Financial District (San Francisco)
The Financial District is the northern part of the city of San Francisco in California .
geography
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The neighborhood is characterized by a series of skyscrapers and is located between Grant Street east of the Union Square shopping district , Sacramento Street and Columbus Street, south of Chinatown and North Beach , and on The Embarcadero , which runs along the coast. The tallest buildings in the city are located here, including the Salesforce Tower , Bank of America, and the Transamerica Pyramid , as well as other tall structures such as 101 California Street and 345 California Street .
Many large corporations, law firms, and financial institutions have settled in this neighborhood. The headquarters of VISA , Wells Fargo Bank , Charles Schwab Corporation , McKesson , Barclays Global Investors , GAP , Union Bank of California and the twelfth regional Federal Reserve Bank of the USA are located here. Montgomery Street , the "Wall Street on the west coast", is considered to be the center of the district. There are numerous shopping centers in the area such as the Crocker Galleria, the Embarcadero Center , the Ferry Building and the Rincon Center.
history
The district was the center of European and American settlement under Spanish and later Mexican rule. After the American annexation and the Californian gold rush , the district experienced a rapid boom and the bay, which originally reached to Battery Street, was filled in to what is now The Embarcadero. Prosperity from the gold rush and increasing trade transformed the district into the most important financial center on the west coast and numerous banks and shops settled in the area. The west coast's first and only skyscrapers were built in the area along Market Street .
The quarter was largely destroyed by the earthquake in 1906 (with the skyscrapers miraculously standing still) and rebuilt. Due to national height restrictions due to the danger of earthquakes, the development of the quarter initially remained relatively low. But after the height restrictions were relaxed as a result of new techniques to increase the stability and improve the connection between the structure and the foundation, a real skyscraper boom was triggered from the late 1950s. This accelerated under Mayor Dianne Feinstein during the 1980s. This form of urban development, which is pejoratively referred to as " Manhattanization ", sparked protests throughout the city, similar to the one that had taken place years earlier over the construction of freeways. As a result, very strict regulations regarding the maximum construction height were introduced throughout the city.
These height restrictions (which, however, have been relaxed again over the years), population growth and changes in demand on the urban real estate market have led to a shift in urban development towards the South of Market . Instead of office buildings, increasingly expensive condominiums and hotels were built, including the Four Seasons Hotel , The Paramount (the tallest apartment building in San Francisco and on the west coast at 40 floors) and the Millennium Tower , which is currently still under construction.
See also
Web links
- Tourist information about the Financial District with photos
- Union Square San Francisco Blog
- Nob Hill San Francisco Blog
- Skyscrapers.com page on San Francisco
Coordinates: 37 ° 47 ′ 42.7 " N , 122 ° 24 ′ 10.4" W.