Moscone Center | |
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Colored flags outside Moscone Center
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Location | San Francisco, California |
Coordinates | 37°47′03″N 122°24′06″W / 37.784173°N 122.401557°WCoordinates: 37°47′03″N 122°24′06″W / 37.784173°N 122.401557°W |
Owner | City and County of San Francisco |
Operator | SMG |
Built | 1981 (Moscone South) |
Architect | |
Opened | 1981 |
Expanded | 1991 (Moscone North) 2003 (Moscone West) |
Construction cost
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US$157 million (Moscone North) US$158 million (Moscone West) |
Enclosed space | |
• Exhibit hall floor | over 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) |
• Breakout/meeting | up to 106 meeting rooms up to 256,225 sq ft (23,804.1 m2) |
Parking | Pay parking nearby |
Public transit access | Powell Street Station |
Website | |
www.moscone.com |
Moscone Center /mɒsˈkoʊni/ is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. It comprises three main halls: Two underground halls underneath Yerba Buena Gardens, known as Moscone North and Moscone South, and a three-level Moscone West exhibition hall across 4th Street. It was initially built in 1981 by architects Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum as one single hall, Moscone South, and named after San Francisco former mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in November 1978.
The South of Market Area where Moscone Center was built and claimed by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and a protracted battle was fought by the displaced low-income residents during the 1960s and 1970s.
Although the Center is named after the murdered mayor, Moscone opposed the development of the area when he served on the SF Board of Supervisors in the 1960s because he felt it would displace elderly and poor residents of the area. As mayor, Moscone convened a special committee of proponents and opponents of a convention center. Hearings were held throughout SF seeking citizen input. A compromise was reached which was supported by Moscone. He put the matter on the ballot and it passed overwhelmingly.
Labor organizations supported the construction of the Center, and were granted full labor jurisdiction. All labor in the Convention Center is performed by I.A.T.S.E. Local 16 Stagehands, Sign and Display Workers Local #510, Brotherhood of Teamsters local #65, IBEW Local #6, Security I.A.T.S.E. Local #B-18, Communications Workers of America, and the Hotel & Restaurant Workers Local #2. McCune Audio/Video/Lighting is the on site rental service.
Moscone Center was featured in the 1995 movie, The Net, with Sandra Bullock.
Moscone Center is known for hosting several large professional gatherings, such as the VMworld, Oracle OpenWorld, Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, American Geophysical Union's fall meeting, American Bar Association's annual meeting, the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft's Build conference, the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Google I/O, JavaOne and public gated events such as WonderCon and the 1984 Democratic National Convention.