225 Bush Street, Art Deco skyscraper in Financial District, San Francisco, United States.
225 Bush Street is a 25-floor, 328-foot (100 m) office building with a light grey stone or concrete facade and a dense grid of rectangular windows. Its top section has a decorative crown with a row of narrow arches, a projecting cornice, and a recessed upper level. The building contains 21 floors of office space, 1 retail floor, 1 storage floor, and 2 basement levels including a garage.
The building was completed in 1922 by architect George W. Kelham and commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, becoming the city's tallest structure at that time. By 1925, the Pacific Telephone Building surpassed it in height, ending its brief reign as San Francisco's dominant landmark.
The building's crown of narrow arches and projecting cornice, visible at the top of the light grey facade, follows the Federal Reserve Bank of New York model George W. Kelham used. Its name changed from Standard Oil Building to its Bush Street address as tenants shifted from oil to technology firms such as Twitch and Mercari.
The building occupies a full block front on Bush Street between Sansome and Battery streets, in the Financial District. Two basement levels hold a garage, and the ground floor is given over to retail space. The main lobby is reached from Bush Street; the upper office floors are not open to the public.
The building was originally called the Standard Oil Building and housed the headquarters of Standard Oil of California, now known as Chevron, for more than 50 years. This long association with the oil company established its prominence as a major corporate center.
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