Transamerica Pyramid & Redwood Park: The Forest in the Financial Canyon

Why is it significant?

Step off Montgomery Street into the quiet shade of Redwood Park, directly beneath the soaring eastern concrete wing of the Transamerica Pyramid.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step off Montgomery Street into the quiet shade of Redwood Park, directly beneath the soaring eastern concrete wing of the Transamerica Pyramid. Look up into the canopy of fifty mature coastal redwood trees: these giants were transplanted here in nineteen seventy-two from the Santa Cruz Mountains, creating a serene primeval forest in the heart of high-rise skyscrapers.

Look up eight hundred and fifty-three feet to the pyramid's spire. When architect William Pereira unveiled his futuristic design in nineteen sixty-nine, critics violently denounced it, calling it a monstrosity and an arrogant needle. But Pereira chose the pyramid shape for a brilliant practical reason: unlike rectangular towers that cast pitch-black shadows across narrow streets, the tapered form allows natural sunlight and fresh air to reach the street canyons below.

Beneath your shoes lies buried Gold Rush history: Montgomery Street was the original shoreline in eighteen forty-nine. Deep under the foundations of this pyramid lies the buried timber hull of the whaling ship Niantic, abandoned by its crew who rushed to the gold fields.

Stroll into the historic brick alleyways of Jackson Square.