Description
The building was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Hartford Insurance, its initial tenant. It is architecturally significant, featuring a tall modernist lobby, high ceilings, and an exterior skeleton of floor-to-ceiling windows recessed into a square gridwork of precast white reinforced concrete.
When this tower was completed in 1964, it was the second in San Francisco larger than 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m2). It also became California's tallest building, replacing both the Russ Building in San Francisco and the Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, California. Later skyscrapers in both San Francisco and Los Angeles took the title of California's tallest from this building.
650 California was acquired for US$160 million by the Pivotal Group in 2000, and later sold to private investors, A-650 California St. LLC, and AEW Capital Management in 2007.
650 California Street passed the certification requirements for the Gold Level of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in June 2011. The LEED building certification system is a program for rating the design, construction and operation of environmentally and socially responsible buildings.
Key tenants include Littler Mendelson (world headquarters), Credit Suisse, Fliesler Meyer LLP, Jones Hall Law Corporation, and Recommind.
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