Rincon Center is a complex of shops, restaurants, offices and apartments in downtown San Francisco. The center takes up an entire block bounded by Mission, Howard, Spear and Steuart streets. There are two buildings.

Rincon Annex is the former post office building designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood

Gilbert Stanley Underwood

Gilbert Stanley Underwood was an American architect best known for his National Park lodges. Born in 1890, Underwood received his B.A. from Yale in 1920 and a M.A. from Harvard in 1923. After opening an office in Los Angeles that year, he became associated with Daniel Ray Hull of the National...

 in the Streamline Moderne

Streamline Moderne

Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...

 style and completed in 1940. The interior features 27 watercolor mural

Mural

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...

s which were painted from 1941 to 1948 by the Russian immigrant painter Anton Refregier

Anton Refregier

Anton Refregier was a Russian immigrant painter in the United States.He made the 27 murals in the Rincon Center in San Francisco, California, which depict the history of California, in the style of the social realism.- Life and early career:Refregier was born in Moscow and emigrated to the United...

. He was inspired by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

. The murals show the history of California.

On the outside, the walls are decorated with dolphins.

In the 1980s the building was put up for development by the United States Postal Service. The property was eventually developed by a partnership headed by Perini

Perini

Tutor Perini Corporation is one of the largest general contractors in the United States. At the end of 2010 it reported an annual revenue of approximately $3.2 billion. Tutor Perini is headquartered in Sylmar, California and works on many construction projects throughout the United States and...

 Land & Development Company. A new 23-story mixed-use building was added on the south side of the block that contains a new post office, offices, and 320 apartments.

More information about the apartments and Rincon Center can be found at the Rincon Neighbors web site.

Two stories were also added atop Underwood's original post office building and a large atrium was cut into the interior. The atrium has a food court on the lower level and balconies connected to office space on the upper levels. The atrium is topped by a 200 feet (61 m) long skylight and features a distinctive 'Water Column' in the center. The water feature is a continuous 85 feet (25.9 m) column of water drops, coming from an eight-foot by eight-foot acrylic glass

Acrylic glass

Poly is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate...

 box with some 4,000 holes in it placed at the ceiling level. The installation was designed by artist Doug Hollis. The design of the late 1980s mixed-use Rincon Center was led by Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson (architect)

Scott Johnson is an architect. Educated at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Johnson has travelled widely and, in his early years, worked in a number of seminal firms...

 of Pereira Associates, the firm founded by William Pereira

William Pereira

William Leonard Pereira was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois, of Portuguese ancestry who was noted for his futuristic designs of landmark buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco...

, designer of the Transamerica Pyramid

Transamerica Pyramid

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building 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 tallest building in San Francisco.

There were many challenges involved in the construction of the adaptive reuse

Adaptive reuse

Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...

project. The story of the project's inception and construction was the focus of Douglas Frantz's 1991 book From the Ground Up.

Further reading

• From the Ground Up: The Business of Building in the Age of Money, Douglas Frantz, University of California Press (1993), ISBN 978-0520083998