An Architectural Guide To SF's Best Art Deco Buildings

By: Kyrie Sismaet By: Kyrie Sismaet | February 1, 2023 | People City Life Architecture Culture Neighborhoods Interiors Features Art Community

No matter how long you spend in San Francisco, with just a quick look around at some of our downtown buildings, it becomes immediately evident that this storied city is a rich Art Deco wonderland. Just like New York or Miami, San Francisco was a pivotal location for the proliferation of this glitzy French-inspired Roaring 1920s-style opulence, decorating our waterfront skyline with the design's extravagant symmetric façades, ornate geometric patterns, and bold fixtures of human achievement.

All of this iconic aesthetic was precisely crafted by trailblazing San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger, a talented visionary who fully embraced San Francisco's architectural potential and sought to showcase the city's beauty through elegant skyscrapers that also embodied the futurism and glam of post-war prosperity. Today a prestigious plethora of these classy buildings still confidently stands, and if you're wondering where exactly to admire them, here is our historic guide to the best ones the next time you're out exploring.

Art Deco first came to prominence in 1910's France, with its name short for French Arts Décoratifs. The style then became popular in America's 1920s post-war economic boom after a 1925 international art exposition, utilizing the European-style filigree and sumptuous embellishments to demonstrate the country's new cultural, technological, and financial growth.

This sharp lavish style was promoted everywhere from vehicles to fashion and even household items, but the most grand canvas to enviably showcase such exuberance and advancement was, of course, through skyscrapers that aimed to modernized San Francisco's skyline.

Combining fine craftsmanship with high-quality materials, Art Deco blossomed everywhere in the city thanks to Timothy Pflueger, a true architectural pioneer dedicated to recovering San Francisco's prestige after the devastating 1906 earthquake. With his first project successfully being the splendid Castro Theatre, Pflueger only continued to overwhelmingly impress, uplifting the city and greater Bay Area with the timeless vibrant color schemes, ornamental chevrons, mesmerizing zig-zags, motivational mosaics, and the upwards reaching geometry Art Deco is revered for. A true appreciator of cultural diversity, he also masterfully fused such shimmery style with genuine international aesthetics, often cleverly integrating classic Chinese or Mayan features.

Though Art Deco was contemporaneous with the more natural and pastoral Mission Revival, and the sleeker simplified Art Moderne of the times, Art Deco was the choice for everything maximalist, gilded, and radiantly over-the-top. Here are the most notable examples of such immense architecture that San Francisco's brilliant identity truly couldn't be the same without.

Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building

140 New Montgomery / Website

Built: 1925

One cannot talk about Art Deco in SF without acknowledging the magnificence of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building. As one of Pflueger's biggest projects, this truly became the city's first skyscraper, towering at 435 feet high with 26 stories. Determined to deliver modernity with a sense of post-war American identity, the building features two giant overhead eagles, American-style bell motifs, Sierra Nevada granite, and a large Bell System logo at the robust archway.

Golden Gate Bridge

Website

Built: 1937

The majestic Golden Gate Bridge is perhaps the world's largest demonstration of Art Deco. Originally intended to be painted in black and yellow stripes, the accidental international orange has since highlighted the structure as a global landmark, in part with its elegant 1920's design by Strauss and Ellis. Each component features the recognizable chevron faceting, from the tower archways and concrete pylons and abutments. Staggered vertical elements are a consistent design, adding to the suspension bridge's sleek feel and graceful cohesion, as notable through the streetlamps, handrails, and decorative tower sides.

Coit Tower

1 Telegraph Hill Blvd / (415) 249-0995 / Website

Built: 1933

Though many believe Coit Tower to be a nod to a firehose nozzle, this competition-winning design isn't at all intended to be. Sparking a new zoning ordinance due to its height, the top observation deck spectacularly boasts 360-degree views of SF, with rich columns, effortless archways, and a streamlined concrete exterior.

Definitely do not miss out on the 1934 murals within the tower's ground floor, as the artists commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project divisively, but genuinely, depicted working life during the Depression, now remaining as a snapshot into an unforgettable chapter of American history.

450 Sutter

Website

450 Sutter is truly a unique masterpiece for Pflueger's ingenious utilization of Neo-Mayan features with Art Deco filigree. Lovingly dedicated to the intrepid discovery of Mayan ruins, this sweeping building is richly cultural and inventively futuristic, modernizing traditional ornate patterns through cutting-edge metal ceilings and enthralling decorations that create this ultra-chic and timeless rarity.

Castro Theatre

429 Castro St / (415) 621-6120 / Website

Built: 1922

Amalgamating Spanish Revival with traditional Asian motifs and dazzling Art Deco is the historic and captivating Castro Theatre. The California Churrigueresque façade is the most immediately impressive outdoor feature with its later added marquee and vertical neon sign, while the interior features the last known use of a leatherette ceiling, and traditional, yet rare scrafitto embellishments. The decorated jewel-toned box office is also original.

Hunter-Dulin Building

111 Sutter St / Website

Built: 1926

The Hunter-Dulin building simply stops you in your tracks to look up- either when from a distance, or if you're at its base entryway. With the same designers of New York's Grand Central Terminal, the Waldorf Astoria, and more, this strikingly embellished 25-story elegant behemoth is picturesque both inside and out. The structure reverberates French Renaissance Revival, and its golden repeating ornate patterns draws your eye up to its gabled mansard roof and alcoves boasting powerful silhouettes.

San Francisco Polytechnic High School

639 & 755 Frederick St / Website

Built: 1929

Formerly open for 89 years, the San Francisco Polytechnic High School was a marvel to attend, particularly its gym house for the boy's, seen here with its elaborate details and expansive structure. If you think the outside is breathtaking, wait until you discover what magically lies inside. Though the school officially closed in 1973, the gym's esteemed architecture finds new life as the trusted home of the high-flying Circus Center!

To learn more and dive deeper into our city's Art Deco history with hands-on and personalized edification, there is a lovely comprehensive Art Deco Walking Tour generously hosted by SF City Guides. You can see their schedule and walking path here.

You can also read further about other Art Deco buildings in the city here.

Photography by: Courtesy of Diane Kierse-Donohoe/Getty Images

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