101 California Street Building

The 101 California Street Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Johnson/Burgee Architects, and built between 1979 and 1982 in San Francisco, CA.

101 California Street Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Itel Building.

Its precise street address is 101 California Street, San Francisco, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

With a large triangular base, the seven-story glass lobby stands out, showcasing the structural columns upon which the building rises. It is accessed through a granite plaza adorned with a fountain and flower beds .

The building underwent a major restoration in 2023. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, OJB .

Johnson/Burgee Architects was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

But that's not all, there was also a whole team of architects involved, which included: Eli Attia Architects, and Kendall/Heaton Associates Inc..

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 101 California Street Building a reality:

• CBM Engineers in charge of Structural Engineering
• Hines Interests Limited Partnership as the Main Developer

The 101 California Street Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The 101 California Street Building was completed in 1982. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The 101 California Street Building was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The 101 California Street Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a dark-tinted glass curtain wall.

The floorplan of the building is like a pixelated circle, which when repeated over the 48 floors creates a cylindrical in shape with hinged edges of alternating bands of granite and glass.