Timothy L. Pflueger
Encyclopedia
Timothy Ludwig Pflueger (September 26, 1892 – November 20, 1946) was a prominent architect
, interior design
er and architectural lighting design
er in the San Francisco Bay Area
in the first half of the 20th century. Together with James R. Miller
, Pflueger designed some of the leading skyscrapers and movie theaters in San Francisco in the 1920s, and his works featured art by challenging new artists such as Ralph Stackpole
and Diego Rivera
. Rather than breaking new ground with his designs, Pflueger captured the spirit of the times and refined it, adding a distinct personal flair. His work influenced later architects such as Pietro Belluschi
.
Pflueger, who started as a working-class draftsman and never went to college, established his imprint on the development of Art Deco
in California architecture yet demonstrated facility in many styles including Streamline Moderne
, neo-Mayan, Beaux-Arts, Mission Revival
, Neoclassical
and International
. His work as an interior designer resulted in an array of influential interior spaces, including luxurious cocktail lounges
such as the Top of the Mark
at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Patent Leather Bar at the St. Francis Hotel
and the Cirque Room at The Fairmont
, three of the most successful San Francisco bars in their day.
Pflueger's social and business connections spanned the city, including three private men's clubs which he joined: the Bohemian Club
, the Olympic Club
and The Family
. He designed buildings and interior architecture
for the latter two. Pflueger was highly placed in several important planning organizations: He was the chairman of a committee of consulting architects on the Bay Bridge project and he served on the committee responsible for the design of the Golden Gate International Exposition
in 1939. Pflueger was a board member of the San Francisco Art Association
starting in 1930, and served variously as chair and director. While on the board, Pflueger helped the organization found the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA).
area of San Francisco to German immigrants August Pflueger and Ottilie Quandt who had met in Los Angeles
and married. Other Quandt relatives lived in the Noe Valley
neighborhood, and, in 1904, the Pflueger family moved closer, to 1015 Guerrero Street in the Mission District
, a melting pot neighborhood of blue-collar workers. At age 11, Pflueger took his first job working for a picture-framing firm near his home.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
, Pflueger continued his grade-school education, graduating at age 13 in a mass ceremony held in Golden Gate Park
for all the city's devastated public schools. By 1907, Pflueger was working as a draftsman and soon joined the architectural firm Miller and Colmesnil, under the guidance of James Rupert Miller
, senior partner. Young Pflueger sketched ornamental details based on ideas from his bosses, and attended Mission High Evening School to further his education. In 1911, Pflueger joined the San Francisco Architectural Club (SFAC), an organization that helped budding architects receive training in the informal Atelier Method
where older experts taught the practical side of architecture including waterproofing, lighting and structural concerns to students who had no hope or wish to study Beaux-Arts in an established school abroad. Pflueger became thoroughly involved with SFAC's collegial activities and was chosen director in 1914.
as well as with the design of many new hotels, apartments and private homes, Timothy L. Pflueger was given the opportunity to serve as chief architect on a rural church project funded by The Family
, a club to which Miller belonged. Pflueger designed Our Lady of the Wayside Church
with a main theme of Spanish Mission Revival based on his childhood familiarity with Mission San Francisco de Asís
(locally known as Mission Dolores) but added his own personal statement: a striking Georgian
main entrance topped by a scrolled pediment
. After working with sub-contractor members of The Family on the project, Pflueger joined the club himself. The rural church was declared California Historical Landmark
number 909 in 1977.
Colmesnil left the firm some time around 1913, leaving Miller to conduct business as "J. R. Miller". Subsequently, Pflueger was assigned by Miller to work closely with the firm's major client, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
, who engaged in a succession of expansion projects at their San Francisco location at 600 Stockton Street. The first expansion, completed in 1914, gave the building a roof garden, dining room, kitchen and subbasement.
Pflueger volunteered for World War I
in 1917, working for the Quartermaster Corps to design base facilities. He was first stationed in Washington, D.C.
and then sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico
to take part in base expansion there. Returning to San Francisco in 1919, Pflueger once again focused on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, who now wished for a further doubling in size, extending their Stockton Street frontage 140 feet to California Street, and adding a seventh floor. A massive new entrance incorporating 17 Ionic
columns was erected, topped by a pediment displaying a tableau carved by Armenian sculptor Haig Patigian
. The Neoclassic
-style project was completed in 1920. In 1984, the building was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 167.
J. R. Miller, relying more and more on Pflueger's hard-working energy, social conviviality and artistic talent, gave him a wide variety of assignments including designs for an automobile showroom, a firehouse and a number of private homes. Pflueger extended his proposed styles to include Aztec elements and Spanish Colonial Revival
themes, the latter favored by several clients for their homes.
Miller made Pflueger his junior partner following their completion of the US$80,000 San Francisco Stock Exchange building at 350 Bush Street in 1923. The firm conducted business as Miller and Pflueger
. The building at 350 Bush, a neoclassic design topped with a pediment displaying a sculpture by Jo Mora
and later called the San Francisco Mining Exchange, is currently empty; it was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 113 in 1980.
Miller and Pflueger were selected in 1923 to build an expansive new headquarters tower for Pacific Telephone & Telegraph
. In June 1924, Pflueger showed his plans for a $3 million skyscraper, 26 stories high, designed with continuous vertical elements and a progression of step-backs narrowing the floors near the top. Arthur Frank Mathews
was brought in to paint a mural in the boardroom on the 18th floor. The structure was fully devoted to offices for 2,000 employees, mostly female. Pflueger's vision was strongly influenced by Eliel Saarinen
's second-place entry in the competition to design the Tribune Tower
in Chicago. In June, 1925, the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company Building
was completed for $4 million ($ million in current value), becoming the tallest building in San Francisco for the next 40 years, tied by the Russ Building
in 1927.
450 Sutter Street
was completed on October 15, 1929, using a primarily unbroken exterior verticality without step-backs, featuring triangular thrust window bays, the whole decorated with stylized Mayan
designs impressed on the terra cotta sheathing and inscribed in metals, marble and glass within the luxurious lobby. In 1983, Pietro Belluschi
said that the vertical triangular faceted lines of 450 Sutter formed part of the inspiration for the similarly faceted exterior of 555 California.
As the Telephone Building was being completed in 1925, a group of Methodist Episcopalians came to Pflueger, asking him to design a new skyscraper containing both a church and a hotel for them at 100 McAllister Street
. After a dispute, Miller and Pflueger were fired from the project to be replaced by Lewis P. Hobart
. Miller and Pflueger sued for $81,600, alleging that Hobart's design was not significantly changed from Pflueger's original. Three months after the hotel and church opened in January 1930, Miller and Pflueger won $38,000 in court, equivalent to $ today.
