One Front Street Building vs 555 California Street Building

Comparing the One Front Street Building and the 555 California Street Building is particularly interesting because they share the same skyline in San Francisco, CA, and were both designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. However, they were completed more than 13 years apart.

This offers a unique perspective on how the architect's style and the city's architecture evolved over time.

The 555 California Street Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 778ft (237m) with 52 floors above ground, while the One Front Street Building reaches 538ft (164m) with 38 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the One Front Street Building and the 555 California Street Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

The 555 California Street Building was completed when the Postmodernism was still an emerging movement, giving it a pioneering role. By contrast, the One Front Street Building came later, when the style was already more established.

Both the One Front Street Building and the 555 California Street Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with One Front Street Building offering 290 spaces and the 555 California Street Building offering 450.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The One Front Street Building uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the 555 California Street Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, that combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.