140 New Montgomery, San Francisco, CA 

My Favorite San Francisco Skyscraper

By Craig MacDonald

I've been lucky. I've worked in a lot of big buildings in a lot of big California cities, from San Diego, Los Angeles and Anaheim to San Jose and elsewhere. But none thrilled me more than getting to work in one of the most spectacular skyscrapers in the World—140 New Montgomery St., San Francisco.

The 26-story structure, which was the city's tallest building when completed in 1925, is not only amazing to look up at, it's art deco—inside and out—has been praised by many top architectural critics.

Architect Timothy Pflueger designed a monument featuring white granite and marble that is of incredible historical note. The longtime headquarters of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company and Pacific Bell was visited by none other than Winston Churchill and his wife in September, 1929. They placed a phone call to their family in England over trans-ocean cable—something new and exciting at the time. Churchill was so thrilled and ever grateful, he even wrote a Thank You letter to PacTel!

Mexico's most famous muralist Diego Rivera featured 140 in a mural. Numerous movies and TV/Print commercials have been filmed there or used it as a backdrop.

From 1934 to 1978, the US Weather Bureau had the telecommunications company signal ships at sea about storm conditions, using a 25-foot, triangular red flag flying atop the building during the day and a red light at night. The signals warned sailors of major winds and storms.

I thoroughly enjoyed working inside 140 in the 1980s. The views were phenomenal. You could see the Bay Bridge and ships coming in or leaving; downtown San Francisco—whose sparkling lights twinkled and glowed at night. How sensational it was to view the famous fog rolling in. If we wanted air conditioning on a hot day, we just lifted the huge, old windows. I recall the beautiful marble floors, especially in the bathrooms. The Main Lobby featured art deco extraordinaire. It was awesome. I'm also still in awe of the 8 stone eagles—twice as big as humans—that watched vigilantly over the building from on high.

Legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen, who I contributed news and feature items to, loved 140 and wrote about it from time to time.

For many of the early years, it even had women elevator-operators. ..I'll always have fond memories working in that building as editor of Pacific Telephone's weekly newspaper, as a television producer, and in marketing communications as well as media relations.

Thinking of 140 makes me think of all the great bosses I had there like Larry Johnson and Bob Rezak. They knew the history and loved being able to work in the unique building, which helped create an atmosphere for excellence and being able to be part of the excitement, hustle and bustle that was and will always be San Francisco.

Times change and my favorite structure went from Pacific Telephone to Pacific Bell to SBC to the new AT&T building. It got out of being a telecom icon upon being sold in 2007. Although it has been renovated many times in its life, 140 will always bring many joyful memories to many of us lucky enough to call her “home.”

(Today, YELP and several businesses reportedly function inside 140.)