In March 1928, Pflueger published his submission for a new building to house the San Francisco Stock Exchange, featuring strong Zigzag Moderne themes with classicist notes. Miller and Pflueger won the competition for the commission. Eight months later, the Exchange committee decided instead to rebuild the Sub-treasury building at 301 Pine Street while keeping its Tuscan columns and entrance steps, requiring a completely new approach. Pflueger's first response was a sketch with little ornamentation. Construction began in December 1928. By January 1929, Pflueger's plans indicated prominent sculptures, bas-reliefs, inscriptions and carvings, to be detailed by local artists.
Also in January, Pflueger booked a flight in a small mail plane heading for New York but a winter storm forced the pilot and his two passengers down in the Sierras. The three men waited 36 hours exposed to the cold before being rescued. Pflueger immediately continued his trip and met with his Metropolitan Life Insurance clients regarding a third expansion project.
Early in 1929, Pflueger met Ralph Stackpole, an art professor at California School of Fine Arts
and a former student of Mathews, who agreed to sculpt monumental figures for the stock exchange project as well as recommending and supervising other artists. Stackpole wrote later of his experience that "the artists were in from the first. They were called in conference and assumed responsibility and personal pride in the building." Pflueger hired nine artists to help decorate the neighboring Stock Exchange Tower at 155 Sansome, and instructed them only to keep their themes light and airy. Diego Rivera was brought with some difficulty from Mexico to paint a two-story mural in the stairwell between the 10th and 11th floors of the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club (now the City Club). Stackpole himself worked with a crew of assistants to direct carve heroic figures in stone above the tall 155 Sansome entrance, as well as carving two large sculpture groups flanking the Tuscan columns of 301 Pine Street.
Over the Stock Exchange floor, Pflueger mounted a ceiling composed of interconnected sheet metal strips above which he used indirect lighting to soften the edges and reduce shadows made by traders on the floor below. The result was so effective that Pflueger used it on a much larger scale above the audience seating at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, where it extended from and formed a continuity with the incised art on the proscenium. In Oakland, Pflueger flanked the stage with structures that appeared to be pillars supporting the proscenium but were instead layered, curved sheets of thin metal behind which lighting instruments cast light indirectly to give the columns a suffused glow. In 1931, he used the same concept to frame the stage at the Bal Tabarin (now Bimbo's 365 Club
), and to bring a changing palette of color to the ceiling above the dance floor. Pflueger filed for and, in 1934, received two architectural lighting design
patents, one for his ceiling grid with indirect lighting and one for the thin metal panels hiding lighting instruments. He used the patented ceiling grid once more in the Patent Leather Bar, in 1939.
Metropolitan Life Insurance expanded their 600 Stockton location yet again in 1929, with Pflueger designing a new wing on the Pine Street side.
The three Nasser brothers, William, Elias and George, specifically requested Pflueger in 1920 after they received financing for a grand movie palace
on Castro Street. In a hurry to see the 2,000-seat project completed, the Nasser Brothers gave Pflueger a free hand in its design. The Castro Theatre
was finished in June 1922 for $300,000 ($ in today's dollars) in a largely Spanish Baroque style which evoked cathedrals in Spain and Mexico. Churrigueresque
elements were used sparingly on the facade, and ornate tile detailing was employed in the vestibule, ticket booth and the lobby. A canopy modeled after ancient Roman silk brocade shelters was fashioned of steel lath and plaster and painted with Asian and Buddha figures to overhang the main theater seating area. The whole was an eclectic assemblage of styles.
In 1925, Michael Naify and William Nasser turned to Pflueger again for a new neighborhood theater design based on the Alhambra
in Grenada, Spain. The Alhambra Theatre
opened on November 5, 1926 with a grand facade flanked by twin minarets that glowed red at night. Pflueger's vision stayed firmly planted in the Moorish Revival
style, complete to the iron scrollwork and amber shade redesign of two municipal streetlamps standing outside of the theater. Pflueger worked with muralist Arthur Frank Mathews to achieve a rich palette of color most prominently displayed in a geometric floral pattern on the main ceiling. The Alhambra was named San Francisco Landmark No. 217 in 1996.
The Nassers and Naify contracted with Pflueger in early 1926 to build three large movie theaters in central California cities. They assigned Pflueger the design of the Tulare Theatre (1927) in Tulare
, the Senator Theatre (1928) in Chico
and the State Theatre (1928) in Oroville
. The $250,000 Tulare Theatre (now demolished) featured motifs based on the Ishtar Gate
of Babylon. Pflueger included zigzag patterns in the twin-towered facade trimmed in neon accents, and brought Streamline Moderne
stylings to the interior via sweeping curves in steel banister railings as well as Mayan
touches in the stepped mirrors. The $250,000 State Theatre appeared Spanish Colonial with its tiled roof and concrete bas-relief exterior, but turned to Streamline Moderne in a 1,529-seat interior that featured chrome railings, plush carpet and indirect lighting. Aztec elements were incorporated in the proscenium design. The $300,000 Senator Theatre was delayed in construction by the discovery of running water under the foundation, a condition that required channelization and pumps. The movie palace's eclectic theme was largely Egyptian with Moorish, Asian and Aztec details dominated by a landmark tower topped by a giant faceted amber glass gem lit from within.
Back in San Francisco, Pflueger designed the Nasser Brothers' 1,830-seat El Rey Theatre (1931) at 1970 Ocean Avenue in pure Moderne
style, including a sleek tower topped by an aircraft warning beacon. A mirrored foyer in black and gold held floral and geometric accents, and twin curved stairways to the balcony flanked the foyer.
Shortly before the Wall Street Crash of 1929
, investors including William Henry Crocker bought adjoining parcels of land in Oakland
for the purpose of erecting a movie palace to rival the nearby Fox Orpheum
, intending that Miller and Pflueger build it. One of the largest studio and theater chains in the country, Paramount Publix
, showed great interest, but wanted to use their own East Coast architect instead. Pflueger went to New York and convinced Paramount Publix to use his firm by demonstrating that past projects of his had stayed within budget, a concern of increasing importance in the cautious financial climate of early 1930.
For the 3,200-seat design, Pflueger took his inspiration from Green Mansions
, a romantic fantasy novel by William Henry Hudson
set in the Guyana jungle of Venezuela
. Tropical rain forest motifs were used throughout the theater, including climbing vines, waterfalls, parrots and emerald green lighting. As with his other works, Pflueger mixed together sources from around the world, adding images of Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses as well as Egyptian lotuses to the primarily jungle theme. Plans were complete in November and in December 1930 ground was broken in a ceremony that called for "prosperity celebration".
