Art Deco San Francisco

posted by Michael Zoldessy on September 12, 2008 at 7:45 am

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — There’s a new book out about the work of architect Timothy Pflueger, “Art Deco San Francisco”, by Therese Poletti and Tom Paiva.

The Castro Theatre, the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Headquarters, 450 Sutter Medico-Dental Building—-these masterpieces of San Francisco’s Art Deco heritage are the work of one man: Timothy Pflueger. An immigrant’s son with only a high-school education, Pflueger began practicing architecture after San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake. While his contemporaries looked to Beaux-Arts traditions to rebuild the city, he brought exotic Mayan, Asian, and Egyptian forms to buildings ranging from simple cocktail lounges to the city’s first skyscrapers.

Pflueger was one of the city’s most prolific architects during his 40-year career. He designed two major downtown skyscrapers, two stock exchanges, several neighborhood theaters, movie palaces for four smaller cities (including the beloved Paramount in Oakland), some of the city’s biggest schools, and at least 50 homes. His works include the San Francisco Stock Exchange, the ever-popular Top of the Mark, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and the San Francisco World’s Fair. It is a testament to his talent that many of his buildings still stand and many have been named landmarks.

Read more at the Princeton Architectural Press.