William Taylor Hotel

McAllister Tower Apartments
(2017)
Location within San Francisco
Former names	100 McAllister Temple Methodist Episcopal Church William Taylor Hotel Empire Hotel
General information
Type	Offices Residential
Architectural style	Gothic Revival Art Deco/Art Moderne
Location	100 McAllister Street San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37°46′52″N 122°24′50″W / 37.7810°N 122.4139°W / 37.7810; -122.4139Coordinates: 37°46′52″N 122°24′50″W / 37.7810°N 122.4139°W / 37.7810; -122.4139
Completed	January 1930
Owner	Hastings College Of The Law
Management	Hastings College Of The Law
Height
Roof	94 m (308 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	28
Floor area	280,000 sq ft (26,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect	Miller & Pflueger Lewis P. Hobart
References

McAllister Tower Apartments is a 28-story, 94 m (308 ft) residential apartment skyscraper at 100 McAllister Street in San Francisco, California. The property is owned and operated by the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. The tower includes mixed-use offices on various floors, and the Art Deco-styled "Sky Room" with a panoramic view on the 24th floor.

Conceived as an unusual combination of a large church surmounted by a hotel, construction of the building brought architectural dispute. Initially designed by Timothy L. Pflueger in the Gothic Revival style, the investors fired his firm and hired Lewis P. Hobart, who changed little of Pflueger's design. In a resulting lawsuit, Pflueger won nearly half the damages he asked for. The building opened in 1930 as the William Taylor Hotel and Temple Methodist Episcopal Church. However, extra construction expenses had put the congregation at greater financial risk, and the church-hotel concept did not prove popular. No profit was made in six years, and the church left, losing their investment. In the late 1930s the building housed the Empire Hotel, known for its Sky Room lounge, then from World War II to the 1970s, 100 McAllister served as U.S. government offices.

Reopening as university housing and offices in 1981, McAllister Tower is home to some 300 law students and their families. "The Tower" is sited one block from the administrative and scholastic center of Hastings College of the Law, and is the most prominent building in the district.

The skyscraper at 100 McAllister began in 1920 with a plan formulated by Reverend Walter John Sherman to merge four of the largest Methodist Episcopal congregations in San Francisco, sell their various churches and properties and combine their assets to build a "superchurch" with a hotel on top of it. From their initial $800,000 they bought property at McAllister and Leavenworth streets and hired the architectural firm of Miller and Pflueger to design the edifice. Timothy L. Pflueger was chosen as the designer. The new hotel, intended to be "dry" (serving no alcoholic beverages) in the "sinful" city, was to be named after William Taylor, a Methodist Episcopal street preacher and missionary who formed the first Methodist church in San Francisco. The large church was named Temple Methodist Episcopal Church, or simply "Temple Methodist".