Tours of the Tales

At one time, visitors could get a great “eye-to-eye” view of the Transamerica Pyramid by going to the lounge of the Carnelian Room on the 52nd floor of 555 California Street (two blocks south of the Pyramid on the corner of California and Montgomery streets).  The Carnelian Room closed its doors after the last costumer left on New Year’s Eve 2009.  The former restaurant’s space is now rented by a Finnish gaming company.  There are a number of videos found on YouTube that share views of the San Francisco skyline from the former Carnelian Room. 

On the east side of the Transamerica Pyramid is a small grove of redwood trees.  One evening in the Tales of the City, DeDe confronted Beauchamp with seeing him and Mary Ann being chummy with each other crossing the street on their way to lunch earlier that day.  She and Binky happened to be shopping at La Remise du Soleil when she saw Beauchamp and Mary Ann.  Beauchamp snidely responded that DeDe should have seen him ravaging Mary Ann in the redwood grove behind the Transamerica Pyramid.

Although highly controversial when it was first built, the Transamerica Pyramid has become as much of an icon of San Francisco as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and the cable cars.  The Transamerica Corporation built the tower and moved into it when it was completed in 1972.  The tower no longer serves as the Corporation’s headquarters.  Although its official name is now the Pyramid Center, San Franciscan’s still refer to it as the Transamerica Pyramid.

There is no public observation deck at the top of the Pyramid nor are there public tours of the building at this time.  Only tenants and their guests may go above the lobby level.  The Pyramid Center’s website has a collection of videos.  The California Gold video shows the view of the City from its highest inhabitable floor.  It then takes the viewer to the top of the needle itself (click here).  

TransAmerica Pyramid (Pyramid Center)

Transamerica Pyramid (Pyramid Center), 600 Montgomery

The Transamerica Pyramid was mentioned in Tales of the City.  During a tryst between Anne and Edgar, Anna shared her theory that she, he, and everyone they knew in San Francisco were at one time Atlanteans.  They had all come together at the edge of the continent to return to the sea together.  Edgar didn’t see the connection with Atlantis.  Anna informed him that the thing that dominated the skyline of Atlantis prior to the earthquake that sunk the island into the sea was a large pyramid topped by a beacon.  Here’s Anna sharing her theory of Atlantis with Edgar in "Tales of the City".