Submitted by Kristi Wachter on
Timothy Pflueger
About the Building
This modern department store was built around the pre-fire 1906 steel frame of the previous building, the Butler Building. The taller windows on the lower stories reflect the skeleton's structure.
The sleek, unbroken walls were reportedly designed to keep pigeons off the building.
Timothy Pflueger's 1946 remodel was done for the I. Magnin department store, founded in San Francisco in 1877.
As noted in the Central Subway Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement:
233 Geary Street began as the Butler Building in 1907. The building was under construction when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake occurred, extending the total construction period to two years. The nine-story steel-framed building, at the corner of Geary and Stockton streets, featured Renaissance/Baroque embellishments. The kitchenware shop closed its doors in 1946 and the building was transformed into an architecturally Art Moderne building by architects Miller & Pflueger, with sleek walls of white marble to house the upscale I Magnin women's clothing store. I Magnin was housed in that same location until 1995.
