Old Federal Reserve Bank Building

• Untitled — Fritz Koenig
  Bronze; spiral staircase on Commercial St.; artwork and open space are always accessible.
  Fritz Koenig (1924-2017), a German sculptor born in Wurzburg, Bavaria, made this bronze sphere with black etchings, sited on Commercial Street between the Old Federal Reserve Bank Building and the former Le Meridien hotel, encircled by a spiral stairway.
• Creazione — Dimitri Hadzi
  Bronze; Commercial St.; artwork and open space are always accessible.
  Dimitri Hadzi (1921-2006) cast this bronze sculpture, inspired by the music of Mozart, in bronze with a black patina on a marble base; it was commissioned for Embarcadero Center and stands on Commercial Street at Sansome Street.
• The Universality of Wisdom — Arman
  Bronze; Federal Reserve steps Battery St.; artwork is always accessible.
  Arman, born Armand Pierre Fernandez on November 17, 1928 in Nice, France and died October 22, 2005 in New York, became a U.S. citizen in 1973 and worked as a French-American Nouveau Realiste sculptor.
• Hermes and Dionysos: Monument to Analysis — Arman
  Bronze; Front steps at sidewalk along Sansome Street; artwork is always accessible.
  Installed 1990. The two bronze figures Dionysos and Hermes were added to the Sansome Street entrance in 1990; other casts of the same 1986 composition spell the title "Hermes and Dionysos," differing from the on-file "Dionysus." The city's inventory titles it “Hermes and Dionysus - Monument to Analysis”.

1. January 1850

   The packet ship Apollo — three masts, two decks, 27-foot beam, built of white oak and copper-sheathed — was beached on the mudflats here and turned into a storeship, in imitation of the Niantic two blocks away. Her ballast was taken out and her masts pulled, a two-storey frame barn was built over her decks and divided into stores and offices, big doors were cut in her sides and the hull used as a warehouse. She lay parallel to the wharves with her bow inland towards what is now Sansome Street and her stern facing Battery, which was carried south from Telegraph Hill as a plank wharf on piles later that year.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
2. May 4, 1851

   The storeship and the doughnut-and-coffee house built at her stern facing Battery Street — the Apollo Saloon — both burned in the fire of 4 May, which took the ship down to just below her waterline at the turn of the bilge. Her unburnt cargo and the charred wreck of her upper works fell into the hull, and the whole was buried under clean sand fill so that new buildings could go up on the site.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
3. 1901

   Digging for a lift shaft on the site struck part of the buried hull — the first of three twentieth-century encounters with it.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
4. 1921

   Building the Federal Reserve Bank exposed nearly the whole interior of the ship, along with the tops of the charred piles of the wharves that had linked her to the shore.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
5. 1922-1923

   Built as the banking and administrative centre of the Federal Reserve's twelfth district. The block had been bought in 1917 and 1918, the plans were first published in 1919, the cornerstone was laid in 1922 and the bank moved in that December of the following year.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
6. 1924

   Built.

7. 1924-1925

   A matching Battery Street facade was added, making the building U-shaped; it matches the rest in structure and ornament but is clad in pale grey brick harmonizing with the granite.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
8. 1925

   Excavation at the rear of the bank uncovered the stern and rudder along with gold-rush relics — coins, pipes, a nugget, a sextant and ship's fittings. That was the last time any part of the ship was seen; she has never been excavated.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
9. 1955

   The lightcourt was infilled, to a design by Thomsen.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
10. August 16, 1964

    Photographed, showing the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

    San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
11. 1982

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 158, Federal Reserve Bank Building.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
12. Dec 1984

    Permit 8413512 $$$ $500,000

    Selective demolition interior finishes hvac, plumbing.

13. Oct 1988

    Permit 8815019 $$$ $10,000,000

    Tenant improvement, no change of occupancy or load.

14. Jun 1990

    Permit 9010845 $$$ $400,000

    Elevator rail upgrade.

15. May 16, 1991

    The buried remains were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a gold-rush storeship site — the lower hull, keel and cargo still lying under the block, unexcavated.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
16. Jan 2001

    Permit 200101028923 $$$ $250,000

    Tenant improvement convert storage area to conference center.

17. Dec 2006

    Permit 200612159958 $$$ $400,000

    Oti-1, bently holdintgs, 4/fl, el, me, ls, sp.

18. Dec 2006

    Permit 200612210342 $$$ $350,000

    Oti-2 4th fl el, me.