The grand opening was held December 16, 1931 with a crowd which extended out to the street. Live action variety performances alternated with film showings. Unfortunately for the theater, the number of tickets sold in the subsequent months was not enough to keep the theater in the black. It closed in June 1932, reopening in 1933 as only a movie theater, devoid of the extravagant live pieces.
Increasingly tough economic times in the early 1930s caused many theater owners to cancel plans for new construction and concentrate on attracting customers to existing theaters. Only one more cinema, the 2,168-seat Alameda Theatre
(1932) in Alameda, California
would ever be built by Pflueger. The eclectic Alameda's exterior incorporated deeply incised and intricate Moorish Revival rosettes on cream-colored smoothly curved sides on either side of Art Nouveau
flowers in bas relief rising between eight vertical Moderne speed lines. The Art Deco interior design used imitation silver and gold leaf for accents and warm colors for a stylized mezzanine mural with a hint of Cubism
. In the interest of economy, the Alameda's floor plan was nearly identical to that of the El Rey Theatre, including twin curved staircases, and some floral and geometric elements were borrowed from the Paramount.
, Pflueger continued to win commissions, but because of the straitened financial climate, the most noteworthy examples were no longer prominent downtown skyscrapers. Pflueger designed a handful of unique schools for San Francisco Unified School District
, including two elementary schools, a junior high, two high schools and every major building on the first campus (Ocean campus) of San Francisco Junior College, an institution that would later expand to become City College of San Francisco
.
In 1932, Pflueger renovated the Nasser brother's New Mission Theater, bringing Art Deco stylings to the lobby in contrast to the Spanish Mission trimmings in the main auditorium. In 1993, the theater closed. As of 2006, the theater, now designated San Francisco Landmark No. 245, awaits renovation and restoration as a nightclub and restaurant. Pflueger simultaneously worked on the remodeling of the Nasser's New Fillmore Theater, a sister design similar in many respects. The New Fillmore closed in 1957 and was demolished to make way for an urban redevelopment project.
, Pflueger designed bars for private clubs such as the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club where members kept their personal bottles in small lockers behind the bar, and two bars for The Family, one at the Family Farm in Woodside and one at the clubhouse in San Francisco. Pflueger created a cocktail bar and nightclub for Frank Martinelli and Tom Gerun in 1931, the Bal Tabarin, featuring a stage for live music and colorful indirect lighting from above metal fins in the ceiling and behind curved metal strips upstage. When Prohibition ended in December 1933, Bal Tabarin received an immediate renovation by Pflueger along with a liquor license from the state. Pflueger was then asked to design cocktail lounges for several hotels, completing the Cirque for the Fairmont Hotel
in 1935, adorned with finely painted murals by Esther Bruton, and in 1939, both the Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel
and the Top of the Mark
for the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The Patent Leather Bar used a metal-finned ceiling much like that which Pflueger had installed above the audience at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. A padded, serpentine bar snaked through the room's mirror, chrome and black leather decor. Ansel Adams
was retained by C. Templeton Crocker to show off the new cocktail lounge in photographs.
Pflueger was invited by California governor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph
to chair the committee of architects who were given nominal oversight of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge project. Arriving two years into the design phase of the bridge, Pflueger was stymied at every turn by civil engineers citing the inflexible budget in his attempts to bring a more artistic theme to the bridge. A heroic figure of a giant man standing at the central anchorage between the two main suspension spans was suggested and quickly canceled; all that remains of the proposal is a 14-inch study modeled by Ralph Stackpole. The committee of architects succeeded mainly in making the suspension bridge towers more streamlined in appearance by getting rid of the civil engineer's plans for a greater number of horizontal cross members. Pflueger very likely designed the stepped semicircular tunnel entrance and exit portals and, by mounting a campaign of public pressure, prevented the bridge from being painted black, successfully substituting a silvery aluminum-based paint instead. When the bridge was completed, Pflueger designed the Transbay Terminal
, the main transit center for the train lines built on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge.
of 1939–1940 on Treasure Island, Pflueger joined a committee of well-known Beaux-Arts architects and was frustrated in establishing a more modern design scheme, though his own Federal Building amply demonstrated the new direction he espoused. Pflueger's contributions were among the few buildings at the Exposition that received positive reviews. When the Exposition's investors failed to turn a profit in 1939, they decided to extend the fair another year. For the summer of 1940, Pflueger put together a large exhibit of Art in Action
, showing a number of artists on display, engaged in creating works. Alfred Frankenstein of The New York Times
visited in June and wrote "Here the visitor is privileged to observe a kind of twenty-ring circus of art... On the floor, in a series of little ateliers, sculptors, painters, lithographers, etchers, ceramicists, weavers and whatnot are at work under the direct observation of the public." Pflueger once again brought Rivera to San Francisco, this time to serve as the main attraction at "Art in Action". Rivera painted Pan American Unity on ten steel-framed panels spanning 74 feet in width and reaching 22 feet in height. For the second time, Rivera included Pflueger in a mural of his. Some 68 artists had participated by the end of September when the Exposition was closed. Rivera was not finished, however; he and two assistants labored for two more months in the empty exposition hall. On November 30 and December 2, 30,000–35,000 visitors came to Treasure Island to view the completed mural. On December 8, 1940, Rivera's 54th birthday, Kahlo and Rivera were married for the second time in a civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall
.
In 1938, Pflueger sailed to Paris with Grover Magnin, head of the I. Magnin
department store chain, aboard . The two men investigated French shopping ideas that could be brought back and used at American department stores. Pflueger gained ideas from the ship's famous Art Deco adornments. Magnin and Pflueger went to Venice and Milan as well, but found very little of use to them on their short European trip. The $3 million I. Magnin store on Wilshire (currently the Wilshire Galleria) opened in Los Angeles on February 10, 1939 with an interior completely devoted to Pflueger's concept of luxuriously separate boutique spaces within which individual sales items would receive unique attention. Pflueger's interior was attuned to women's fashions: the ground level floor was laid with rose-beige marble from France, pink velvet counter tops held gloves for trying on, rose-beige leather panels covered the walls of the shoe salon and the same leather served as covering for sofas and chairs that were provided by Neel D. Parker, interior designer and Pflueger's fellow club member from The Family. Grover Magnin continued to work with Pflueger on three more stores into the 1940s.
In 1939, plans for an underground garage at Union Square were given to Pflueger for political reasons. George Applegarth's 1935 design was actively opposed from several directions and Pflueger's social contacts and his friendship with mayor Angelo Joseph Rossi
were needed to get the project started. Union Square garage opened in 1943 with Pflueger's touch making it a full-service valet garage complete with a waiting room and rest rooms for shoppers and the option of having shopping packages sent directly from a nearby store to the garage or for the car to be delivered to the store. The concept of an underground garage below a city park was influential: New York builder Robert Moses
requested copies of Pflueger's plans (little changed from Applegarth's) and Pershing Square in Los Angeles
was excavated and rebuilt in 1952 along the same lines.
