The tower was designed by Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill as consulting architects, and its dark red carnelian granite exterior gives it a distinctive warmth that sets it apart from the glass-and-steel towers around it. When completed, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and served as the global headquarters for Bank of America, then one of the world's largest financial institutions. The building's mass and material were deliberate statements of corporate permanence, designed to project stability at a time when San Francisco was redefining itself as a financial capital.

Bank of America eventually moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina, though the San Francisco building retained the name for years. As of 2013, 555 California Street was the seventh most valuable office property in the United States. The building is co-owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization, and various financial tenants have occupied its floors. The building's value reflects San Francisco's enduring status as a financial center, even as the tech industry has increasingly defined the city's economy and identity.

From the air or from across the bay, 555 California Street is immediately recognizable by its color and profile -- the dark red granite contrasts sharply with the glass facades of the Salesforce Tower and Transamerica Pyramid. The building anchors the western edge of the Financial District, standing at the intersection of California and Kearny Streets. Its plaza-level sculpture and retail spaces connect it to the street life below, while its upper floors look out over the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Marin Headlands. It is a building from an era when banks built monuments to themselves, and whatever one thinks of the impulse, the monument endures.