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29-522: The Transamerica building was commissioned by Transamerica CEO John (Jack) R. Beckett , with the claim that he wished to allow light in the street below. Built on the site of the historic Montgomery Block , it has a structural height of 853 feet (260 m) and has 48 floors of retail and office space. Construction began in 1969 and finished in 1972, and was overseen by San Francisco–based contractor Dinwiddie Construction, now Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company. Transamerica moved its headquarters to

58-479: A grade basal to Cupressaceae sensu stricto , containing Callitroideae and Cupressoideae . The former Taxodiaceae genus, Sciadopitys , has been moved to a separate monotypic family Sciadopityaceae due to being genetically distinct from the rest of the Cupressaceae. In some classifications Cupressaceae is raised to an order, Cupressales. Molecular evidence supports Cupressaceae being the sister group to

87-471: A $ 250 million renovation. The Transamerica Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco from 1972 to 2017, when it was surpassed by the under-construction Salesforce Tower. It is one of 39 San Francisco high rises reported by the U.S. Geological Survey as potentially vulnerable to a large earthquake, due to a flawed welding technique. The land use and zoning restrictions for the parcel limited

116-521: A brightly twinkling beacon called the "Crown Jewel" is lit at the top of the pyramid. At the base of the building is a half-acre privately owned public space designed by Tom Galli called Redwood Park. A number of redwood trees were transplanted to this park from the Santa Cruz Mountains when the tower was built. It is currently closed as part of the remodel project. It features a fountain and pond designed by Anthony Guzzardo, containing

145-485: A jumping frog and lily pads bronze sculpture commemorating " The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County " by Mark Twain (sculpture by Richard Clopton, 1996); a Glenna Goodacre bronze sculpture of children at play (1989); a bronze plaque honoring the dogs Bummer and Lazarus , celebrating their skill at catching rats; and benches and tables offering respite to workers and visitors alike. John R. Beckett John R. Beckett (1918–2010), an American businessman,

174-531: A major, diversified, operating company that became a household name. He embarked the company on an aggressive advertising campaign that propelled the Transamerica brand name into a household name to the general public. He increased Transamerica's earnings by 20-fold during his tenure as president and chairman. It grew to be one of the 100 largest companies in the United States. He was instrumental in

203-471: A presence and a persona, snapping into different focus with every fresh angle, every shift in light." The Transamerica Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper west of Chicago when constructed, surpassing the then Bank of America Center , also in San Francisco. It was surpassed by the Aon Center , Los Angeles , in 1974. The building is thought to have been the intended target of a terrorist attack, involving

232-648: The Cenomanian of North America, and they subsequently diversified during the Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic. The family is divided into seven subfamilies, based on genetic and morphological analysis as follows: A 2010 study of Actinostrobus and Callitris places the three species of Actinostrobus within an expanded Callitris based on analysis of 42 morphological and anatomical characters. Phylogeny based on 2000 study of morphological and molecular data. Several further papers have suggested

261-539: The cypress family is a family of conifers . The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic ), which include the junipers and redwoods , with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious , subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red-brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species. The family reached its peak of diversity during

290-508: The mesozoic era. The leaves are arranged either spirally, in decussate pairs (opposite pairs, each pair at 90° to the previous pair) or in decussate whorls of three or four, depending on the genus. On young plants, the leaves are needle-like, becoming small and scale-like on mature plants of many genera; some genera and species retain needle-like leaves throughout their lives. Old leaves are mostly not shed individually, but in small sprays of foliage ( cladoptosis ); exceptions are leaves on

319-487: The Cupressaceae, as do six of the ten longest-lived tree species . Molecular and morphological studies have expanded Cupressaceae to include the genera of Taxodiaceae , previously treated as a distinct family, but now shown not to differ from the Cupressaceae in any consistent characteristics. The member genera have been placed into five distinct subfamilies of Cupressaceae, Athrotaxidoideae , Cunninghamioideae , Sequoioideae , Taiwanioideae , and Taxodioideae , which form

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348-472: The apex, where the bract scale is often visible as a short spine (often called an umbo) on the ovuliferous scale. As with the foliage, the cone scales are arranged spirally, decussate (opposite) or whorled, depending on the genus. The seeds are mostly small and somewhat flattened, with two narrow wings, one down each side of the seed; rarely (e.g. Actinostrobus ) triangular in section with three wings; in some genera (e.g. Glyptostrobus and Libocedrus ), one of

377-595: The exceptions of polar tundra and tropical lowland rainforest (though several species are important components of temperate rainforests and tropical highland cloud forests ); they are also rare in deserts , with only a few species able to tolerate severe drought, notably Cupressus dupreziana in the central Sahara . Despite the wide overall distribution, many genera and species show very restricted relictual distributions, and many are endangered species . The world's largest ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ) and current tallest ( Sequoia sempervirens ) trees belong to

406-700: The genus; they may be borne singly at the apex of a shoot (most genera), in the leaf axils ( Cryptomeria ), in dense clusters ( Cunninghamia and Juniperus drupacea ), or on discrete long pendulous panicle -like shoots ( Metasequoia and Taxodium ). Cupressaceae is a widely distributed conifer family, with a near-global range in all continents except for Antarctica, stretching from 70°N in arctic Norway ( Juniperus communis ) to 55°S in southernmost Chile ( Pilgerodendron uviferum ), further south than any other conifer species. Juniperus indica reaches 4930 m altitude in Tibet . Most habitats on land are occupied, with

435-519: The hijacking of airplanes as part of the Bojinka plot , which was foiled in 1995. In 1999, Transamerica was acquired by Dutch insurance company Aegon . When the non-insurance operations of Transamerica were later sold to GE Capital , Aegon retained ownership of the building as an investment. In 2020, the building was purchased by SHVO and Deutsche Finance America for $ 650 million. In 2022, SHVO and partners hired architect Norman Foster to undertake

