One Post Street Building vs 345 California Center

Comparing the One Post Street Building and the 345 California Center is interesting because they both rise in San Francisco, CA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Welton Becket & Associates and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of San Francisco across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The 345 California Center is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 620ft (189m) with 48 floors above ground, while the One Post Street Building reaches 528ft (161m) 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 Post Street Building and the 345 California Center were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

Back then, thePostmodernism was still an emerging movement, so both giving it a pioneering role. By contrast, the 345 California Center came later, when the style was already more established.

The 345 California Center follows a mixed-use model, combining commercial and hotel. In contrast, the One Post Street Building has remained primarily commercial.

The 345 California Center incorporates a 5-star hotel with 155 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

The 345 California Center also provides 180 parking spaces.

The two buildings opted for different structural and facade solutions.

The One Post Street Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, which combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns, while the 345 California Center uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

And when it came to the facade, the Curtain Wall went with a Curtain Wall facade, which uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure, while the 345 California Center opted for a Window Wall facade, that uses panels fitted between floor slabs, leaving slab edges visible.