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Ferry Building
 

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View from the south - 2006-7 (519098)
(c) Paul Toczynski
 
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View from the west - 2006-7 (362065)
(c) Nate Lindsey
 
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From the west - 2006-7 (511941)
(c) Jim Schwartz
 
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Identification
Official name Ferry Building
Emporis Building Number 118858
 
Location
Address *
Bordering street The Embarcadero
Postcode *
Exact Latitude *
Exact Longitude *
Location Map (POI) *
Zone Financial District
Neighborhood Financial District North
Region Northeast
City San Francisco
State California
Country U.S.A.
 
Technical Data
Height (struct.) 75 m 245 ft
Floors (OG) 12
Construction end 1898
Last reconstruction *
Elevators *
Costs at completion *
 
Building in General
Type of construction high-rise building
Structural materials
*
Main usages
*
*
Architectural style *
Status completed

Facts
- Survived the 1906 earthquake with barely a scratch.
- Inspired by La Giralda, bell tower of Seville Cathedral.
- After the 1906 earthquake the clock remained stuck at 5:16 for a year.
- Designed in late 1892 by A. Page Brown (1859-1896), graduate of Cornell University, not long after moving to San Francisco in 1889.
- Edward Swain supervised the completion of the Ferry Building after the architect was killed in an accident in January, 1896.
- Designated as a landmark in 1977 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Re-opened March 21, 2003 after US$75,000,000 restoration.
- Once the transportation hub of San Francisco where 170 ferry boats a day brought commuters and transcontinental railroad passengers to the foot of Market Street where the city streetcar lines ended.
- Built as the Union Depot and Ferry House.
- The clock tower has a steel frame with self-supporting sandstone walls that was strengthened after the 1906 earthquake and reclad in reinforced concrete painted to match the sandstone base.
- This structure was one of the first steel frame buildings in San Francisco.
- The clock, with its four 22-foot diameter clock faces, was officially re-started on June 17, 2003 at 12 noon by Mayor Willie Brown.
- Designated City Landmark #90 on July 9, 1977.
- The Grand Nave of the Ferry Building is 660 feet long, 45 feet wide and fully skylit.
- At one time the Ferry Building was one of the most used transportation halls in the world.
- The second and third floors offer over 170,000 square feet of premium office space with dramatic views.
- The completion of the Bay Bridge (1936) doomed the ferries and as a result the Ferry Building's role.

Companies involved in this Building*
Architect: A. Page Brown

Other companies: William Kreysler & Associates, D&J Tile Company, Inc., SMWM, Baldauf Catton Von Eckartsberg Architects, Page & Turnbull, Inc., Plant Construction Company, LP, Rutherford & Chekene.