464-533: The late 1990s". It was replaced by the virtual observation deck a few years later. The video signal from the "Transamericam" was used for years by a local TV news station for live views of traffic and weather in downtown San Francisco. The top of the Transamerica Pyramid is covered with aluminum panels. During the Christmas holiday season, on Independence Day , and during the anniversary of 9/11,

493-557: The new building from across the street, where it had been based in a flatiron -shaped building now occupied by the Church of Scientology of San Francisco. Although the tower is no longer Transamerica Corporation headquarters, it is still associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo. The building is evocative of San Francisco and has become one of the many symbols of the city. Designed by architect William Pereira , it faced opposition during planning and construction and

522-408: The number of square feet of office that could be built upon the lot, which sits at the north boundary of the financial district. The building is a tall, four-sided pyramid with two "wings" to accommodate an elevator shaft on the east and a stairwell and a smoke tower on the west. The top 212 feet (65 m) of the building is the spire. There are four cameras pointed in the four cardinal directions at

551-644: The primitive living cypress genera Taiwania and Cunninghamia . By the Middle to Late Jurassic Cupressaceae were abundant in warm temperate–tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The diversity of the group continued to increase during the Cretaceous period. The earliest appearance of the non-taxodiaceous Cupressaceae (the clade containing Callitroideae and Cupressoideae) is in the mid-Cretaceous, represented by " Widdringtonia" americana from

580-586: The purchases of motion picture distributor United Artists , Transamerica Airlines , Budget Rent-a-Car Co., De Laval Turbine and Occidental Life Insurance . He commissioned the construction of the Transamerica Pyramid , a landmark building in the San Francisco Financial District . Construction of the Transamerica Pyramid began in 1969. The 853-foot pyramid-shaped skyscraper designed by architect William Pereira

609-778: The segregation Cupressus species into four total genera. Cunninghamia Taiwania Athrotaxis Metasequoia Sequoia Sequoiadendron Cryptomeria Glyptostrobus Taxodium Austrocedrus Papuacedrus Libocedrus Pilgerodendron Widdringtonia Diselma Fitzroya Neocallitropsis Actinostrobus Callitris (sometimes including Actinostrobus and Neocallitropsis ) Thuja Thujopsis Chamaecyparis (sometimes including Fokienia ) Calocedrus Tetraclinis Microbiota Platycladus Cupressus (sometimes split into Callitropsis , Cupressus , Hesperocyparis , and Xanthocyparis ) Juniperus A 2021 molecular study supported

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638-538: The shoots that develop into branches. These leaves eventually fall off individually when the bark starts to flake. Most are evergreen with the leaves persisting 2–10 years, but three genera ( Glyptostrobus , Metasequoia and Taxodium ) are deciduous or include deciduous species. The seed cones are either woody, leathery, or (in Juniperus ) berry-like and fleshy, with one to several ovules per scale. The bract scale and ovuliferous scale are fused together except at

667-455: The top of this spire forming the "Transamerica Virtual Observation Deck." Four monitors in the lobby, whose direction and zoom can be controlled by visitors, display the cameras' views 24 hours a day. An observation deck on the 27th floor was closed: the Pyramid's official website says that it was closed to the public in 2001, while The New York Times reported that it has been closed "[s]ince

696-415: The wings is significantly larger than the other, and in some others (e.g. Juniperus , Microbiota , Platycladus , and Taxodium ) the seed is larger and wingless. The seedlings usually have two cotyledons , but in some species up to six. The pollen cones are more uniform in structure across the family, 1–20 mm long, with the scales again arranged spirally, decussate (opposite) or whorled, depending on

725-509: The yews (family Taxaceae ), from which it diverged during the early-mid Triassic . The clade comprising both is sister to Sciadopityaceae, which diverged from them during the early-mid Permian . The oldest definitive record of Cupressaceae is Austrohamia minuta from the Early Jurassic ( Pliensbachian ) of Patagonia, known from many parts of the plant. The reproductive structures of Austrohamia have strong similarities to those of

754-555: Was intended to become San Francisco's tallest building, and its construction created instant controversy, which helped create public awareness of Transamerica. The Transamerica Pyramid is located in the heart of the San Francisco Financial District at 600 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, California. It is a part of Transamerica Center (a complex that includes Two Transamerica Center and Transamerica Redwood Park) and encompasses nearly one city block. He

783-649: Was named "Best Chief Executive Officer" of all U.S. financial organizations for the years 1977 and 1978 by Financial World . He was married first to Dian Calkin Beckett (who died before him) and then to Marjorie Beckett, his wife of 41 years. He had two daughters Brenda Beckett of Friday Harbor, Washington ; and, Belinda Beckett of Sacramento , California. He also had two stepsons: Ted of Los Angeles; and Donald Abenheim of Menlo Park. Two granddaughters: Diana Beckett-Hile of Mill Valley and Sarah Beckett-Hile of San Francisco . Redwood trees Cupressaceae or

812-567: Was president and chairman of the board of Transamerica Corp. from 1960 to 1983. He was born on February 26, 1918, in San Francisco , California , and died on June 17, 2010, in Atherton, California . He became president and chairman of the board of Transamerica Corporation in 1960 when it was a little-known holding company. He was CEO of Transamerica Corp. for 23 years, until 1983, he transformed it from an anonymous holding company into

841-473: Was sometimes referred to by detractors as "Pereira's Prick". John King of the San Francisco Chronicle summed up the improved opinion of the building in 2009 as "an architectural icon of the best sort – one that fits its location and gets better with age." King also wrote in 2011 that it is "a uniquely memorable building, a triumph of the unexpected, unreal and engaging all at once. ... It is

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