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Overview

San Francisco architects and engineers Howard and Galloway designed this bank for Andrea Sbarboro's Italian-American Bank, using the some of the same foundations as the previous bank on the site designed by Thomas J. Welsh. It was completed in 1907.

Building History

Executives of the Italian American Bank commissioned the prominent San Francisco architectural firm of Howard and Galloway to design its new headquarters. A 1907 article in the Archtiect and Engineer of Californiadescribed the new bank, placing special emphasis on its stout construction: "From plans by Howard & Galloway, architects and Engineers, the Italian-American bank is erecting on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Sacramento streets, a substantial home of steel, reinforced concrete, brick and granite. The old building was a seven-story brick structure with banking quarters on the ground floor and offices above. There will be but two floors in the new building. The steel frame and most of the concrete work is finished. The front walls are to be braced with California granite and backed with brick. The building will have a frontage of 42 1/2 feet on Montgomery and 103 feet on Sacramento street, with an ell extending back from Sacramento street, 137 feet. The main portion of the building will have a height of 41 feet (2 stories) and the rear ell with have a height of 50 1/2 feet (3 stories). The rear walls of the building which are of reinforced concrete contain more material than the front. A basement extends under the entire building. The bank will occupy all of the first floor and basement of the main building, except that part facing Sacramento street, and directly in front of the rear ell. A store facing on Sacramento street will occupy the remainder of the ground floor. The second and third floors will be used for business offices. The floor of the banking rooms is of white Italian and Verde Antique marble and bronze." (See "The Italian-American Bank Building of San Francisco," Architect and Engineer of California, vol. IX, no. 2, 06/1907, pp. 35-36.)

The article continued to describe in some detail the structure of the new bank. Its structural integrity had great relevance at the time because it functioned as a bank and required security, but also great emphasis was placed in the San Francisco architectural community post-1906 in seismic sturdiness: The article continued: "A new vault having three floors will be built. The walls, doors and ceilings of the vault will be 12 inches thick. The vertical walls of the vaut are to be reinforced with half-inch square corrugated steel bars places nine inches apart in double rows. The vault floors are reinforced by light railroad rails in addition to a double layer of corrugated bars. The offices on the second and third floors will have metal lath and cement plaster partitions. In order to leave the banking space in the first store entirely free from interior columns it was found necessary to suspend the second floor fron a series of trusses. There are six trusses each within a total length of forty feet and a depth at the center of eight feet. The granite walls to the front are massive and will be anchored to the steel frame so as to withstand earthquake shocks if necessary. One of these anchors is an angle iron extending along the entire length of the heavy granite parapet wall near its top. All the rear walls of the building are of reinforced concrete supported, above the second floor, on the steel frame. These walls have both vertical and horizontal reinforcemnt. The steel framework will be encased in concrete to a depth of two inches. The protection of the columns, however, will be 4 inches thick. The sloping roof of the building will be formed of a concrete slab over which asbestos shingles will be laid. The greater portion of the concrete foundation of the old building will be utilized." (See "The Italian-American Bank Building of San Francisco," Architect and Engineer of California, vol. IX, no. 2, 06/1907, pp. 35-36.)

Alteration

The Italian-American Bank #3 was altered extensively in the mid-1980s, with an ill-advised skyscraper placed atop this building and the Borel and Company Building next door.