In 1942, while America geared up for front line involvement in World War II
, Pflueger received fewer assignments than he had been seeing previously. Grover Magnin kept a flow of work with I. Magnin designs, and Pflueger also helped the Army with a depot building in Ogden, Utah
. He began to draw up plans for a 12-story cross-shaped medical teaching hospital for the University of California, San Francisco
(eventually to be built at 505 Parnassus in 1955 with additional design work performed by his brother Milton Pflueger). His firm accepted a commission to excavate below the Mark Hopkins Hotel in order to create a bomb-resistant radio transmission center for AM station KSFO and shortwave programs of the Voice of America
. This space became the hotel's underground parking garage after the war.
after taking his usual evening swim. At his death, Pflueger was not finished with the radical interior and exterior transformation of the I. Magnin flagship store at Union Square, a sleek International design that remained influential for years afterward.
All his adult life, Pflueger maintained his residence at his childhood home on Guerrero Street. When entertaining downtown late into the evening, he was known to spend an occasional night at the Olympic Club. Pflueger drove a green Cadillac convertible and was often seen with his steady lady friend on his arm. Pflueger never married and left no children. His brother Milton, fifteen years younger, had been working with the firm since the 1930s and, at Tim's death, Milton reorganized and headed the company, doing business as Milton T. Pflueger, Architect.
In 1990, a bas-relief of influential San Franciscans was sculpted over the facade of 235 Pine Street, a 26-story skyscraper. Timothy L. Pflueger was the only architect among those memorialized. In 2008, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to change the name of Chelsea Place, a small alley leading to the garage of the 450 Sutter Street building, to Timothy Pflueger Place.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
er and architectural lighting design
Architectural lighting design
Architectural lighting design is a field within architecture and architectural engineering that concerns itself primarily with the illumination of buildings. The objective of architectural lighting design is to obtain sufficient light for the purposes of the building, balancing factors of initial...
er in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
in the first half of the 20th century. Together with James R. Miller
James Rupert Miller
James Rupert Miller was an architect active in San Francisco, California in the first half of the 20th century...
, Pflueger designed some of the leading skyscrapers and movie theaters in San Francisco in the 1920s, and his works featured art by challenging new artists such as Ralph Stackpole
Ralph Stackpole
Ralph Ward Stackpole was an American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of social realism, especially during the Great Depression, when he was part of the Federal Art Project...
and Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
. Rather than breaking new ground with his designs, Pflueger captured the spirit of the times and refined it, adding a distinct personal flair. His work influenced later architects such as Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi was an American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over one thousand buildings....
.
Pflueger, who started as a working-class draftsman and never went to college, established his imprint on the development of Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
in California architecture yet demonstrated facility in many styles including Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...
, neo-Mayan, Beaux-Arts, Mission Revival
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
, Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
and International
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
. His work as an interior designer resulted in an array of influential interior spaces, including luxurious cocktail lounges
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
such as the Top of the Mark
Top of the Mark
The Top of the Mark is a rooftop bar located at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill at California- and Mason Streets in San Francisco, California...
at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Patent Leather Bar at the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
and the Cirque Room at The Fairmont
The Fairmont San Francisco
The Fairmont San Francisco is a luxury hotel at 950 Mason Street, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel was named after mining magnate and U.S. Senator James Graham Fair , by his daughters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt who built the hotel in his honor. The hotel...
, three of the most successful San Francisco bars in their day.
Pflueger's social and business connections spanned the city, including three private men's clubs which he joined: the Bohemian Club
Bohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
, the Olympic Club
Olympic Club
The Olympic Club is a San Francisco, California, athletic club and private social club with three golf courses located at San Francisco's border with Daly City, California. The club's main "City Clubhouse" is located in downtown San Francisco. The club's "Lakeside Clubhouse" is located just north...
and The Family
The Family (club)
The Family is a private club in San Francisco, California, formed in 1901 by newspapermen who left the Bohemian Club. The club maintains a clubhouse in the city as well as rural property 35 miles to the south in Woodside....
. He designed buildings and interior architecture
Interior architecture
Interior Architecture is truly a marriage of three distinct design disciplines: interior design, architecture, and industrial design...
for the latter two. Pflueger was highly placed in several important planning organizations: He was the chairman of a committee of consulting architects on the Bay Bridge project and he served on the committee responsible for the design of the Golden Gate International Exposition
Golden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition , held at San Francisco, California's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair that celebrated, among other things, the city's two newly-built bridges. The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was dedicated in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge was dedicated in 1937...
in 1939. Pflueger was a board member of the San Francisco Art Association
San Francisco Art Association
The San Francisco Art Association was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established an art school. Over its lifetime, the association helped establish a Northern California regional flavor of California Tonalism as differentiated...
starting in 1930, and served variously as chair and director. While on the board, Pflueger helped the organization found the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
(MOMA).
Early life
Pflueger was born the second of seven sons in the Potrero HillPotrero Hill, San Francisco, California
Potrero Hill is a hilly neighborhood in San Francisco, California.-Location:Potrero Hill is located on the eastern side of the city, east of the Mission District and south of SOMA and the newly designated district . It is roughly bordered by 16th Street to the north, Potrero Avenue and U.S...
area of San Francisco to German immigrants August Pflueger and Ottilie Quandt who had met in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and married. Other Quandt relatives lived in the Noe Valley
Noe Valley, San Francisco, California
-Location:Its borders are generally considered to be 22nd Street to the north, Randall Street to the south, Dolores Street to the east, and Grand View Avenue to the west. These borders are understood to be somewhat flexible, particularly by real estate agents...
neighborhood, and, in 1904, the Pflueger family moved closer, to 1015 Guerrero Street in the Mission District
Mission District, San Francisco, California
The Mission District, also commonly called "The Mission", is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, USA, originally known as "the Mission lands" meaning the lands belonging to the sixth Alta California mission, Mission San Francisco de Asis...
, a melting pot neighborhood of blue-collar workers. At age 11, Pflueger took his first job working for a picture-framing firm near his home.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, Pflueger continued his grade-school education, graduating at age 13 in a mass ceremony held in Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
for all the city's devastated public schools. By 1907, Pflueger was working as a draftsman and soon joined the architectural firm Miller and Colmesnil, under the guidance of James Rupert Miller
James Rupert Miller
James Rupert Miller was an architect active in San Francisco, California in the first half of the 20th century...
