The Four Embarcadero Center is a Brutalist skyscraper designed by John Portman & Associetes, with John Portman as lead architect, and built in 1982 in San Francisco, CA.
Its precise street address is 55 Clay Street, San Francisco, CA. You can also find it on the map here.
Four Embarcadero Center is part of the Embarcadero Center complex. Other buildings in the complex include One Embarcadero Center, the Two Embarcadero Center and the Three Embarcadero Center.
John Portman & Associetes, with John Portman as the lead architect, 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 David Rockefeller as the Main Developer.
The Four Embarcadero Center can be categorized as a Brutalist building.
The Four Embarcadero Center reaches an architectural height of 571ft (174m). It has a total of 45 floors, served by 23 elevators, which combined offer a total of 941,637 sqf (87,481m2) of usable space.
In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 221 spots available, which roughly equals 5 spots per floor (above ground), or one parking spot per every 4,263 sqf (396m2) of usable space.
Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1982, the Four Embarcadero Center has mainly been used as Commercial space, with other complementary uses such as retail space.
The Four Embarcadero Center 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 curtain wall system made of glass and metal framing. The vertical and horizontal lines of the metal framing add structure and rhythm to the facade, while the setbacks and stepped design at the upper levels create a dynamic profile that distinguishes the building within the Embarcadero Center complex.
