Fairmont Hotel
950–990 Mason Street
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1903
Work began on a monumental Beaux Arts hotel of granite and terra cotta, designed by James and Merritt Reid, on the Nob Hill lot where James Fair had meant to build his mansion; his daughters Tessie and Virginia built it in his memory. They sold it to Herbert and Hartland Law on 6 April 1906, twelve days before the earthquake, with the building nearly finished.
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April 18, 1906
The fire after the earthquake gutted the unopened hotel, leaving the exterior shell standing — with the Flood mansion, the only building on the crest of Nob Hill to survive. Stanford White was engaged to restore it and was shot dead weeks later.
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1907
The redesign of the Fairmont Hotel, one of Julia Morgan’s early commissions after the 1906 earthquake and the one that opened the field to her.
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April 18, 1907
The hotel opened a year to the day after the fire, its restoration carried through by Julia Morgan after Stanford White's death.
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April 8, 1908
Bluxome & Co. contracted for interior finish of the tunnel on the Fairmont hotel for the Palace hotel company, at $4,409.
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1916
The Reid Brothers added a concrete garage for sixty cars on Powell Street with a tunnel to the main lifts, a new California Street entrance, a basement café and a conservatory beside the ballroom.
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1927
The Penthouse was built on the roof: seven rooms and an east terrace, with a domed, double-height circular library painted with constellations and a billiards room lined in Islamic-patterned tile.
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1929
The Fairmont Plunge, an indoor swimming pool designed by Lewis Hobart, was built over the east terrace; it later became the Tonga Room.
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1934
The Cirque Room opened, designed by Timothy Pflueger. It was restored in 1981.
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April 25, 1945
The United Nations Conference on International Organization opened, with the hotel as headquarters of the United States delegation. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius lived in the Penthouse and held the meetings of the Big Five powers there over the nine weeks, where most of the decisions that shaped the United Nations Charter were reached. Flags of the Charter's original signatories fly over the main entrance.
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1947
The Venetian Room opened as a supper club, and Dorothy Draper was engaged to redecorate the lobby floor.
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1961
The Fairmont Hotel tower, designed by architect Mario Gaidano, whose glass elevator running on the outside of the building was among the first of its kind.
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1961
The Fairmont Hotel's tower — twenty-eight storeys and 317 feet, on a twenty-three-foot podium — was built in 1961 beside the hotel of 1906. The 1906 building is City Landmark No. 185.
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1962
Built.
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December 5, 1968
The Fairmont Hotel occupied the block bounded by Mason, California, Powell and Sacramento Streets.
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March 6, 1969
The Fairmont Hotel Company withdrew, with the Commission's approval, its application to enlarge the hotel with a tower over 160 feet high.
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January 8, 1970
The Fairmont Hotel occupied the block, set back about fifty feet from Mason Street except for its entrance portico, with a restaurant at its southwest corner. The City Planning Commission disapproved a one-storey glass addition enlarging the Fairmont Hotel's corner restaurant into the open space in front of the hotel at California and Mason Streets.
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Nov 1981
Additions alterations or repairs.
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1984
The cornice and parapet were rebuilt in glass-fibre reinforced concrete to the original's appearance, to meet the parapet safety code.
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Feb 1984
Repair hotel cornice at roof.
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May 1984
Install wall & partitions as per plans for health club.
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1986
Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 185; the 1961 tower was left out of the designation.
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May 4, 1987
The Board of Supervisors finally passed the ordinance designating the hotel San Francisco Landmark No. 185.
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Jul 1987
Install new bar & fixtures, permit for carpentry work only.
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1989
The Fairmont Hotel, where Art Against AIDS was launched in 1989 with a press conference luncheon.
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Jul 1998
Additions alterations or repairs.
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Dec 1998
Remodel guestrms, provide disabled access.
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Mar 1999
Main lobby renovation; remodel existinghistoric 1st floor.
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2000
A renovation was completed that restored the public rooms to their original Beaux Arts character, uncovering the lobby's white marble floor and clerestory windows and the Laurel Court's ceiling domes and mosaic floor, and repaired the terra cotta and granite outside.
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Apr 2000
1/f extrior facade renovation and 1/f rear renovation.
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Apr 2000
Interior non-structural demolition.
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May 2000
Remodel guest roomsin tower building.
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Sep 2000
Remodel existing crown room.
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April 17, 2002
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places at the national level for the drafting of the United Nations Charter in 1945, and locally as an excellent example of Beaux Arts classicism by the Reid Brothers.
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Jul 2007
Application for site permit for planning department approval of floor plan. street elevation, signage and awnings for a coffee shop.
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Mar 2013
Renovation of club one on terrace level sprinkler and fire alarm on seperate permit. no structural work.
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Nov 2015
Level m: new 14 guestrooms within an existing hotel work to include new partitions mechanical, electrical, new fixtures, finishes and equipment. no exterior work, fire alarm and sprinkler under separate permit; maher n/a.
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Nov 2015
Arcade level (one floor below main lobby level) tenant improvement to convert a vacant dining room in an existing hotel to office use. work includes new ceiling, walls, finishes. lighting to be re-used & new. proposed to use same existing mechanical ducting n/a maher ordinance.
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Dec 2016
Active sports club vrf hvac improvements, remove and replace equipment & duct work in mechanical. area.install new outdoor heat pump. disconnect and reconnect nw equipment in mechanical area. providie air balance & install nw fan coils & e.f. maher not req.
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Oct 2022
Replacing (1) existing hvac chiller with (1) new chiller on roof. new chiller is lighter than existing. we will be rigging chiller in with a crane on sacramento street near corner or mason).
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Jul 2023
Interior existing 50 hp 208v 3 ph fire pump in basement direct to existing emergency generator from main building roof. replace existing fire pump controller with new fire pump controller with ats. install new breaker in existing emergency generator & fire pump conduits protected by 2 hr rated vitalink cable to new fire.
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Nov 2023
T.i. cua convert vacant cafe space to car rental retail space. powell entrance replaced in-kind with auto openers, 10 existing garage stalls: 1 existing car wash station to be used by sixt.
DBI holds 199 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 199. 15 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 6 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. The assessor's roll gives 1962; this address is recorded as built 1961. The hotel's opening is dated 18 April 1907 here; some accounts give 16 April. The National Register nomination dates the city landmark designation to 1986, the year the Planning Commission approved it; the Board of Supervisors finally passed the designating ordinance on May 4, 1987.
Nearby
- 831 Mason Street Same street
- 1000 Mason Street Same street
- 999 California Street Around the corner
- 1000 California Street Around the corner
- 1021 California Street Around the corner