Clock Tower Lofts

The Schmidt Lithograph Company printed the classic California fruit-crate labels here, in a complex that grew from a three-story brick-and-timber plant into a six-story concrete building crowned by a 170-foot steel-frame clock tower — still one of the most recognizable silhouettes beside the Bay Bridge approach.

The 1992 conversion by architect David Baker for McKenzie, Rose & Holliday turned 230,000 square feet into 127 live/work lofts across three interconnected buildings, with 44 distinct floor plans — no two lines of the building live quite alike. The tower penthouse, with the clock faces as its windows, is one of the most famous lofts in California.

This is the flagship of the South Beach conversion wave: heavy timber and concrete character two blocks from the ballpark, with the kind of provenance new construction cannot buy.