Our firm will be moving soon to a new location, the top 3 floors of 111 New Montgomery Street here in San Francisco. Out of curiosity I thought that I would look up some of the building’s history. Turns out that the architect was Gilbert Stanley Underwood (1890-1961), the same architect who designed the iconic Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite, along with several significant San Francisco buildings and other National Park lodges throughout the West. The 111 New Montgomery building was designed by Underwood in 1939 as a regional office building and distribution center for the US Postal Service (below).
The Ahwahnee was one among several lodges throughout the West in the early 20th century that Underwood designed. This came up the second season of the Prime series “1923” (yes, I have been watching) where the crazed lunatic rich and sadistic villain, Donald Whitfield, had ideas to develop winter vacation destinations in the West which would attract travelers from the East. This side story in the series coincides with reality since Underwood was heavily involved in the design of rustic lodges to accommodate these same vacationers. It’s a little hard though for me to get my mind around how Montana and Utah in 1923 were portrayed in “1923” as the Wild West when at that same time Frank Loyd Wright and Corbu were in their mid-careers, but evidently that is the case.
Donald Whitfield was right about one thing though: people did want to come to the Wild West and enjoy winter vacations. One great example as mentioned above is Underwood’s 1926 the Ahwahnee in the Yosemite Valley (below).
Obviously the Ahwahnee is married to its surroundings in a beautiful way, as seen in above. I noticed however in my one and only stay there that the interior, although stunning as well, was not heavy timber ceilings but in fact painted cast in place concrete. Oh well.
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Gilbert did not go to architecture school until he was almost 30 years old, but he did receive architecture degrees from both Yale and Harvard. After working a while in the Midwest, Underwood relocated to California where he established his own practice in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The San Francisco office was on the 17th floor of the existing and famous Call Building at 703 Market Street (below).
The Call building caught fire during the 1906 earthquake and has since been rebuilt in its present form at 3rd & Market streets. Note that the original domed roof structure at the top has been removed and a new façade has been installed on all four elevations, along with several more floors added at the top.
Underwood also designed the U.S. Mint building along Market Street in the Castro district, as well as the 1940 Rincon Center with its famous 27 watercolor murals of the history of San Francisco.
Underwood’s relationship with Daniel Ray Hull of the National Park Service is what got him the commission for The Ahwahnee. This led to commissions from the Utah Parks Company of the Union Pacific Railroad for other lodgings, such as the Bryce Canyon Lodge and the Dining Commons at Yellowstone National Park (speaking of streaming series “1923” and “Yellowstone”). There is a beautiful watercolor rendering done by Gilbert himself of the Union Pacific Dining Commons in West Yellowstone, as well as a description of the facility.
Some of the Bryce Canyon Lodge original working drawings can be seen at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Library.
Below is another Underwood project, the Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood near Portland (photo taken in the 1930’s by the U.S. Forest Service):
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For those interested in further reading, the following book on Gilbert Underwood is available at William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco or on Amazon.
