The 1918 Hallidie building is the highlight of Willis Polk's distiguished architectural career. It is one of the first "true" (uninterrupted horizontally) curtain wall buildings in the world and second in the US. Polk nicknamed it the Munchausen Building, after the story of Baron Munchausen pulling a bear “wrong side out” with his bare hands. “And that’s what I’ve done,” said Polk. “I’ve turned a building wrong side out.” The blue and gold colors are those of the original client, University of California. They named the building after Andrew Hallidie, the inventor of the SF cable cars and one of University Regents. To see this building properly go to the second mezzanine of the Crocker Galleria across the street. The rooftop garden is a great place to sit down with a hot drink and think about the fact that the Hallidie building faces South-East. Until some skyscrapers grew around to provide shade it was so hot in daytime that the first tenants covered the windows with cardboard from inside. Today it has air conditioning.