425 Market Street Building

The 425 Market Street Building is an International Style skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and built in 1973 in San Francisco, CA.

425 Market Street Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• 1 Metropolitan Life Plaza.
• 1 Metro Plaza until 1973.

Its precise street address is 425 Market Street, San Francisco, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

At the time of its completion in 1973 the 425 Market Street Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included a high-speed internal system for data transmission, internal office mail, and file sharing.

The building underwent a major restoration in 1988. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Holmes Group.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

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 at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Matropolitan Life Insurance Company as the Main Developer.

The 425 Market Street Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The 425 Market Street Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and 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 window wall system.

Window wall systems are installed between floor slabs, allowing the edge of the slabs to be visible from the exterior (unlike curtain walls).

Window walls are easier to install than curtain walls, often resulting in reduced construction time and cost. However, the exposed edge of the slabs are weak points in terms of thermal insulation and needs to be carefully detailed to avoid thermal bridging and potential condensation issues

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features repetitive angled anodized aluminum panels that frame the tinted glass windows. Depending on the angle of light, the blinds cast jagged shadows on the panels enhancing the appearance of the building's exterior .

Other materials found at the 425 Market Street Building include, wood, used in lobby finished, marble, also found in lobby finished, and granite , used for the paved plaza.