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View from Nob Hill

August 1, 1906

1906 Earthquake and Fire, View east to downtown. Kohl Bldg at left, Ferry Building in distance with repair scaffolding. Merchants Exchange at center with structural repairs underway.

John Freeman, 2015 - The building in the center has actually more interest than the Kohl Building. The building is the Merchant’s Exchange Building, 465 California St, SW cor. Leidesdorff (D.H. Burnham & Co. 1903). It was not burned, but engineers notice X-cracks in the brick facade and determined that although it was steel-frame, it still shook enough to cause the brick facade to shift, thus the “X” pattern on the exterior. This picture is significant because it shows the re-bricking of the facade. The engineers reevaluated the interior bracing, and applied more corner bracket bracing to the structural steel. Then they had the entire facade stripped a couple floors at a time, and re-bricked, with a more secure attachment system.