, senior partner. Young Pflueger sketched ornamental details based on ideas from his bosses, and attended Mission High Evening School to further his education. In 1911, Pflueger joined the San Francisco Architectural Club (SFAC), an organization that helped budding architects receive training in the informal Atelier Method
Atelier Method
Atelier is the French word for "workshop", and in English is used principally for the workshop of an artist in the fine or decorative arts, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students and apprentices worked together producing pieces that went out in the master's name...
where older experts taught the practical side of architecture including waterproofing, lighting and structural concerns to students who had no hope or wish to study Beaux-Arts in an established school abroad. Pflueger became thoroughly involved with SFAC's collegial activities and was chosen director in 1914.
Early career
In 1912, while Miller and Colmesnil were busy with their entry in the competition to redesign San Francisco City HallSan Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
as well as with the design of many new hotels, apartments and private homes, Timothy L. Pflueger was given the opportunity to serve as chief architect on a rural church project funded by The Family
The Family (club)
The Family is a private club in San Francisco, California, formed in 1901 by newspapermen who left the Bohemian Club. The club maintains a clubhouse in the city as well as rural property 35 miles to the south in Woodside....
, a club to which Miller belonged. Pflueger designed Our Lady of the Wayside Church
Our Lady of the Wayside Church
Our Lady of the Wayside Church is a modest church built in 1912 for the then-growing Catholic parish of Portola Valley by a combined effort of Jewish, Protestant and Catholic members of The Family, a San Francisco men's club that owns a nearby rural retreat....
with a main theme of Spanish Mission Revival based on his childhood familiarity with Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
(locally known as Mission Dolores) but added his own personal statement: a striking Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
main entrance topped by a scrolled pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
. After working with sub-contractor members of The Family on the project, Pflueger joined the club himself. The rural church was declared California Historical Landmark
California Historical Landmark
California Historical Landmarks are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical significance by meeting at least one of the criteria listed below:...
number 909 in 1977.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife, for short, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries...
, who engaged in a succession of expansion projects at their San Francisco location at 600 Stockton Street. The first expansion, completed in 1914, gave the building a roof garden, dining room, kitchen and subbasement.
Pflueger volunteered for World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1917, working for the Quartermaster Corps to design base facilities. He was first stationed in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and then sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
to take part in base expansion there. Returning to San Francisco in 1919, Pflueger once again focused on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, who now wished for a further doubling in size, extending their Stockton Street frontage 140 feet to California Street, and adding a seventh floor. A massive new entrance incorporating 17 Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
columns was erected, topped by a pediment displaying a tableau carved by Armenian sculptor Haig Patigian
Haig Patigian
Haig Patigian was an Armenian-American sculptor born on January 22, 1876 in the city of Van, Armenia, in the Ottoman Empire and died on September 19, 1950 in San Francisco, California. His parents were teachers at the American Mission School in Armenia...
. The Neoclassic
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
-style project was completed in 1920. In 1984, the building was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 167.
1920s
In June 1920, Pflueger passed his architecture licensing exams to become a certified California architect. He was elected president of the SFAC later that year, taking office in early 1921.J. R. Miller, relying more and more on Pflueger's hard-working energy, social conviviality and artistic talent, gave him a wide variety of assignments including designs for an automobile showroom, a firehouse and a number of private homes. Pflueger extended his proposed styles to include Aztec elements and Spanish Colonial Revival
Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style was a United States architectural stylistic movement that came about in the early 20th century, starting in California and Florida as a regional expression related to history, environment, and nostalgia...
themes, the latter favored by several clients for their homes.
Miller made Pflueger his junior partner following their completion of the US$80,000 San Francisco Stock Exchange building at 350 Bush Street in 1923. The firm conducted business as Miller and Pflueger
Miller and Pflueger
Miller and Pflueger was an architectural firm that formed when James Rupert Miller named Timothy L. Pflueger partner. Pflueger, at the time a rising star of San Francisco's architect community, had begun his architectural career with Miller and Colmesnil sometime in 1907 or 1908, under the tutelage...
. The building at 350 Bush, a neoclassic design topped with a pediment displaying a sculpture by Jo Mora
Jo Mora
Joseph Jacinto "Jo" Mora was an Uruguayan-born American cartoonist, illustrator and cowboy, who lived with the Hopi and wrote extensively about his experiences in California. He was an artist-historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author...
and later called the San Francisco Mining Exchange, is currently empty; it was designated San Francisco Landmark No. 113 in 1980.
Skyscrapers
Pacific Bell
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
. In June 1924, Pflueger showed his plans for a $3 million skyscraper, 26 stories high, designed with continuous vertical elements and a progression of step-backs narrowing the floors near the top. Arthur Frank Mathews
Arthur Frank Mathews
Arthur F. Mathews was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a significant effect on the evolution of Californian art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
was brought in to paint a mural in the boardroom on the 18th floor. The structure was fully devoted to offices for 2,000 employees, mostly female. Pflueger's vision was strongly influenced by Eliel Saarinen
Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
's second-place entry in the competition to design the Tribune Tower
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company. WGN Radio also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's...
in Chicago. In June, 1925, the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company Building
PacBell Building
The PacBell Building or 140 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco's South of Market district is a Neo-Gothic, office tower located close to the St. Regis Museum Tower and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The 26-floor building was completed in 1925 and was San Francisco's first significant...
was completed for $4 million ($ million in current value), becoming the tallest building in San Francisco for the next 40 years, tied by the Russ Building
Russ Building
The Russ Building is a Neo-Gothic office tower located in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. The building was completed in 1927 and had 32 floors as well as the city's first indoor parking garage...
in 1927.
450 Sutter Street
450 Sutter Street
The 450 Sutter Medical Building is a 26-floor office tower located in San Francisco, California. It is known for its unique "neo-Mayan" Art Deco design by architect Timothy L. Pflueger...
was completed on October 15, 1929, using a primarily unbroken exterior verticality without step-backs, featuring triangular thrust window bays, the whole decorated with stylized Mayan
Maya art
Maya art, here taken to mean the visual arts, is the artistic style typical of the Maya civilization, that took shape in the course the Preclassic period , and grew greater during the Classic period Maya art, here taken to mean the visual arts, is the artistic style typical of the Maya...
designs impressed on the terra cotta sheathing and inscribed in metals, marble and glass within the luxurious lobby. In 1983, Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi was an American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over one thousand buildings....
said that the vertical triangular faceted lines of 450 Sutter formed part of the inspiration for the similarly faceted exterior of 555 California.
As the Telephone Building was being completed in 1925, a group of Methodist Episcopalians came to Pflueger, asking him to design a new skyscraper containing both a church and a hotel for them at 100 McAllister Street
100 McAllister Street
100 McAllister Street is a residential apartment tower located in San Francisco, California, owned and operated by the University of California, Hastings College of the Law...
