The Hallidie Building stands in downtown San Francisco, designed by the architect Willis Polk and completed in 1918 for the University of California, which commissioned it as a commercial office building on land it owned. The building is widely credited as one of the earliest true glass curtain walls in architectural history, its sheet-glass facade hung on a projecting steel frame entirely independent of the structural floors behind it, rather than the glass being set into load-bearing masonry openings as was then standard practice. Polk suspended ornamental cast-iron fire escapes and a decorative iron cornice in front of the glass plane, framing the transparent wall with a layer of applied historical ornament in front of the building's modern structural glass skin. The building takes its name from Andrew Smith Hallidie, the inventor of the San Francisco cable car system, honoring his earlier ownership of the site. Architectural historians regard the Hallidie Building as a direct forerunner of the all-glass curtain wall skyscrapers that would not become common until decades later.
Facts
Building Type Location130 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 1 Completed Year Classification
Standing Status Building Type
Building Type (category) Connections
Has Building Type
Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.
In Style
Source Hallidie Building, Wikipedia
Source Hallidie Building, Wikipedia
Uses Element
Source Hallidie Building, Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Hallidie Building, Wikipedia
Introduction, first sentence
The Hallidie Building is an office building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, at 130 Sutter Street, between Montgomery Street and Kearny Street.
Introduction, first sentence (address clause)
The Hallidie Building is an office building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, at 130 Sutter Street, between Montgomery Street and Kearny Street.
Introduction, second sentence
Designed by architect Willis Polk and named in honor of San Francisco cable car pioneer Andrew Smith Hallidie, it opened in 1918.
Entity description and the lead/infobox of the Wikipedia article
The Hallidie Building stands in downtown San Francisco, designed by the architect Willis Polk and completed in 1918 for the University of California, which commissioned it as a commercial office building on land it owned. The building is widely credited as one of the earliest true glass curtain walls in architectural history, its sheet-glass facade hung on a projecting steel frame entirely independent of the structural floors behind it, rather than the glass being set into load-bearing masonry openings as was then standard practice. Polk suspended ornamental cast-iron fire escapes and a decorative iron cornice in front of the glass plane, framing the transparent wall with a layer of applied historical ornament in front of the building's modern structural glass skin. The building takes its name from Andrew Smith Hallidie, the inventor of the San Francisco cable car system, honoring his earlier ownership of the site. Architectural historians regard the Hallidie Building as a direct forerunner of the all-glass curtain wall skyscrapers that would not become common until decades later.
In Style: Chicago School, Wikipedia categories
Category:Chicago school architecture in California
In Style: Modernist Architecture, Wikipedia categories
Category:Modernist architecture in California
Uses Element: Glass, Wikipedia lead
The building is noted especially for its glass facade, symmetrical fire escapes and ornate iron work.
View the Source2. Wikidata: Hallidie Building
Wikidata Q5642964, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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