Historic Building Geekery: San Francisco Edition

On a Bay Area trip back in April of 2005, I noticed an interesting renovation job being done near Union Square, just across from the former offices of SFIS (San Francisco Industrial Software, founded by a Tep, and previous employer of Lucky, Leper, and Perlick).



Cool, eh? Basically, the entire facade of the building was being temporarily supported by this external steel frame, and they were rebuilding it from the inside, new foundation and all. In case you don't believe that they emptied out the guts of the building, see this photo:



The exterior shoring system was pretty cool--big-ass steel tube columns, with bolted-moment connections which are actually machined dovetails inside--see the ConXtech website for details.

So on this trip, while visiting SF with Dan B., I had to ask him to indulge me and let me go back to that building. It is now occupied by "ultra-trendy fashion retailer H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz AB, also known as the Ikea of clothing stores."



A rendering that shows the whole building, with additions, here. Of course, this got me Googling for articles on the renovation; the Elevated Shops was a 1904 or 1907 building that is now retail shops (2 floors) and residential (4 floors), according to the architect's website. I'm not sure how much was lost by gutting the entire interior--the facade is surprisingly plain on the lower floors, and is detailed only near the parapet. But I have to imagine that it was much more sane (and cost-effective) to build an entirely new building inside, with modern structure (especially seismic compliant) and mechanical systems. Hey--it was better than demo'ing the thing, right?