. After a dispute, Miller and Pflueger were fired from the project to be replaced by Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis P. Hobart
Lewis Parsons Hobart was an American architect whose designs included San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, several California Academy of Sciences buildings, and the 511 Federal Building in Portland, Oregon....
. Miller and Pflueger sued for $81,600, alleging that Hobart's design was not significantly changed from Pflueger's original. Three months after the hotel and church opened in January 1930, Miller and Pflueger won $38,000 in court, equivalent to $ today.
Artists
By the late 1920s, Pflueger was already working with a number of artists such as Haig Patigian, Jo Mora and Arthur Mathews who provided fine detail and craftsmanship to his larger designs.In March 1928, Pflueger published his submission for a new building to house the San Francisco Stock Exchange, featuring strong Zigzag Moderne themes with classicist notes. Miller and Pflueger won the competition for the commission. Eight months later, the Exchange committee decided instead to rebuild the Sub-treasury building at 301 Pine Street while keeping its Tuscan columns and entrance steps, requiring a completely new approach. Pflueger's first response was a sketch with little ornamentation. Construction began in December 1928. By January 1929, Pflueger's plans indicated prominent sculptures, bas-reliefs, inscriptions and carvings, to be detailed by local artists.
Early in 1929, Pflueger met Ralph Stackpole, an art professor at California School of Fine Arts
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
and a former student of Mathews, who agreed to sculpt monumental figures for the stock exchange project as well as recommending and supervising other artists. Stackpole wrote later of his experience that "the artists were in from the first. They were called in conference and assumed responsibility and personal pride in the building." Pflueger hired nine artists to help decorate the neighboring Stock Exchange Tower at 155 Sansome, and instructed them only to keep their themes light and airy. Diego Rivera was brought with some difficulty from Mexico to paint a two-story mural in the stairwell between the 10th and 11th floors of the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club (now the City Club). Stackpole himself worked with a crew of assistants to direct carve heroic figures in stone above the tall 155 Sansome entrance, as well as carving two large sculpture groups flanking the Tuscan columns of 301 Pine Street.
Architectural lighting design
Bimbo's 365 Club
Bimbo's 365 Club, also known as Bimbo's 365, is an entertainment club located at 1025 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco, California. It specializes in live rock and jazz shows. The location is one of San Francisco's oldest nightclub sites, and has operated under two names with a series of owners...
), and to bring a changing palette of color to the ceiling above the dance floor. Pflueger filed for and, in 1934, received two architectural lighting design
Architectural lighting design
Architectural lighting design is a field within architecture and architectural engineering that concerns itself primarily with the illumination of buildings. The objective of architectural lighting design is to obtain sufficient light for the purposes of the building, balancing factors of initial...
patents, one for his ceiling grid with indirect lighting and one for the thin metal panels hiding lighting instruments. He used the patented ceiling grid once more in the Patent Leather Bar, in 1939.
Metropolitan Life Insurance expanded their 600 Stockton location yet again in 1929, with Pflueger designing a new wing on the Pine Street side.
Movie palaces
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
on Castro Street. In a hurry to see the 2,000-seat project completed, the Nasser Brothers gave Pflueger a free hand in its design. The Castro Theatre
Castro Theatre
The Castro Theatre is a popular San Francisco movie palace which became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, in the Castro district, it was built in 1922 with a Spanish Colonial Baroque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window...
was finished in June 1922 for $300,000 ($ in today's dollars) in a largely Spanish Baroque style which evoked cathedrals in Spain and Mexico. Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the...
elements were used sparingly on the facade, and ornate tile detailing was employed in the vestibule, ticket booth and the lobby. A canopy modeled after ancient Roman silk brocade shelters was fashioned of steel lath and plaster and painted with Asian and Buddha figures to overhang the main theater seating area. The whole was an eclectic assemblage of styles.
In 1925, Michael Naify and William Nasser turned to Pflueger again for a new neighborhood theater design based on the Alhambra
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
in Grenada, Spain. The Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra Theatre, San Francisco
Alhambra Theatre, San Francisco was a Moorish Revival movie theater at 2330 Polk Street in San Francisco, California which opened on November 5, 1926 and was designed by architect Timothy Pflueger, who also designed the Castro Theater and the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California.The theater,...
opened on November 5, 1926 with a grand facade flanked by twin minarets that glowed red at night. Pflueger's vision stayed firmly planted in the Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...
style, complete to the iron scrollwork and amber shade redesign of two municipal streetlamps standing outside of the theater. Pflueger worked with muralist Arthur Frank Mathews to achieve a rich palette of color most prominently displayed in a geometric floral pattern on the main ceiling. The Alhambra was named San Francisco Landmark No. 217 in 1996.
Tulare, California
Tulare is a city in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 59,278 at the 2010 census.Just eight miles south of Visalia, it is part of the Census Bureau's designation of the Visalia Metropolitan Area. The city is named for the currently dry Tulare Lake, once the largest...
, the Senator Theatre (1928) in Chico
Chico, California
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. The population was 86,187 at the 2010 census, up from 59,954 at the time of the 2000 census...
and the State Theatre (1928) in Oroville
Oroville, California
Oroville is the county seat of Butte County, California. The population was 15,506 at the 2010 census, up from 13,004 at the 2000 census...
. The $250,000 Tulare Theatre (now demolished) featured motifs based on the Ishtar Gate
Ishtar Gate
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city....
of Babylon. Pflueger included zigzag patterns in the twin-towered facade trimmed in neon accents, and brought Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...
stylings to the interior via sweeping curves in steel banister railings as well as Mayan
Maya architecture
A unique and spectacular style, Maya architecture spans several thousands of years. Often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond. Being based on the general Mesoamerican architectural traditions these pyramids...
touches in the stepped mirrors. The $250,000 State Theatre appeared Spanish Colonial with its tiled roof and concrete bas-relief exterior, but turned to Streamline Moderne in a 1,529-seat interior that featured chrome railings, plush carpet and indirect lighting. Aztec elements were incorporated in the proscenium design. The $300,000 Senator Theatre was delayed in construction by the discovery of running water under the foundation, a condition that required channelization and pumps. The movie palace's eclectic theme was largely Egyptian with Moorish, Asian and Aztec details dominated by a landmark tower topped by a giant faceted amber glass gem lit from within.
Back in San Francisco, Pflueger designed the Nasser Brothers' 1,830-seat El Rey Theatre (1931) at 1970 Ocean Avenue in pure Moderne
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...
style, including a sleek tower topped by an aircraft warning beacon. A mirrored foyer in black and gold held floral and geometric accents, and twin curved stairways to the balcony flanked the foyer.
