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The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel is a historic hotel located two blocks from Union Square at the intersection of Geary Street and Taylor Street,
Canadian Four Seasons Hotels acquired an interest in the hotel in 1976, and began managing it as their first US property. Two years later, in 1978, they renamed it the Four Seasons Clift Hotel. On February 21, 1995, Four Seasons sold their interest in the property and it became The Clift, a Grand Heritage Hotel. Ian Schrager Hotels took over management in 1997, and the hotel became simply Clift. Schrager bought the hotel outright in 1999, for $80 million. Soon after, he oversaw a $50 million complete renovation, which involved the restoration of the Redwood Room, and the gutting and redesign of much of the rest of the hotel, by designer Philippe Starck. The hotel reopened on August 3, 2001. Starck's lobby featured his furniture collection, including chairs from Ray and Charles Eames, furniture by
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
.
History
In 1913, Frederick C. Clift, an attorney from a large family in the Sierra foothills, commissioned a 300-room hotel on a lot the family had inherited. The architect, a former student of Ecole de Beaux Arts, was George Applegarth and Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr. of MacDonald and Applegarth, the former of whom also designed the Palace of the Legion of Honor. The hotel opened on February 1, 1915, to serve crowds attending thePanama–Pacific International Exposition
The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...
. Advertised as the first hotel in San Francisco to be fire and earthquake proof, with its 1924 addition of 3 floors, it became the largest hotel in the state. The hotel's Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
Redwood Room bar was added in 1933, paneled with wood from a single redwood
Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...
tree.
Canadian Four Seasons Hotels acquired an interest in the hotel in 1976, and began managing it as their first US property. Two years later, in 1978, they renamed it the Four Seasons Clift Hotel. On February 21, 1995, Four Seasons sold their interest in the property and it became The Clift, a Grand Heritage Hotel. Ian Schrager Hotels took over management in 1997, and the hotel became simply Clift. Schrager bought the hotel outright in 1999, for $80 million. Soon after, he oversaw a $50 million complete renovation, which involved the restoration of the Redwood Room, and the gutting and redesign of much of the rest of the hotel, by designer Philippe Starck. The hotel reopened on August 3, 2001. Starck's lobby featured his furniture collection, including chairs from Ray and Charles Eames, furniture by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
, and a stool by Roberto Matta (inspired by René Margritte). Sonesta Hotels assumed management of the hotel in May 2018 and it was renamed The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel. The hotel closed from September 2019 to January 2020 for major renovations to the guest rooms, lobby and the Redwood Room.
See also
*References
External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel Hotel buildings completed in 1915 Hotels in San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco