Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)

The Merchants Exchange Building at four hundred sixty-five California Street is identifiable by its symmetrical, light-colored Tennessee granite facade and classical columns facing Montgomery Street. Completed in nineteen oh four, this fifteen-story Beaux-Arts skyscraper was designed by Daniel Burnham and Willis Polk. It was one of the few downtown structures to survive the nineteen oh six earthquake and fire, and its survival helped provide water and power to neighboring properties during the city's early recovery efforts.