Paramount Oakland
Shortly before the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
, investors including William Henry Crocker bought adjoining parcels of land in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
for the purpose of erecting a movie palace to rival the nearby Fox Orpheum
Fox Oakland Theatre
The Fox Oakland Theatre is a 2,800-seat movie theater, located at 1807 Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland, California. The theater was designed by Weeks and Day, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and reopened on February 5, 2009....
, intending that Miller and Pflueger build it. One of the largest studio and theater chains in the country, Paramount Publix
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, showed great interest, but wanted to use their own East Coast architect instead. Pflueger went to New York and convinced Paramount Publix to use his firm by demonstrating that past projects of his had stayed within budget, a concern of increasing importance in the cautious financial climate of early 1930.
For the 3,200-seat design, Pflueger took his inspiration from Green Mansions
Green Mansions
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl named Rima.-Plot summary:...
, a romantic fantasy novel by William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson was an author, naturalist, and ornithologist.- Life and work :Hudson was born in the Quilmes, a borough of the greater Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin...
set in the Guyana jungle of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. Tropical rain forest motifs were used throughout the theater, including climbing vines, waterfalls, parrots and emerald green lighting. As with his other works, Pflueger mixed together sources from around the world, adding images of Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses as well as Egyptian lotuses to the primarily jungle theme. Plans were complete in November and in December 1930 ground was broken in a ceremony that called for "prosperity celebration".
The grand opening was held December 16, 1931 with a crowd which extended out to the street. Live action variety performances alternated with film showings. Unfortunately for the theater, the number of tickets sold in the subsequent months was not enough to keep the theater in the black. It closed in June 1932, reopening in 1933 as only a movie theater, devoid of the extravagant live pieces.
Alameda Theatre (Alameda, California)
The Alameda Theatre is an Art Deco movie theatre built in 1932 in Alameda, California. It was designed by architect Timothy L. Pflueger and was the last grand movie palace built in the San Francisco Bay Area...
(1932) in Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
would ever be built by Pflueger. The eclectic Alameda's exterior incorporated deeply incised and intricate Moorish Revival rosettes on cream-colored smoothly curved sides on either side of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
flowers in bas relief rising between eight vertical Moderne speed lines. The Art Deco interior design used imitation silver and gold leaf for accents and warm colors for a stylized mezzanine mural with a hint of Cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
. In the interest of economy, the Alameda's floor plan was nearly identical to that of the El Rey Theatre, including twin curved staircases, and some floral and geometric elements were borrowed from the Paramount.
1930s
During the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Pflueger continued to win commissions, but because of the straitened financial climate, the most noteworthy examples were no longer prominent downtown skyscrapers. Pflueger designed a handful of unique schools for San Francisco Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District , established in 1851, is the only public school district within the City and County of San Francisco, and the first in the state of California...
, including two elementary schools, a junior high, two high schools and every major building on the first campus (Ocean campus) of San Francisco Junior College, an institution that would later expand to become City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...
.
In 1932, Pflueger renovated the Nasser brother's New Mission Theater, bringing Art Deco stylings to the lobby in contrast to the Spanish Mission trimmings in the main auditorium. In 1993, the theater closed. As of 2006, the theater, now designated San Francisco Landmark No. 245, awaits renovation and restoration as a nightclub and restaurant. Pflueger simultaneously worked on the remodeling of the Nasser's New Fillmore Theater, a sister design similar in many respects. The New Fillmore closed in 1957 and was demolished to make way for an urban redevelopment project.
Cocktail lounges
During ProhibitionProhibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, Pflueger designed bars for private clubs such as the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club where members kept their personal bottles in small lockers behind the bar, and two bars for The Family, one at the Family Farm in Woodside and one at the clubhouse in San Francisco. Pflueger created a cocktail bar and nightclub for Frank Martinelli and Tom Gerun in 1931, the Bal Tabarin, featuring a stage for live music and colorful indirect lighting from above metal fins in the ceiling and behind curved metal strips upstage. When Prohibition ended in December 1933, Bal Tabarin received an immediate renovation by Pflueger along with a liquor license from the state. Pflueger was then asked to design cocktail lounges for several hotels, completing the Cirque for the Fairmont Hotel
The Fairmont San Francisco
The Fairmont San Francisco is a luxury hotel at 950 Mason Street, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel was named after mining magnate and U.S. Senator James Graham Fair , by his daughters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt who built the hotel in his honor. The hotel...
in 1935, adorned with finely painted murals by Esther Bruton, and in 1939, both the Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
and the Top of the Mark
Top of the Mark
The Top of the Mark is a rooftop bar located at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill at California- and Mason Streets in San Francisco, California...
for the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The Patent Leather Bar used a metal-finned ceiling much like that which Pflueger had installed above the audience at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. A padded, serpentine bar snaked through the room's mirror, chrome and black leather decor. Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
was retained by C. Templeton Crocker to show off the new cocktail lounge in photographs.
Bay Bridge
James Rolph
James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, Jr. was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931 until his death on June 2, 1934 at the height of the Great Depression...
to chair the committee of architects who were given nominal oversight of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge project. Arriving two years into the design phase of the bridge, Pflueger was stymied at every turn by civil engineers citing the inflexible budget in his attempts to bring a more artistic theme to the bridge. A heroic figure of a giant man standing at the central anchorage between the two main suspension spans was suggested and quickly canceled; all that remains of the proposal is a 14-inch study modeled by Ralph Stackpole. The committee of architects succeeded mainly in making the suspension bridge towers more streamlined in appearance by getting rid of the civil engineer's plans for a greater number of horizontal cross members. Pflueger very likely designed the stepped semicircular tunnel entrance and exit portals and, by mounting a campaign of public pressure, prevented the bridge from being painted black, successfully substituting a silvery aluminum-based paint instead. When the bridge was completed, Pflueger designed the Transbay Terminal
San Francisco Transbay Terminal
San Francisco Transbay Transit Terminal, or simply Transbay Terminal, was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, USA, located roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2nd Street...
, the main transit center for the train lines built on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge.
Golden Gate International Exposition
For the Golden Gate International ExpositionGolden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition , held at San Francisco, California's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair that celebrated, among other things, the city's two newly-built bridges. The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge was dedicated in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge was dedicated in 1937...
of 1939–1940 on Treasure Island, Pflueger joined a committee of well-known Beaux-Arts architects and was frustrated in establishing a more modern design scheme, though his own Federal Building amply demonstrated the new direction he espoused. Pflueger's contributions were among the few buildings at the Exposition that received positive reviews. When the Exposition's investors failed to turn a profit in 1939, they decided to extend the fair another year. For the summer of 1940, Pflueger put together a large exhibit of Art in Action
Art in Action
Art in Action was an exhibit of artists at work displayed for four months in the summer of 1940 at the Golden Gate International Exposition held on Treasure Island. Many famous artists took part in the exhibit, including Dudley C. Carter, woodcarver and Diego Rivera, muralist...
