One Post Street Building vs Transamerica Pyramid

Comparing the One Post Street Building and the Transamerica Pyramid is interesting because they both stand in San Francisco, CA, and were completed within 3 years of each other, 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.

The Transamerica Pyramid is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 853ft (260m) 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 Transamerica Pyramid 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 Transamerica Pyramid came later, when the style was already more established.

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

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 Transamerica Pyramid 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 Transamerica Pyramid opted for a Modular facade, that employs prefabricated panels, often mixing solid surfaces with smaller windows.