[peanut gallery]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

I'm guessing the same can be said for the other (and much more iconic) former AT&T building on New Montgomery. I know they had grand plans to convert it to condos, but I doubt anything will happen with that for several years.

On the other hand, there is a chance they will move forward. From yesterday's Examiner:

Board approves changes to old AT&T location
By Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer 11/6/08

SAN FRANCISCO – As legend has it, the first transatlantic telephone call from the West Coast was made from the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph office at New Montgomery and Howard streets, and the man to pick up the phone on the other end was Winston Churchill.

But telephones are no longer the business at the striking 1925 art deco skyscraper in SoMa. The building has been vacant since 2007, when a developer bought the terra-cotta structure and Pacific Telephone’s descendent, AT&T, moved out to make way for 118 luxury condominiums.

The project — which the developer says will cost more than building a similar project from the ground up — will require gutting the interior of the building to allow for seismic improvements and the conversion from offices to condos, said Tom Sullivan of San Francisco development firm Wilson Meany Sullivan. The outside of the terra-cotta building will be mostly preserved, though its steel-framed windows — now rusty and leaky — will be replaced, he said.

Despite these drastic changes, the project received a nod of approval Wednesday from the Landmarks Preservation Board. The project could receive final approval from the Planning Commission within a month, Sullivan said.

“We will be losing a lot,” board member Courtney Damkroger said, adding she would like to see the building designated a historical landmark as a way of preserving part of its past.

Sullivan said the project should progress despite the stagnant economy. Developers are having trouble finding financing, but, he said, if the financial markets loosen up in the coming months there should be no problem going ahead and finding buyers for the extremely high-end units.

“The upper end of the market is less affected by the current ups and downs with the economy,” Sullivan said. “It’s one of the finest buildings in The City. There’s no other building like it and there never will be another building like it in The City.”

Here are a couple of photos of this magnificent building: