Highrise #81

**Central Tower** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Story by:** Mark Houser Once the city's most famous skyscraper, this highrise was rendered unrecognizable by a 1938 Art Deco redesign that replaced its baroque dome with a new six-story top. A lobby display of bronze doorknobs emblazoned with "CS” are the only clue to its former identity as the Claus Spreckels Building. The German immigrant ran a grocery store and a brewery before opening a sugar refinery. With relentless focus, Spreckels built an empire of cane plantations in Hawaii, beet fields in California, factories, ships, and railroads to supply West Coast tables with sugar. When the San Francisco Chronicle alleged stock fraud, Spreckel...View all