, and local draftees were still required to appear there through the late 1960s. The San Francisco Selective Service System
Selective Service System
The Selective Service System is a means by which the United States government maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. Most male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of...
offices were located in the lower floors of the building during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
UC Hastings
The old Sky Room with its spectacular 360-degree view reopened in 1999 as the James Edgar Hervey Skyroom, in honor of alumnus James Edgar Hervey, Class of 1950, a prominent San Diego trial lawyer. It is used as a space for student study by day (no alcohol allowed) and is available for special events in the evenings. Other floors of the building hold offices, apartments and residential conveniences. The mezzanine level contains a compact fitness center, the third and fourth floors contain classrooms and offices for political action groups and legal assistance organizations, and the 22nd and 23rd floors hold publishing headquarters for a number of scholarly journals.
The Great Hall remains un-refurbished and has been judged by UC Hastings to be in need of substantial repair and improvement, including major architectural engineering work. The college has plans to create a 400-seat performing arts venue within the Great Hall.