Transamerica Pyramid vs One Montgomery Tower

Comparing the Transamerica Pyramid and the One Montgomery Tower is interesting because they both rise in San Francisco, CA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, William L. Pereira 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 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 Montgomery Tower reaches 499ft (152m) 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 Transamerica Pyramid and the One Montgomery Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both William L. Pereira and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

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

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