McAllister Tower Apartments vs 450 Sutter Street Building

Comparing the McAllister Tower Apartments and the 450 Sutter Street Building is interesting because they both stand in San Francisco, CA, and were completed just one year apart, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The 450 Sutter Street Building rises higher at 344ft (105m), while the McAllister Tower Apartments reaches 308ft (94m). However, the McAllister Tower Apartments accommodates more floors with 28 levels above ground, compared to 26 floors in the 450 Sutter Street Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The 450 Sutter Street Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4m, while the McAllister Tower Apartments has more compact floors averaging around 3.4m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the McAllister Tower Apartments and the 450 Sutter Street Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Lewis P. Hobart and Miller and Pflueger followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The McAllister Tower Apartments is primarily residential, while the 450 Sutter Street Building is primarily medical.

Originally, the McAllister Tower Apartments was designed for hotel, but over time it was converted to residential. The 450 Sutter Street Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.