Matson Building

1. January 29, 1910

   A loft in the building then standing at 50 Main Street, on part of the later Matson Building's site, was leased to E. A. Howard & Co. for three years at a total rent of $4,500.

   The San Francisco Call, 29 January 1910, p. 15
2. 1921

   The Matson Building, part of the 1920s building boom's tall commercial buildings, using terra cotta cladding rather than brick.

   South of Market Area Historic Context Statement, adopted 2011
3. 1922

   Built as the P G & E Building.

   Transit Center District Survey, adopted 2012
4. 1922

   The Beaux-Arts Pacific Gas & Electric Building, part of the 1920s building boom's tall commercial buildings.

   South of Market Area Historic Context Statement, adopted 2011
5. 1922

   The utility bought a corner lot fronting Market Street, next to the site where the Matson line was about to build, meaning to gather its staff into one headquarters; it went on acquiring the rest of the block over the following years. Bakewell & Brown were engaged and drawings for a seventeen-storey building with a three-storey wing on Beale Street were prepared the same year.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
6. 1923

   The Pacific Gas & Electric Company headquarters, designed by Edward L. Frick. Dated 1923, though 1945 is also given, crediting his firm Weilhe, Frick & Kruse.

   Architecture, Planning & Preservation Professionals: A Collection of Biographies, adopted 2021
7. May 18, 1923

   Excavation began on 18 May.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
8. May 26, 1923

   Photographed, showing the Matson Navigation Company Building.

   San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
9. 1924

   A sixteen-storey office building was raised over 1922 to 1924 at the corner of Market and Main Streets, designed by Bliss & Faville and built by the Lindgren Co., clad on its main elevations in cream terra cotta from Gladding, McBean of Lincoln and roofed in terra cotta tile, with the whole composition drawn up to a central entry arch.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
10. 1924

    The building opened as the headquarters and principal booking office of the Matson Navigation Company, which kept most of the ground floor for booking passengers and freight across the Pacific and had its lift operators in company uniform. It also housed the mainland offices of three of the business houses that dominated commerce in Hawaii, along with a pineapple company, a sugar refiner and a meat company, and several other steamship lines.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
11. April 1925

    The seventeen-storey headquarters was finished and occupied. C. H. Snyder was consulting structural engineer and Hunter & Hunter consulting mechanical engineers. The fourteenth floor held a wood-panelled suite with a board room for the company's president and directors; the ground floor held an auditorium with the stock transfer and cashier's offices; and the open drafting rooms upstairs were where many of the power stations that gave the company northern and central California were designed.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
12. 1945

    PG&E general office building, designed by Arthur Brown Jr.

    Architecture, Planning & Preservation Professionals: A Collection of Biographies, adopted 2021
13. 1947

    An Annex was built over 1945 to 1947 on drawings by the engineer Leland Rosener, its front and lobby detailed to match Bliss & Faville's and its structure designed to carry the full sixteen storeys of the main block, though only eight were built. The war had trebled the company's fleet and its office needs with it.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
14. 1947

    An Annex was built over 1945 to 1947 to add half again as much office space, filling in the Beale Street wing up through the fifteenth floor and carrying its own address at 25 Beale Street. Arthur Brown Jr. designed it, with Weihe, Frick and Kruse as associated architects, though the permits list the older firm name. Movable steel panels were used as office partitions — an innovation for the time.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
15. 1958

    The vestibule and lobby were remodelled by the architect Gardner Dailey, the ceiling apparently lowered, and lift doors bearing maps of Hawaii installed.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
16. 1959

    The shipping company sold the building, keeping offices in it; it passed through two owners before the utility next door bought it in 1972 and took it into its headquarters block.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
17. August 10, 1964

    Photographed, showing the Matson Line Building.

    San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
18. 1970

    The ground-floor auditorium was demolished when a new building went up at 45 Beale Street on the south end of the Market Street wing.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
19. Nov 1981

    Permit 8109623 $$$ $15,000

    Additions alterations or repairs.

20. 1984

    Known as the Matson Building; it was among the rated buildings of the city's Downtown Plan inventory.

    San Francisco Department of City Planning, The Downtown Plan: Environmental Impact Report, Draft, 1984.
21. Jun 1987

    Permit 8708269 $$$ $1,100,000

    Remodel portion of 1st floor, not increase office space.

22. Jul 1987

    Permit 8710434 $$$ $450,000

    Handicap modifications, interior cab to elevators.

23. Apr 1988

    Permit 8805347 $$$ $800,000

    Construct interior ti & new support for floor.

24. October 17, 1989

    The building was damaged in the earthquake, though not structurally compromised. Its owner decided shortly afterwards that occupying it carried some hazard, and vacated it.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
25. Nov 1992

    Permit 9220651 $$$ $5,339,850

    Asbestos abatement.

