The reinforced concrete building, with its exuberant Renaissance and Baroque detailing, remains a landmark on a highly visible site, an oddly shaped building on an oddly shaped lot. An idiosyncratic seve-story oval tower sits atop a twenty-nine story base. Seen from afar, the hip-roofed attic looks like a palazzo in the sky. One of San Francisco's ost important and influential architects, Polk (1867-1924) thought the Hobart was one of his best designs and had his office there for years.