, showing a number of artists on display, engaged in creating works. Alfred Frankenstein of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
visited in June and wrote "Here the visitor is privileged to observe a kind of twenty-ring circus of art... On the floor, in a series of little ateliers, sculptors, painters, lithographers, etchers, ceramicists, weavers and whatnot are at work under the direct observation of the public." Pflueger once again brought Rivera to San Francisco, this time to serve as the main attraction at "Art in Action". Rivera painted Pan American Unity on ten steel-framed panels spanning 74 feet in width and reaching 22 feet in height. For the second time, Rivera included Pflueger in a mural of his. Some 68 artists had participated by the end of September when the Exposition was closed. Rivera was not finished, however; he and two assistants labored for two more months in the empty exposition hall. On November 30 and December 2, 30,000–35,000 visitors came to Treasure Island to view the completed mural. On December 8, 1940, Rivera's 54th birthday, Kahlo and Rivera were married for the second time in a civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
.
1940s
I. Magnin
I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, and Washington...
department store chain, aboard . The two men investigated French shopping ideas that could be brought back and used at American department stores. Pflueger gained ideas from the ship's famous Art Deco adornments. Magnin and Pflueger went to Venice and Milan as well, but found very little of use to them on their short European trip. The $3 million I. Magnin store on Wilshire (currently the Wilshire Galleria) opened in Los Angeles on February 10, 1939 with an interior completely devoted to Pflueger's concept of luxuriously separate boutique spaces within which individual sales items would receive unique attention. Pflueger's interior was attuned to women's fashions: the ground level floor was laid with rose-beige marble from France, pink velvet counter tops held gloves for trying on, rose-beige leather panels covered the walls of the shoe salon and the same leather served as covering for sofas and chairs that were provided by Neel D. Parker, interior designer and Pflueger's fellow club member from The Family. Grover Magnin continued to work with Pflueger on three more stores into the 1940s.
In 1939, plans for an underground garage at Union Square were given to Pflueger for political reasons. George Applegarth's 1935 design was actively opposed from several directions and Pflueger's social contacts and his friendship with mayor Angelo Joseph Rossi
Angelo Joseph Rossi
Angelo Joseph Rossi was a U.S. political figure who served as the 31st mayor of San Francisco. He was the first mayor of 100% Italian descent of a major U.S city Angelo Joseph Rossi (January 22, 1878 – April 5, 1948) was a U.S. political figure who served as the 31st mayor of San Francisco....
were needed to get the project started. Union Square garage opened in 1943 with Pflueger's touch making it a full-service valet garage complete with a waiting room and rest rooms for shoppers and the option of having shopping packages sent directly from a nearby store to the garage or for the car to be delivered to the store. The concept of an underground garage below a city park was influential: New York builder Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
requested copies of Pflueger's plans (little changed from Applegarth's) and Pershing Square in Los Angeles
Pershing Square (Los Angeles)
Pershing Square is a public park in downtown Los Angeles, California. The park is exactly one square block in size, bounded by 5th Street to the north, 6th Street to the south, Hill Street to the east, and Olive Street to the west...
was excavated and rebuilt in 1952 along the same lines.
In 1942, while America geared up for front line involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Pflueger received fewer assignments than he had been seeing previously. Grover Magnin kept a flow of work with I. Magnin designs, and Pflueger also helped the Army with a depot building in Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
. He began to draw up plans for a 12-story cross-shaped medical teaching hospital for the University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
(eventually to be built at 505 Parnassus in 1955 with additional design work performed by his brother Milton Pflueger). His firm accepted a commission to excavate below the Mark Hopkins Hotel in order to create a bomb-resistant radio transmission center for AM station KSFO and shortwave programs of the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
. This space became the hotel's underground parking garage after the war.
Death and legacy
Timothy L. Pflueger died suddenly at the age of 54 on November 20, 1946 of a heart attack on Post Street outside of the Olympic ClubOlympic Club
The Olympic Club is a San Francisco, California, athletic club and private social club with three golf courses located at San Francisco's border with Daly City, California. The club's main "City Clubhouse" is located in downtown San Francisco. The club's "Lakeside Clubhouse" is located just north...
after taking his usual evening swim. At his death, Pflueger was not finished with the radical interior and exterior transformation of the I. Magnin flagship store at Union Square, a sleek International design that remained influential for years afterward.
All his adult life, Pflueger maintained his residence at his childhood home on Guerrero Street. When entertaining downtown late into the evening, he was known to spend an occasional night at the Olympic Club. Pflueger drove a green Cadillac convertible and was often seen with his steady lady friend on his arm. Pflueger never married and left no children. His brother Milton, fifteen years younger, had been working with the firm since the 1930s and, at Tim's death, Milton reorganized and headed the company, doing business as Milton T. Pflueger, Architect.
In 1990, a bas-relief of influential San Franciscans was sculpted over the facade of 235 Pine Street, a 26-story skyscraper. Timothy L. Pflueger was the only architect among those memorialized. In 2008, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to change the name of Chelsea Place, a small alley leading to the garage of the 450 Sutter Street building, to Timothy Pflueger Place.
See also
- Arthur Brown Jr.
- Sargent Claude JohnsonSargent Claude JohnsonSargent Claude Johnson was one of the first Californian African-American artists to achieve a national reputation. He was known for Abstract Figurative and Early Modern styles. He was a painter, potter, ceramist, printmaker, graphic artist, sculptor, and carver. He worked with a variety of...
- John ShelleyJohn ShelleyJohn Francis "Jack" Shelley was a U.S. politician. He served as the 35th mayor of San Francisco, from 1964 to 1968, the first Democrat elected to the office in 50 years, and the first in an unbroken line of Democratic mayors that lasts to the present .Shelley earned a law degree from the...
- Clarence W. W. MayhewClarence W. W. MayhewClarence William Whitehead Mayhew was an American architect best known as a designer of contemporary residential structures in the San Francisco Bay Area...
- William WursterWilliam WursterWilliam Wilson Wurster was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley and at MIT, best known for his residential designs in California. - Biography :...
External links
- A letter from Diego RiveraDiego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
to Pflueger (undated, ca. March–April 1940) - Timothy Pflueger's sketches, renderings, and models collected at the San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtSan Francisco Museum of Modern ArtThe San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
- National Museum of Murals and Mosaics. Presenting: Diego Rivera's The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City – image of Pflueger painted by Diego Rivera (1931)