McAllister Tower Apartments, Gothic Revival skyscraper in Tenderloin, San Francisco, United States.
McAllister Tower is a 28-story, 94-meter skyscraper of brick framed with steel at 100 McAllister Street, built in a neo-Gothic style with three large arches forming the street-level entrance. It opened in 1930 as the William Taylor Hotel and Temple Methodist Episcopal Church, and since 1981 it has served as university housing and offices for UC Law SF, with about 300 law students and their families.
The building opened in 1930 as the William Taylor Hotel, also housing a Methodist church on its lower floors. During World War II it was taken over for federal government use, beginning a long series of changes in how the tower was occupied.
The Sky Room opened in 1938 as the first view lounge in the area, with plush carpeting, a large Art Deco oval bar and plate-glass windows on all sides. Architect & Engineer wrote in April 1938 that the bar "has no prototype west of New York", referring to Manhattan's Rainbow Room. The building now houses about 300 law students and their families.
The tower stands in the Tenderloin and is easy to spot from the street thanks to its tall Gothic facade. The interior is reserved for residents and authorized visitors, so most people will get a better look by walking around the outside of the building.
The Great Hall, the church's 1,500-seat worship space spanning the second to fourth floors, was converted to parking when the Empire Hotel took over in the late 1930s. The Skinner organ, opus 819 with four manuals and 3,881 pipes, was sold to Occidental College, and the 80-foot stained-glass window of Faith, Love and Hope went to Morris Chapel at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
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