26. Jan 1993

    Permit 9300100S $$$ $41,471,719

    Seismic retrofit, core & shell construction.

27. Jan 1993

    Permit 9300104 $$$ $2,000,000

    Additions alterations or repairs.

28. Jun 1994

    Permit 9409192 $$$ $825,000

    Fire protection design and installation sprinkler system.

29. 1995

    Seismically retrofitted over 1993 to 1995 — shear walls threaded through the historic fabric and a new technique used to hold the terra cotta front — with the fourteenth-floor executive suites and the second-floor board room taken apart and re-erected rather than lost.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
30. 1995

    Seismically retrofitted over 1993 to 1995 alongside its neighbour, with department-head offices, the fourteenth-floor executive rooms and the whole second floor kept — some held in place and stabilised, some panelled rooms demounted and re-erected, some rebuilt in modern materials with their old trim returned.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
31. Aug 1995

    Permit 9513032 $$$ $560,000

    T/i 1 additional bathroom install wall install safe & atm.

32. November 29, 1995

    Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as the only building the Matson line still has in San Francisco and as one of a matched pair of 1920s terra cotta towers on Market Street.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
33. November 29, 1995

    Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as the headquarters of one of the largest utilities in the country and as the companion of the Matson Building next door — two 1920s terra cotta towers by different architects, meant from the start to read as a pair.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
34. Feb 2007

    Permit 200702285060 $$$ $600,000

    Preparation of existing exposed substrates for installation of new flashing, gutter linings to match existing, historic flashing/gutter.prep of wall surfaces at select locations for installation of new wall to roof tile flashings to match historic flashing, installation of new non glazed (245 market).

35. Oct 2009

    Issued Permit 200910209369 $$$ $521,288

    Reroofing.

36. Sep 2010

    Permit 201009221386 $$$ $1,300,000

    Install support beams with isolators for future 2-600 kw diesel generators & support for future exhaust pipes. generator & exhaust pipes' under separate permit.

37. May 2012

    Permit 201205231042 $$$ $100,000

    Voluntary upgrade of visual notification appliances on existing phase ii. fire alarm permit. 42 new power supplies, 18 sync modules, 987 new notification appliances (strobes and speaker strobes).

38. Dec 2013

    Permit 201312124045 $$$ $3,000,000

    Replacement of (6) air handling unit on 4th floor penthouse. 6 return/exhaust fan motors with vfds. replace reheat coil valve controls on 1st/mezzanine floor. replace fire dampers on 4th floor penthouse with fsd and monitoring panel.

39. Jun 2014

    Permit 201406198847 $$$ $800,000

    Replace existing windows on n, e, & s elevations with new wood windows. n/a for the maher ordinance #155-13.

40. Feb 2015

    Permit 201502097788 $$$ $1,500,000

    Revision to permit application 2014.1118.1733 - install new electrical equipment & relocate existing mechanical equipment provide new concrete pad for all equipment. n/a maher ordinance.

41. Dec 2015

    Permit 201512074359 $$$ $763,685

    Basement/13th fl: replace 4 ats switches with wire conduit as needed. build concrete housekeeping pads, new door and frames in electriclal rooms. n/a maher ordinance.

42. Mar 2017

    Permit 201703141379 $$$ $2,000,000

    Maintenance and repairs to exterior walls. n/a ordinance #155-13.

43. Aug 2017

    Permit 201708104421 $$$ $1,500,000

    Demolition partitions, doors, millwork, floor & mep. create offices, ada restrooms, breakroom, load bearing partitions, mep.

44. Feb 2018

    Permit 201802151427 $$$ $350,000

    Revision to app#201708104421. work consisting of interior t.i. partitions, ceiling, finishes and mep. n/a for maher.

45. Sep 2020

    Filed Permit 202009124079 $$$ $875,747

    Replace existing diesel fire pump with electric, replace controller of other electric fire pump.

46. Sep 2022

    Withdrawn Permit 202209082126 $$$ $180,239,092

    To construct a 88-story, 808 dwelling units, type 1-a building.

47. Dec 2022

    Filed Permit 202212087876 $$$ $9,116,204

    Alteration & addition toexisting historic building.work on street facing facade limite tonewwindows, doors 7 mechanical louvers; work on interior sides of building to add horizontal addition of office & retail space; existingbasement will be partially demolished & rebuilt withnew underground parking & building services.

DBI holds 215 permits for this parcel, most of them tenant improvements on individual floors. The timeline shows the 24 largest by stated cost, plus the earliest on file; the DBI query in the sources below returns all 215. 31 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 2 expired permits are not shown. The dates on record for the Matson Building disagree: this page carries 1921, the 2008 Transit Center survey dates the building on the parcel to 1922, and the city's statement on Progressive Era and early revival styles gives 1923 in its text and 1922-1924 in its illustration caption. The Matson Building's nomination and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's nomination each describe a different building on this one assessor's lot.