650 California Street

Description

The building was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Hartford Insurance, its initial tenant. It is architecturally significant, featuring a tall modernist lobby, high ceilings, and an exterior skeleton of floor-to-ceiling windows recessed into a square gridwork of precast white reinforced concrete.

When this tower was completed in 1964, it was the second in San Francisco larger than 400000 sqft. For a time it was also California's tallest building, replacing both the Russ Building in San Francisco and the Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, California. It is one of 39 San Francisco high rises reported by the U.S. Geological Survey as potentially vulnerable to a large earthquake, due to a structural deficiency.

650 California was acquired for by the Pivotal Group in 2000, and later sold to private investors, A-650 California St. LLC, and AEW Capital Management in 2007. The tower was acquired by Tishman Speyer and partner Prudential Real Estate Investors in 2012 for about . Tishman undertook a renovation, which included a remodeled lobby by New York-based firm MdeAS Architects. Tishman sold 650 California to Columbia Property Trust Inc. in September 2014 for .

650 California Street passed the certification requirements for the Gold Level of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in June 2011. The LEED building certification system is a program for rating the design, construction and operation of environmentally and socially responsible buildings.

The building is the fictional setting of Doris Martin's workplace in The Doris Day Show.

After Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company ceased paying rent for its 30th floor office rental. In response, the building's landlord filed court papers in San Francisco State Court.

Tenants

Key tenants include Access Communications, Affirm, AppDirect, Analysis Group, CrossInstall, Credit Suisse, Dentsu International, Omnicom Group Inc., Recommind, Twitter, and Vector Capital.

References

References

1. "Emporis building ID 118886". [[Emporis]].
2. {{SkyscraperPage. 1396
3. {{Structurae. 20021846
4. "650 California Street". Emporis.
5. Betty J. Blum. (1989). "Edward Charles Bassett (1921-1999), oral history". Art Institute of Chicago.
6. Fuller, Thomas. (2018-06-14). "At Risk in a Big Quake: 39 of San Francisco's Top High Rises". The New York Times.
7. (2000-10-13). "Pivotal LLC purchases 650 California Street". Pivotal Group.
8. "650 California Street". Pivotal Group.
9. J.K. Dineen. (May 25, 2012). "Tishman's 650 Cal buy adds to recent string of big deals". San Francisco Business Times.
10. Mills, David. (September 10, 2014). "Office building at 650 California purchased for $309 million". San Francisco Business Times.
11. [http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/Project/CertifiedProjectList.aspx "Certified Project Directory"] {{Webarchive. link. (2008-11-03 , [[U.S. Green Building Council]], Gold Level LEED-EB:OM v2009 June 2011)
12. Mandler, C. (1 January 2023). "Twitter sued for nonpayment of over $136,000 in rent on its San Francisco office". [[CBS News]].
13. [http://www.cushwake.com/cwmbs4q10/PDF/off_sanfran_4q10.pdf "Significant 4Q10 Lease Transactions"] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-09-27 , '' MarketBeat San Francisco Office Report,'' Cushman & Wakefield, Oct-Dec 2010.)