McAllister Tower (San Francisco, California)

 dormitory, high-rise, Art Deco (architecture), apartment building, 1930_construction

sites.uchastings.edu/housing/

McAllister Tower is a residential apartment tower located in San Francisco, California, owned and operated by the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. It includes mixed-use offices on various floors, and on the 24th floor, San Francisco's first cocktail lounge with a panoramic view: the Art Deco-style "Sky Room".

Conceived as an unusual combination of a large church surmounted by a hotel, construction of the building brought architectural dispute. Initially designed by Timothy L. Pflueger in the style of Gothic Revival, the investors fired his firm and hired Lewis P. Hobart, who changed little of Pflueger's design. In a resulting lawsuit, Pflueger won nearly half the damages he asked for. The building opened in 1930 as the William Taylor Hotel and Temple Methodist Episcopal Church. However, extra construction expenses had put the congregation at greater financial risk, and the church-hotel concept did not prove popular. No profit was made in six years, and the church left, losing their investment. In the late 1930s the building housed the Empire Hotel, known for its Sky Room lounge, then from World War II to the 1970s, 100 McAllister served as U.S. government offices.

Reopening as university housing and offices in 1981, McAllister Tower is home to some 300 law students and their families. "The Tower" is sited one block from the administrative and scholastic center of Hastings College of the Law, and is the most prominent building in the district.