Black building in San Francisco, now with pic

[J Miller]

Here is a question for our CA members. Specifically anyone who might now the city of San Francisco.
On the TV show Ironsides ( the original Raymond Burr version ) and others, they often show a huge building that looks like a black obelisk with the ocean or bay in the back ground. On Ironsides the building is always shown when they do the pan to the old building Ironsides office is in. The black building is in the background and a freighter is always there.

ETA: Here is a screen cap of that scene:

IMG_5284.JPG

You can see the bridge and perhaps Treasure Island in the back ground.

Do you know what part of San Francisco that building is - if it's still there - and what it might be?

Curious minds, mine, want to know.

I'm searching Google maps now to try and find it, but that's kind of like a needle in a hay stack.

Joe

[Old Ironsights]

Certainly wasn't a 2001 slab. Those were sent to instill enlightenment & foster intelligence...

[J Miller]

Maybe that's why I can't find it. It didn't find any intelligent beings here so it launched out to space.


Joe

[J Miller]

OK, the exterior shots of Ironsides building is the old San Francisco Hall of Justice that was demolished in 1968. Now the task is to find that address.

ETA: Found it. http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/proje ... ncisco-ca/

Now to try and triangulate the angles and find that big black building.


Joe

[Grizzly Adams]

Maybe this will help?

http://www.aviewoncities.com/buildings/sf.htm

[J Miller]

Maybe this will help?

http://www.aviewoncities.com/buildings/sf.htm

Neat site, but I'm not sure it's on there. None of them are black or shaped like an obelisk.
I'm gonna check 'em out though.

I do think I'm on track to the one I'm thinking of though.

Joe

[Hagler]

Joe,

Ironside's Hall of Justice Building was on Kearney Street, though my spelling could be wrong.

Shawn

EDIT:

Try " 750 Kearny Street".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_San ... l_District

[Griff]

Is what you're thinking of the Coit Tower? It was used in the stock footage at the opening of the show as I recall. If not, the Tranamerica building was finished before the series ended, and is the only "obelisk" that I can think of in SF. The protrusions are only on 2 sides that I remember, and it would appear black in profile with the sun behind it.

[J Miller]

Shawn,

I found the address of the old Hall of Justice Building. You're correct on the address. I then went about three blocks west and a bit north on the same street and there is a big black building. I haven't gotten an address or name for it, but my best guess is that's what I'm looking for.

Griff,

No, not the Coit tower. What I'm looking for is huge, flat sided and black, all the way.

Joe

[Old Ironsights]

FWIW: From IMDb

There are three Hall of Justice buildings in San Francisco's history. The ornate granite and slate-faced Romanesque structure that appears in every first-run episode of Ironside from September 1967 to late December 1974, was the second Hall of Justice which is often referred to as the "Old" Hall of Justice. Apart from the city's police department headquarters, police and superior courtrooms, and district attorney's offices, above the building's fourth floor Romanesque style arched office and superior courtroom windows it also housed a portion of the city jail comprising suspended steel fifth and sixth floor galleries illuminated soley by large roof skylights. Its address was 750 Kearny Street, which placed it on the east side of Kearny, shoe-horned as it were between Washington and Merchant Streets.

The "Old" Hall's predecessor, the original and first Hall of Justice stood on the same exact piece of real estate. It was damaged in the great San Francisco earthquake on the 18th of April, 1906, which ultimately resulted in its burning to the ground. That building bore a more than passing resemblance in size to its successor, although it also included in its configuration a tall narrow clock tower which overlooked Kearny Street. The replacement, the "Old" Hall, was first occupied in 1912, which by the mid 1950's had outgrown its intended purpose. A third, larger Hall of Justice, the one still presently in use, was built about one and a half miles south on a new site at 850 Bryant Street, between 7th and Harriet streets.

The "Old" Hall of Justice was abandoned in 1961 and was subsequently stripped of many of its luxurious fixtures and fittings, comprising wood and marble paneling, marble floors, ornate brass door knobs cast with the embossed seal of the city of San Francisco and their complimenting hinges, carpets, furniture, and just before its demolition in late 1967, Romanesque windows, cast stone exterior decorative trim and other architectural elements.

Several pieces of daytime stock footage of the building filmed in preparation for production of the Ironside TV series just prior to the "Old" Hall's demolition were used to highlight the location of Chief Ironside's office, which indicated it occupied the northwest corner of the building directly behind the far left most fourth floor Romanesque arched window as viewed from the front of the building's west facing main facade. Like the actual room behind that window (the "Old" Hall's Grand Jury Room) the set at Universal City Studios of the Chief's office, which also doubled as his apartment, had a compliment of two principle facsimiles of the Hall's Romanesque arched windows, while just as the Hall's Grand Jury Room's adjoining Grand Jury Clerk's room was fitted out with a third window of that style there was a third one in the Chief's game room where Mark slept. The other two actual fourth floor Romanesque windows of the actual rooms which as previously stated were of the same style, were at the far right end of the Hall's north facing facade, but unfortunately were never filmed.

Also seen in the same stock footage is the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, which is located a short distance to the north of Portsmouth Square. Portsmouth Square, situated on Kearny between Washington and Clay, was once the center of old San Francisco and is now part of the Chinatown district of the city.

