Market Square (San Francisco)

Market Square (formerly the Western Furniture Exchange and Merchandise Mart, the San Francisco Mart, and, colloquially, the Twitter Building) is an Art Deco building in the Mid-Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Located at 1355 Market Street, it was constructed in 1937 and originally served as a showroom for retailers and wholesalers in the furniture industry. In the early 21st century, the building underwent an extensive conversion into office and retail space, and is most well known as the former headquarters of Twitter, Inc. and its successor X Corp. until 2024.

Site The building is located at 1355 Market Street, occupying the length of the city block between Ninth and Tenth Streets, bounded on the other side by Stevenson Street. This places the building in San Francisco's Mid-Market neighborhood, which is bounded by Fifth Street, Market Street, Mission Street, and Van Ness Avenue, in the city's central business district. Historically, this area around the site on Market Street was a theater district occupied by numerous theaters and movie palaces during the early 20th century, such as the Fox Theatre, which was situated across the street from the building.

Architecture

The building is primarily designed in the Art Deco style, with additional elements of Mayan Revival architecture. A penthouse was given a later renovation in the International Style. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Capital Co. Architects, though preservationists are not sure of any of the specific architects who were involved in the project. In its current configuration, after several extensive renovations and expansions, it has an L-shaped layout, with frontages along Market, Ninth, and Tenth Streets. Each façade has multiple sand-colored terracotta columns that are separated by friezes and accompanied by grate work over each entryway. Between all 11 stories, it has a floor area of approximately 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2). It is connected to a nearby building on the same block by a skyway.

History

Opening

The Western Furniture Exchange and Merchandise Mart, also known as the San Francisco Mart, was completed in mid-1937, after about one year of construction, at a cost of about $3 million (equivalent to $61,000,000 in 2022). It was designed to serve as a trade center for retailers and wholesalers in the furniture industry, and in its initial design, it featured nine floors covering over 600,000 sq ft (56,000 m2) dedicated to showrooms. It was built during a time when trade centers such as this were being constructed in many large cities throughout the United States, such as the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Additionally, the top floor served as the headquarters for local radio station KSAN, with a large broadcast antenna fixed atop the building. On July 31, a dedication ceremony was held at the building that consisted of a luncheon attended by San Francisco Mayor Angelo Joseph Rossi, who said in a speech, "This building sprang into life in less than a year, constituting San Francisco's answer to the Depression. The new mart captures the old spirit of the West and shows that men still have the courage to dream despite obstacles that may arise". Several days later, on August 3, the mart officially opened, with the keynote speaker for the event being Executive Vice President Roscoe R. Rau of the National Retail Furniture Association.

Renovations and sale Over the next several decades after its opening, the building experienced several significant renovations. During World War II, an outdoor patio was reconfigured into a warehouse, with Douglas fir wood being used in place of steel and concrete due to wartime materials rationing. In 1947, the building's owners purchased several adjacent parcels along Ninth Street and built an addition to the building, giving it its L-shaped layout and adding about 220,000 sq ft (20,000 m2) of showroom space. In 1958, the tenth floor of the building was expanded to add more showroom space, while the building's penthouse was expanded and given a new façade. In 1963, an eleventh floor was added to the penthouse. Around this time, the building was purchased by the ADCO Group of New York City. Between 1974 and 1975, Mart 2, a nearby building along Stevenson and Tenth Streets designed by local architect Jorge de Quesada, was constructed and connected to the main building by several skyways. In 1989, the lobby and ground floor underwent a renovation.

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