Monadnock Building (San Francisco)

The Monadnock Building wears a facade of hand-pressed brown brick and terra cotta detailing, its silhouette defined by a series of projecting oriel windows that climb thirteen stories toward the sky. Built in nineteen oh six, it rose immediately after the great earthquake and fire as a testament to the city's sudden demand for office space. Its primary architect, Frederick Meyer, salvaged the steel frame from the ruins of an earlier structure, stacking new masonry atop the existing skeleton to reopen within a year.