![\"hallidie](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/hallidie-building-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Sherman Takata<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nThe Hallidie Building at 130 Sutter Street in San Francisco is renowned not only for the complex architectural process\u00a0used to create it, but also for its beauty. Built in 1918<\/span>, it was one of the first buildings in the US to use glass curtain-wall construction \u2014 the technique\u00a0involves bracketing glass outside of a building’s\u00a0structural frame, creating a see-through “skin.”<\/p>\n The blue and gold color scheme of the framework is a nod to the University of California,\u00a0Berkeley as the Hallidie Building was originally an investment property for\u00a0the governing board of the University of California system. The building itself is named after Andrew Hallidie, a board member\u00a0and the inventor of the cable car.<\/p>\n Designer Willis Polk was a controversial figure in local urban design. He abhorred Victorian houses and called them<\/a> \u201can architectural nightmare conceived in a reign of terror, and produced by artistic anarchists.\u201d He is responsible for\u00a0other San Francisco buildings such as the Palace of Fine Arts, the Pacific Union Club and the Hobart Building.<\/p>\n In August 2010, the fire escapes and balconies of the Hallidie Building were deemed unsafe by San Francisco\u2019s Department of Building Inspection. The news prompted\u00a0a 30-month restoration\u00a0by\u00a0Page & Turnbull<\/a>, a firm whose other restorations in the city include\u00a0the Ferry Building, the Exploratorium at Pier 15 and the Walt Disney Family Museum. Though it\u00a0started off with minor issues, major ones were discovered. Today, the building has new laminated\u00a0glass paneling as well as new fire escape ladders; the original balcony railings remain.<\/p>\n “The transparent net of glass is startling even now on a block otherwise lined with buildings clad in stone, and in its time it was revolutionary: the first glass curtain-wall in the United States, the ancestor of the towers that gleam on countless skylines,” urban design critic John King said of the restored building<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Sherman Takata<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Sherman Takata<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Photo<\/span><\/i>: <\/span><\/i>\u0160ar\u016bnas Burdulis \/<\/span><\/i> Flickr<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Kim Serpico<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n