The building was designed to consolidate numerous smaller buildings and outdated offices into a modern headquarters for
The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co., and as a result, was designated as the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. Coast Division Offices by the company, though referred to colloquially as
The Telephone Building. and the formation the
Regional Bell Operating Companies, also known as the Baby Bells, Pacific Telephone changed its name to
Pacific Bell. Statues of eight eagles (each in height) perch atop the tower's crown. The building has an
L—shaped floor plan, and the architecture decoratively incorporates spotlights to show the exterior's terra cotta ornamentation day and night. In 1929, Sir
Winston Churchill visited the building and made his first
transatlantic telephone call, phoning his
London home. For 44 years until 1978, the top of the roof was used to convey official storm warnings to sailors at the direction of the United States
National Weather Service, in the form of a long triangular red flag by day, and a red light at night. In 2008, the new owners filed plans to convert the tower into 118 luxury condominiums. However, those plans were put on hold during the
2008 financial crisis, and the building sat empty for nearly six years. Following a surge in office demand in 2010–2011, Wilson Meany Sullivan changed the plans back to office space. In 2012, Yelp announced it had signed a lease on the building's of office space through 2020. After two expansions, the company held a total of almost on 13 floors in the fall 2015. According to property records, Pembroke paid for the property, at around per square foot. As of May 2023, during what the San Francisco Chronicle described as "Downtown San Francisco['s] worst office vacancy crisis on record," the building had a vacancy rate of 32.9%. ==See also==