H. C. Baumann (1890-1960)

Detail of Apartment at 2090 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
2090 Broadway Detail
Both Photos 26 June 2012
(Click Photos to Zoom)

Herman C. Baumann was born in Oakland in 1890. His parents had moved to California the year before.

After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, downtown San Francisco was rebuilt with commercial buildings and apartment buildings. Many of these buildings still stand in the Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District and the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District.

The popularity of apartment buildings soon spread from downtown to the Western Addition and Pacific Heights, neighborhoods west of Van Ness Avenue which had survived the 1906 catastrophe largely intact. By 1910, Victorian residences in these neighborhoods had become costly to maintain, particularly large detached houses on corner lots. Many of these houses were first divided into apartments and subsequently demolished during the building boom of the 1920s to be replaced by apartment buildings.

The new apartment buildings were typically six to ten stories. In Pacific Heights, they were luxurious. In some buildings, an apartment occupied an entire floor with views to all points of the compass.

Some Victorian houses were spared, and the urbane mix of architectural periods and scale - Victorian houses and Art Deco apartments - creates a signature style for this section of Pacific Heights north of Lafayette Park.

Baumann, who started his architectural practice in 1905 by specializing in apartment buildings, was well positioned for this change in taste and economics. During a five year span he designed and built over five hundred apartment buildings, including two of his best known works, the Bellaire Tower and the Gaylord Hotel (San Francisco Landmark 159).

Baumann also designed hotels and commercial buildings in San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento.

During World War II he designed many structures for the Navy at Mare Island and other locations. After the war he designed about a dozen multi-family housing projects in the Bay Area.

Herman Baumann died a week before his 70th birthday on April 6, 1960.

Source: Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley and Encyclopedia of San Francisco Website

Name Year Address City Sort Address Sort Name
Apartment Building on Bay Street19311690 Bay Street San FranciscoBay 1690Apartment Building on Bay Street
Apartment Building on Bay Street19361700 Bay StreetSan FranciscoBay 1700Apartment Building on Bay Street
Apartment Building on Broadway19271800 Broadway San FranciscoBroadway 1800Apartment Building on Broadway
Apartment Building on Broadway19311801 Broadway San FranciscoBroadway 1801Apartment Building on Broadway
Apartment Building on Broadway19381890 BroadwaySan FranciscoBroadway 1890Apartment Building on Broadway
Apartment Building on Broadway19291945 and 1955 BroadwaySan FranciscoBroadway 1945Apartment Building on Broadway
Apartment Building on Broadway19352090 BroadwaySan FranciscoBroadway 2090Apartment Building on Broadway
Apartment Building on Buchanan Street19372400 Buchanan StreetSan FranciscoBuchanan 2400Apartment Building on Buchanan Street
Apartment Building on Clay Street19301950 Clay StreetSan FranciscoClay 1950Apartment Building on Clay Street
Apartment Building on Clay Street19313401 Clay StreetSan FranciscoClay 3401Apartment Building on Clay Street
Apartment Building on Gough Street19261950 Gough StreetSan FranciscoGough 1950Apartment Building on Gough Street
Apartment Building on Lombard Street1940290 Lombard StreetSan FranciscoLombard 0290Apartment Building on Lombard Street
Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue19591800 Pacific AvenueSan FranciscoPacific 1800Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue
Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue19311895 Pacific AvenueSan FranciscoPacific 1895Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue
Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue19322400 Pacific AvenueSan FranciscoPacific 2400Apartment Building on Pacific Avenue
Apartment Building on Pierce Street19242845 and 2855 Pierce StreetSan FranciscoPierce 2845Apartment Building on Pierce Street
Apartment Building on Sacramento Street19282201 Sacramento StreetSan FranciscoSacramento 2201Apartment Building on Sacramento Street
Bellaire Tower19301101 Green StreetSan FranciscoGreen 1101Bellaire Tower
Bellevue-Staten Apartments492 Staten AvenueOaklandStaten 0492Bellevue-Staten Apartments
Gaylord Hotel1928620 Jones StreetSan FranciscoJones 0620Gaylord Hotel
1800 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann 17 October 2019

1800 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann 26 June 2012

1800 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
17 October 2019

1800 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
17 October 2019

1800 Broadway
1801 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann 26 June 2012

1801 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
17 October 2019

1801 Broadway
1890 Broadway
Photographed 17 October 2019
1945 and 1955 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann Photographed 1 August 2012
1945 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
1945 Broadway
Photographed 1 August 2012
1955 Broadway Designed by H. C. Baumann
1955 Broadway
Photographed 26 June 2012
1945 and 1955 Broadway
Photographed in 2012
2400 Buchanan Street
Photographed 4 November 2019
3401 Clay Street
Photographed 26 June 2012
1800 Pacific Avenue
Photographed 26 June 2012

Built in 1959, the apartment building at 1800 Pacific Avenue was Baumann's last completed building, an attempt at the International Style which would be at home in Fort Lauderdale or Miami Beach but in restrained Pacific Heights looks like a party crasher dressed by Donatella Versace.

The Talbot-Dutton House in the lower photograph is San Francisco Landmark 57.

1895 Pacific Avenue
Photographed 26 June 2012
2400 Pacific Avenue
Photographed 17 October 2019
2845 and 2855 Pierce Street Designed by H. C. Baumann

2845 Pierce Street Designed by H. C. Baumann

2845 Pierce Street Designed by H. C. Baumann San Francisco is chockablock with skilled brickwork.

2845 and 2855 Pierce Street
Photographed 4 November 2019
2201 Sacramento Street
Photographed 19 September 2019

This apartment building stands diagonally across from Lafayette Park.

The adjacent building at 2205 Sacramento was designed by C. A. Meussdorffer, and the building next to that at 2241 Sacramento was designed by Edward E. Young.