50 Beale Street, Modern office skyscraper in Financial District, San Francisco, United States.
50 Beale Street is a 23-floor, 328 ft (100 m) office high-rise in San Francisco's Financial District, between Market and Mission Streets. Completed in 1967, it was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and served as Bechtel's world headquarters. It was later known as the Bechtel Building and then the Blue Shield of California Building.
50 Beale Street was completed in 1967 as the world headquarters of Bechtel, the engineering firm that built the Hoover Dam. Blue Shield of California made it its headquarters from 1996 to 2018 and took naming rights in 2006, when the tower became the Blue Shield of California Building. Broadway Partners bought it in 2007, a Rockefeller Group and Mitsubishi Estate New York venture in September 2012, and Paramount Group for about US$395 million in September 2014.
Inside is a preserved 1920s railcar that the Bechtel family once used as a residence during the Hoover Dam construction. This historical artifact tells the story of the company's origins and its connection to major infrastructure projects.
50 Beale Street is a private office tower between Market and Mission Streets, so there is no public observation deck or interior tour; the 23-floor, 328-foot slab is seen from the sidewalk. The 1920 railcar used by Steve Bechtel is kept inside the building, not on public display.
The tower has changed hands several times over the decades, with Paramount Group taking ownership in 2014. These ownership shifts show how this location remained valuable to different major companies.
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