For those who appreciate curves
The Malloch is that speeding ocean liner of a building at the top of Telegraph Hill, below Coit Tower near the Filbert Steps. It was built in 1937 and named after Jack and John Malloch, the father and son who developed it and claimed two units for themselves while renting out ten others. The architect was Irvin Goldstine, whose firm had offices in the city and down in Menlo Park. Little is known about him or his other work, but his building at 1360 Montgomery is a handsome expression of the style known as Streamline Moderne, which took off at the beginning of the 20th century in the imagination of the Italian architect and futurist, Antonio Sant’Elia. He was the one who drew up those fabulous colored renderings of cities to come, which became the inspiration for Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, Metropolis, and Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic, Blade Runner.
Every element in the Malloch exemplifies the Streamline aesthetic, such as a trio of silver sgrafittos by muralist Alfred Dupont. The building has been preserved exactly as it was when it was first built, including an open-air lobby that appears tropically lush and green, with Monstera leaves framed by sandblasted windows and Art Deco geometric images of clouds. There’s also the original elevator, encased in a backlit glass brick shaft. And everywhere you look, there are curves. In each apartment, the dining room is round, the Art Deco fireplace is round, even the light seems rounded as it filters in through floor-to-ceiling windows, which, as you might imagine, offer unparalleled views of the Bay.
Info
Address 1360 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA, 94133 | Public Transport Streetcar: F-Line (The Embarcadero & Greenwich St stop) | Hours Private apartment building, courtyard is open| Tip Take a look at the fresco murals painted in the "social realism" style by 27 different artists at Coit Tower at the top of the Filbert stairs.
The building was used in the 1947 film Dark Passage, starring Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, about a man trying to clear his name of a murder charge. You can still admire the etched-glass windows and stylish railings just as they appear in the scene where Bacall leads Bogart up to her third-floor apartment, Number 10, for “the kiss.”
Back
To the online map