Looking eastward from Portsmouth Square prior to 1967, the frontal view of the Old Hall of Justice would have been instantly familiar to Ironside fans. Unfortunately, the equally attractive upper portion of its matching north-facing side elevation on Washington Street was excluded in the daytime and nighttime stock footage depicting either Mark driving the Paddy Wagon out of the old basement parking garage (originally the police drill hall) entrance, or Ed doing the same with his unmarked black 1967 Ford Galaxy sedan police special. No footage was ever produced and employed in the series depicting the Merchant Street elevation which mirrored the Washington Street facade in every way. Dunbar Alley ran directly behind the "Old" Hall, separating the structure on the ground floor from its sister building, the City And County Jail Building which was the same height as the Hall, but with about a quarter less real estate footprint. The two facilities, which had been constructed at the same time and designed by city architect, Newton J. Tharp and his department were joined to one another both by a windowed concrete and steel floating hallway connecting the second floor of the jail building to the second floor police department/court rooms of the Hall as well as via an underground tunnel from one building's sub-basement to the other's.

Midway along the front of the Hall was a somewhat large and elegant sidewalk level entrance vestibule containing a flight of steps with brass railings leading to the building's main large brass-framed double entrance doors with matching full length side light windows.

Ironside's subsequent transport, a first of its kind, highly customized, brand new beige-colored 1969 Ford 1 ton Econoline Window Van, which was introduced into the series after the police paddy wagon was destroyed in one episode, is never seen near the Old Hall of Justice because at that time the building had been completely demolished and a new structure was in the process of being constructed on the property.

Today, the site of the "Old" Hall Of Justice and its sister building is occupied by the 27-floor, Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel and the Chinese Cultural Center. The hotel building was originally constructed as, and for many years thereafter remained, a Holiday Inn Hotel. The cultural center and hotel presently share the same address. Behind the Hilton on Montgomery Street stands the famous Transamerica Pyramid, another of San Francisco's noteworthy landmark buildings.

There are ongoing arguments concerning the wisdom of demolishing a building of such historical and architectural provenance as the Old Hall of Justice and replacing it with a modern, bland skyscraper structure. Many of San Francisco's inhabitants regard the design and appearance of the Old Hall of Justice as having far more character and beauty than the edifices that replaced both it and its sister building (the City And County Jail Building).

[J Miller]

OI,

I spent quite a bit of time on IMDB and got the address of the Old Hall of Justice there. I did not find the wealth of info you just posted. Thanks.

.............................................................

If you look at Google satellite map and find 750 Kearny St.San Francisco, CA 94108, then go 4 streets west to Washington and Front St, that big building that interrupts Front St between Washington St and Clay St may be the one seen in the back ground. From the street view it is all black and rectangular and in the right place.

I still haven't found what that building is, or when it was built.

Google used to have a link to put the page URL into a post or email, but I can't find it now.
So I just typed in the address and waited for it to load.

Joe

[BigSky56]

http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/ ... res_9.html. danny

[Hagler]

Joe,

Is the obelisk in this picture?:


http://urbanlifesigns.blogspot.com/2013 ... elisk.html



555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, and locally known as Triple Nickel:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_California_Street

555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, and locally known as Triple Nickel, is a 52-story, 779 ft (237 m) skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the second tallest building in the city and a focal point of the Financial District. Completed in 1969, the tower served as the world headquarters of Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank, when the company moved its headquarters to the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A 70 percent interest was acquired by Vornado Realty Trust from foreign investors in March 2007 with a 30 percent limited partnership interest still owned by Donald Trump, while continuing to be managed by the Shorenstein Company.[5]

555 California Street was meant to be a deliberate and unambiguous display of the wealth, power, and importance of Bank of America. To that end, the center was handled by the architecture firms Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with architect Pietro Belluschi consulting. The structural engineering was performed by the San Francisco firm H. J. Brunnier Associates. The skyscraper incorporates thousands of bay windows thanks to its unique design, meant to improve the rental value and to symbolize the bay windows common in San Francisco residential real estate. At the north foot of the skyscraper is a large plaza named in honor of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini that is often shaded during the day, leading to it being criticized as cold and windswept by many.

Within the plaza is the 200-ton black Swedish granite sculpture "Transcendence" by Masayuki Nagare that, while resembling a liver, is locally and derisively known as the "Banker's Heart". Nearly the entire block—the skyscraper, the banking hall, the plaza, the stairways, and the sidewalks—is clad in costly polished or rough carnelian granite. An exclusive restaurant, the "Carnelian Room", was located on the 52nd floor. The elevator to this restaurant is one of the few publicly accessible high-speed elevators in San Francisco. Due in large part to the late–2000s economic recession, however, the restaurant closed at midnight New Year's Eve 2009.[6]

In 1971, 555 California Street, then just two years old, was featured at the beginning of the film Dirty Harry. It was from the roof of the building that the killer shoots his victim in the, now closed down, pool atop what is currently the Hilton Financial District hotel on Kearny Street. The film shows wide panoramic views of San Francisco taken from the roof of the building. In 1974, 555 California Street was again used extensively for filming of a box-office hit, this time The Towering Inferno, in which the outside plaza substituted for the film's fictional skyscraper, the infamous Glass Tower. The rooftop setting of the building used in Dirty Harry was also used a decade later in the Chuck Norris film An Eye for an Eye (1981).

Together with the Transamerica Pyramid, 555 California Street is evidence of the direction San Francisco's downtown was moving during the 1960s before numerous campaigns against high-rise buildings in the 1970s and 1980s forced development to move south of Market Street.

Shawn

[Old Ironsights]

OI,

I spent quite a bit of time on IMDB and got the address of the Old Hall of Justice there. I did not find the wealth of info you just posted. Thanks.
... Joe

Strong can be the GoogleFu with This One....

[J Miller]

Shawn,

I don 't think any of them are, not the right address. I posted where I believe it to be above.

OI,

My GoogleFu is pathetic.

Joe

[Ji in Hawaii]

You're telling me the Hall of Justice, and the Justice League actually DO exist???

[J Miller]

J e

[J Miller]

BTT. Edited OP to add pic.

Joe