%% apa:: Dills, K. W. (1971). The Hallidie Building. _Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians_, _30_(4), 323–329. [https://doi.org/10.2307/988706](https://doi.org/10.2307/988706) %% # The Hallidie Building --- Dills, K. W. (1971). The Hallidie Building. _Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians_, _30_(4), 323–329. [https://doi.org/10.2307/988706](https://doi.org/10.2307/988706) --- ## Metadata title: The Hallidie Building author:: Keith W. Dills cite-key:: dills1971HallidieBuilding date-published:: 1971-12-01 url:: [https://online.ucpress.edu/jsah/article/30/4/323/45842/The-Hallidie-Building](https://online.ucpress.edu/jsah/article/30/4/323/45842/The-Hallidie-Building) doi:: [10.2307/988706](https://doi.org/10.2307/988706) Type: Journal article keywords:: [[Architecture]], [[San Francisco]] ## Abstract --- ## Notes - [[Willis Polk]] - “the man who rebuilt [[San Francisco]]” - restoration of Mission Dolores - completed construction of the Ferry Building, after death of architect A. Page Brown - Between 1906 ([[San Francisco, 1906 earthquake|earthquake]]) and 1914 (pre-[[Expo 1915 San Francisco|1915 Panama Exhibition]]), Polk built 106 buildings - Influenced the decision to retain the Palace of the Fine Arts, and suggested the restoration of the building - 130 Sutter Street, San Francisco - Completed in February 1918 - How does this relate to the timeline of the flu in San Francisco? (Answer: it doesn’t » contemporary newspaper report first case known 1918-09-23) - Designated historic monument by San Francisco Board of Supervisors - Named for Andrew S. Hallidie, who had invented the cable car system in San Francisco - Dills notes that the Hallidie building is a precursor to the modern glass curtain wall, as indicated by Hitchcock *Architecture Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries*. - Three notable designs of curtain walls exist prior to Polk’s Hallidie building, but had additional supporting columns or masonry: - 1895: S. S. Beman’s Studebaker Building, Chicago - 1899: Martin Roche’s McClurg Building, Chicago - 1911–1914: [[Walter Gropius]]‘s Fagus shoe factory - Cantilevered suspended glass-curtain facade - For comparison, few buildings at the time had even 50% glass facade coverage. - Each storey is 12’ high (3x4’ windows) - Polk had worked as a draftsman for [[Daniel Hudson Burnham]] (1902–1904), likely would have been familiar with Studebaker Building - As quoted in Moore, *Daniel H. Burnham*, II, 4: “The so-called Burnham Plan of San Francisco was completed and presented to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors the day before the earthquake and fire of April, 1906.” - Polk had been working with Burnham on the plan, but had to shift priorities after the earthquake - “Polk noted that "in most buildings up-to-date fire escapes have been grudgingly accepted by their designers and have seldom, if ever, been successfully treated. In this building they have been accepted as a part of the problem and have been treated as a part of the artistic composition of the design.” — “The World’s First Glass Front Building” p. 73 - Designing for reality up front, basically. - Kind of the exact opposite of the design of the Titanic, where the lifeboats were thought to be an eyesore.