Sunday, December 13, 2009

"built that way"

This building at 130 Bush Street, built in 1910, is one of the narrowest buildings, if not the narrowest, in San Francisco. Sandwiched between two taller skyscrapers, this Gothic Revival structure is 10 stories high and 80 feet deep, but only 20 feet wide. (It doesn't quite make the cut for narrowest commercial building in the world -- that's the Sam Kee Building in Vancouver, at 6 feet wide). The building was originally occupied by a garment manufacturing company that specialized in thin accessories: neckties, belts, and suspenders. (Hee hee!) Notice how the Shell Building to the right has matched the height of 130 Bush with its lower floors. Contrary to what you might think, the narrow building wasn't squeezed in to a narrow spot. It was built that way when nothing was to the right of it. The Shell Building came later.

1 comment:

Rosie Perera said...

Arthur, thanks for the note on my blog letting me know you borrowed this photo and text from my blog. That's fine with me, but normally the thing to do would be also to put the text you borrowed in quotes and give credit as to where you got it from. Thanks!