Market Center (San Francisco)


Market Center, formerly known as the Standard Oil Buildings and later the Chevron Towers, is a complex comprising two skyscrapers at 555–575 Market Street in the Financial District of downtown San Francisco, California. It served as the headquarters of the Chevron Corporation until 2001.
575 Market Street is a 40-story, building completed in 1975, the taller of the two towers. 555 Market Street is the shorter tower at with 22 stories, and was completed in 1964. Architect for both buildings was Hertzka & Knowles. The two buildings are surrounded by small ornamental plazas. Both buildings are terra cotta over a granite base.

History

Before Chevron, Standard Oil Headquarters, SoCal, was at 225 Bush Street, where Theodore S. Petersen, Sr, was President of the board of Directors for 18 years from the 1940s to the early 1960s, then Chevron occupied the Market Center complex from 1965 until 2001 when it moved its headquarters to its campus in San Ramon, California. In 1999, Chevron sold the two buildings to Tishman Speyer and Travelers Real Estate Ventures for US$189.1 million and leased back the office space.
At the time the company officially moved its headquarters, it had already moved most workers to San Ramon, leaving only about 200 employees in San Francisco. By 2003, the complex was 83 percent vacant, and a joint venture between DivcoWest Properties and RREEF bought the property for US$79.5 million. In 2010, RREEF sold the complex to Manulife Financial for US$267 million. At the present, 575 Market is home to the San Francisco headquarters of the global game company Game Closure.