Palacio de San Francisco, Cali, Modern office building in central Cali, Colombia.

The Palacio de San Francisco is a 17-story modern office tower in downtown Cali with large glass windows and geometric patterns on its facade. The contemporary structure stands as a defining landmark in this part of the city.

The first Palacio de San Francisco, designed by Italian architects Papio and Juan Pablo Bonarda, opened in 1930 facing the Church of San Francisco and housed the Gobernación until 1978. Law 91 of December 1965 funded a replacement; a 1960s competition was won by Enrique Richardson and Libia Yusti de Chatain with Julián Guerrero and Jaime Camacho. Work began around the 1971 Panamerican Games and ended in 1976 under governor Raúl Orejuela Bueno, after demolishing the old palace.

The tower carries the name of the colonial Church of San Francisco facing it, and the first palace of 1930 stood on that same block before its demolition. Today the building holds the governor's office and the departmental secretariats of education, public works, health, finance and administrative services, plus the departmental printing press and the passport office.

The tower stands on the block facing the Iglesia de San Francisco, with its main entrance on Calle 6, opposite the monument to Fray Damián González. The passport office and departmental secretariats occupy the building, so expect queues at the passport counter; the 1976 tower has two basement levels and 17 floors above ground.

The 1976 tower replaced the 1930 Palacio de San Francisco, a four-storey building with a dome and a central concrete staircase whose entrance on Calle 6 faced the monument to Fray Damián González. Its demolition to make way for the 17-storey block damaged the city's urban heritage.