Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building and Annex

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building stands at two hundred forty-five Market Street, clad entirely in terra cotta. Built between nineteen twenty-three and nineteen twenty-five, the seventeen-story structure is marked by an arcaded lower section that rises through the first two floors. Above this base, a plain vertical shaft leads toward the top four stories, which feature a series of setbacks. Architects Bakewell and Brown designed the building with a classical vocabulary, including allegories of power and light carved into the lower levels.