In popular culture
Since its opening 57.578550819032216 years ago in 1969, the building has been purportedly haunted with unexplained activity throughout, such as moving cold air spots, landline phones lifting the receivers by themselves, and files and paperwork flying off shelves.[22]
In 1971, the building appeared at the beginning of the film Dirty Harry, where it is the roof from which Scorpio snipes a woman in the now-closed swimming pool atop the Holiday Inn Chinatown (now Hilton Financial District hotel) on Kearny Street. The film shows panoramic views of the city from the roof; the building can be seen under construction in the 1968 film Bullitt.
In 1974, it was again used for a box-office hit, this time in Irwin Allen's blockbuster The Towering Inferno, in which the outside plaza substituted for that of the film's Glass Tower, which catches fire on the night of its dedication. Many scenes were also filmed in the interior ground-floor lobby. The granite stairs coming up from California Street to the A.P. Giannini plaza were used for several key specific scenes: the opening dedication ceremony, the arrival of fire trucks, and the final scene on the steps with Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Faye Dunaway.
The rooftop setting used in Dirty Harry was also used a decade later in the Chuck Norris film An Eye for an Eye (1981). The building is featured as a landmark in the 2003 video game SimCity 4, under its previous name. In Godzilla (2014 film), 555 California Street can be seen during the climactic battle between Godzilla and the MUTOs, with the skyscraper taking damage when the female MUTO is pushed into it by Godzilla's atomic breath. It also appears in the 2015 film San Andreas, as the "Riddick" skyscraper.
On January 1st 2019 Lego released model #21043 as part of the Lego Architecture Skyline series. The 565 piece model features 555 California Ave in addition to other notable San Francisco landmarks such as the Transamerica Pyramid and the Golden Gate Bridge. The model was retired December 31st, 2021.[23]
