The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel

The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel is a historic hotel at 495 Geary Street in San Francisco, California, two blocks west of Union Square. Opened on February 1, 1915, the hotel was developed to serve visitors to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition and was designed by the architectural firm MacDonald & Applegarth. The property is especially known for the Redwood Room, an Art Deco bar added in 1933. The room is widely cited as one of the hotel's defining historic interiors and remained a focal point during later renovations of the property. History Early history Frederick C. Clift commissioned the hotel in 1913. Contemporary promotion described the building as San Francisco's first fire- and earthquake-proof hotel, a claim that reflected post-1906 marketing as much as engineering ambition. The original building opened on February 1, 1915, with about 300 rooms. In 1925 and 1926, the hotel was enlarged through a major annex and the addition of three stories. According to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, the expansion added 240 rooms and the enlarged hotel reopened on February 12, 1926. Local historical sources state that the enlarged building was then described as the largest hotel in California. Redwood Room The Redwood Room opened on December 6, 1933, the day after the repeal of Prohibition in the United States, and was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh. The room's redwood paneling and long bar became among the best-known features of the hotel. Multiple sources repeat the long-standing tradition that the paneling came from a single redwood tree, though architectural and journalistic accounts generally treat that claim as legend rather than as a fully documented fact. When Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck planned the hotel's early-2000s redesign, the Redwood Room became a local preservation issue. A campaign to save the room's historic fabric drew public attention, and the redesign ultimately retained the redwood wall panels and several Art Deco features. Four Seasons era Four Seasons entered the United States market in 1976 with a management contract for the Clift, which the company later described as its first U.S. management contract. A federal court decision involving Four Seasons states that the company began managing the Clift in 1976 and that the property was renamed the Four Seasons-Clift Hotel in 1978. Travel Weekly later reported that Four Seasons managed the hotel from 1976 to 1995. Schrager and Starck redesign Ian Schrager Hotels began managing the Clift in the late 1990s and acquired the property in 1999 for $80 million. Schrager then oversaw a major renovation designed by Philippe Starck. Contemporary coverage put the renovation cost at about $50 million and described the project as a substantial reworking of the guest rooms and lobby while preserving the Redwood Room. The renovated hotel reopened in 2001. Reviewers highlighted the contrast between the historic shell and Starck's contemporary interiors, including a monumental chair in the lobby and furnishings associated with Salvador Dalí, Ray and Charles Eames, and Roberto Matta. Sonesta era and later renovation Sonesta assumed management of the property in 2018, and the hotel adopted the name The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel. The hotel then underwent another major renovation between 2019 and 2021. Coverage in SFGATE, Architectural Digest, and SF Travel stated that the work updated guest rooms and public spaces while retaining the Redwood Room's historic character and Art Deco atmosphere. Architecture and design The Clift was designed by MacDonald & Applegarth and is described by local historical sources as a three-part vertical composition with Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation. The building's early identity rested on both its downtown location and its promise of modern, supposedly safer construction after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The property's interiors reflect several distinct design campaigns: the original early-20th-century hotel; the 1933 Redwood Room; the Four Seasons period; the Philippe Starck redesign completed in 2001; and the renovation undertaken after Sonesta took over management. Because of those successive interventions, the hotel is often discussed as a layered example of San Francisco hospitality design rather than as a fully intact period interior. Reception and cultural legacy In travel and design coverage, the Redwood Room is regularly treated as the hotel's signature space. Condé Nast Traveler has described the bar and lobby as central to the property's identity, while Architectural Digest characterized the Redwood Room's 2020 refresh as an update that preserved its Art Deco heritage. Writers covering the Clift after the Starck redesign frequently emphasized the tension between preservation and reinvention. Los Angeles Times coverage in 2001 framed the project as Schrager's attempt to modernize a San Francisco grande dame without erasing the hotel's best-known historic spaces. In a 2020 article on the Redwood Room's reopening, SFGATE called the bar one of the city's iconic drinking rooms and noted its long association with columnist Herb Caen. In design discourse The Clift has also appeared in broader discussions of boutique-hotel design. In 2002, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff cited the Clift as one of the later Schrager hotels included in the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition New Hotels for Global Nomads, placing the property within a larger history of late-20th-century hotel design. See also Hotels portal References External links Official website Media related to Clift Hotel at Wikimedia Commons