Name this Unusual Looking Building

Image of this unusual looking building taken from Coit Tower. Photo by Davefoc, CC-SA-3.0

This relatively tall building is the tallest skyscraper in the skyline of this city. The building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, who moved their U.S. headquarters to Baltimore, Maryland, but it is still associated with the company and is depicted in the company’s logo. Standing at 853 ft (260 m), on completion in 1972 it was the eighth tallest building in the world.

Although the tower is no longer Transamerica Corporation headquarters, it is still associated with the company and is depicted in the company’s logo. The building is evocative of the city and has become one of the many symbols of the city.

The building was the tallest skyscraper west of Chicago from 1972 to 1974 surpassing the then Bank of America Center. It was surpassed by the Aon Center in Los Angeles.

The building is thought to have been the intended target of a foiled terrorist attack, involving the hijacking of airplanes as part of the Bojinka plot, which was foiled in 1995. In 1999 Transamerica was acquired by Dutch insurance company Aegon. When the non-insurance operations of Transamerica were later sold to GE Capital, Aegon retained the building as an investment.

Some Building Specs

• The building’s façade is covered in crushed quartz, giving the building its light color.
• The four-story base contains 16,000 cu yd (12,000 m³) of concrete and over 300 mi (480 km) of steel rebar.
• It has 3,678 windows.
• The building’s foundation is 9 feet (2.7 m) thick, the result of a 3 day, 24-hour continuous concrete pour. Several thousand dollars in quarters and change were thrown into the pit by observers surrounding the site at street level during the pouring, for good luck.
• Only two of the building’s 18 elevators reach the top floor.
• The original proposal was for a 1,150 ft (350 m) building, which for a year would have been the second-tallest completed building in the world. The proposal was rejected by the city planning commission, saying it would interfere with views of the city from Nob Hill.
• The aluminum cap is indirectly illuminated from within to balance the appearance at night.
• The two wings increase interior space at the upper levels. One extension is the top of elevator shafts while the other is a smoke evacuation tower for fire-fighting.
• A glass pyramid cap sits at the top and encloses red aircraft warning lights and the brighter seasonal beacon.

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