450 Sutter Street, Art Deco skyscraper in the Financial District, San Francisco, United States
450 Sutter Street is a 26-story skyscraper in San Francisco with a limestone and terra cotta exterior featuring geometric patterns and ornamental details. The Mayan Revival design extends across the facade through stylized motifs and carefully composed decorative elements.
Completed in 1929, 450 Sutter Street was designed by Timothy L. Pflueger in a Neo-Mayan Art Deco style. Its vertically faceted exterior later influenced Pietro Belluschi's design for 555 California, the former Bank of America Center finished in 1969. In the 1960s endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin ran a summer practice in the building, drawing many patients from the nearby Tenderloin.
The building displays Mayan Revival design elements across its exterior and interior spaces, reflecting a 1920s fascination with ancient civilizations. This architectural language was a way for San Francisco to express artistic innovation during that era.
The building houses medical and dental offices throughout its spaces and has been upgraded with modern systems including heating and high-speed internet. Since many areas are private offices, focus on viewing the public lobby and facade to appreciate the architectural details.
The lobby ceiling, visible from the entrance, carries carved geometric panels with spirals, chevrons and mask-like motifs, and a stepped pendant holding five round lights. Tim Schafer modelled the Department of Death in Grim Fandango on this building, having known it from his dentist's office upstairs. The tower also appears in SimCity 4 as the fictional Vu Financial tower.
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