19. Jan 2007

    Permit 200701101392 $$$ $2,000,000

    Mechanical work, chiller replacement and lighting control. floor 1 thru penthouse.

20. Jan 2007

    Permit 200701171811 $$$ $400,000

    Oti-1 3rd floor el me ls sp.

21. Feb 2007

    Permit 200702234810 $$$ $360,000

    Oti-1, smith group, 6th floor, el, me, ls, sp.

22. Feb 2007

    Permit 200702234808 $$$ $380,000

    Oti-1, smith group, 7th floor, el, me, ls, sp.

23. Apr 2007

    Permit 200704179008 $$$ $300,000

    Oti-2, bently reserve, 6th fl, el, me.

24. Mar 2008

    Permit 200803197455 $$$ $600,000

    5th floor: tenant improvement for full floor tenant including office, conference rooms, and support spaces. fire sprinkler work & plumbing work to be performed under separate permit.

25. Jun 2010

    Issued Permit 201006174711 $$$ $615,000

    Office ti on the 2nd fl. demolition of existing non load bearing partitionsm partial removal of existing ceiling grid, light fixtures, fl, finishes, plumbing. new interior partions, doors, glazing, millworks, plumbing, hvac, lighting clg and finishes.mep, lifesafety, asbestos containment & hazardous findings under separate pa.

26. Jan 2012

    Permit 201201273017 $$$ $402,000

    Tenant improvement. new constructoin includes interior partitions, door, glasing, millwork, plumbing, ceiling and finishes. mechanical, electrical, fire and t24 calcs and life safety under separate permit.

27. Jun 2013

    Permit 201306129325 $$$ $300,000

    T. i. interior partition, door and glazing, millwork on mezzanine. mep under seperate permit.

28. Apr 2017

    Permit 201704214549 $$$ $500,000

    Remove and rpelace 1 cooling tower and 2 vfds.

29. Sep 2018

    Permit 201809211070 $$$ $262,000

    6th floor: t.i. includes the construction and demolition of non structural partitions, clg tiles and grids, pantry, doors associated hardware and lighting. maher n/a.

30. Sep 2018

    Permit 201809211072 $$$ $161,298

    7th floor: t.i. includes the construction and demolition of non structural partitions, ceilings and lighting. maher n/a.

31. Sep 2018

    Permit 201809281765 $$$ $500,000

    At the rear courtyard cornice remove falling hazard of broken terracotta. terra cotta is not replacable or salvagable. repair damaged steel and replace terra cotta in kind, save design, shape, color, texture, pattern. all terra cotta manufactured by gladding mcbean.

32. May 2019

    Permit 201905160782 $$$ $750,000

    4th floor tenant improvement incl construction of interior partitions, ceilings, lighting and casework. mep included. exterior improvements to terrace.

33. Oct 2021

    Permit 202110079985 $$$ $290,000

    3/f: demolition, partitions, doors, millwork, finishes, ceilings, lighting, electrical a hvac. ref. sprinkler permit 202108116207.

34. Feb 2022

    Issued Permit 202202077441 $$$ $375,000

    Floors 6 & 7: interconnecting stairs removel & 7/f slab infill. 6/f occupied, 7/f vacant and will remain unoccupied at completion of project. no change in use or area.

35. Mar 2022

    Issued Permit 202203210403 $$$ $506,960

    Limited interior tenant improvement in an existing occupied tenant suite. scope includes selective interior non structural demolition and construction of partitions, millworks, door, ceiling, lighting and finishes, and furnituere relocation (by others).

36. October 12, 2026

    Presidio Bay Takes Title to 209,000 SQFT 301 Battery From RFR via Deed in Lieu, Lands $85.6MM Bluerock Loan in San Francisco — The Registry

DBI holds 171 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 171. 5 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 1 expired permit is not shown. The storeship Apollo's nomination puts her wreck at the northwest corner of Sacramento and Battery Streets in its heading and at the southwest corner in its description of the site.

An Ionic colonnade in the Beaux-Arts manner carries an upper section in the Moderne manner. The building was designated a San Francisco landmark in 1983 and added to the National Register on 31 July 1989. Jules Guerin's mural Traders of the Adriatic, in the main lobby, shows Venetian shipping merchants taking receipts for goods on deposit.

Published sources spell the Arman sculpture's title “Dionysos”; the city's inventory gives “Dionysus”.