First Interstate Bank Building - Oakland

The First Interstate Bank Building (aka 1330 Broadway; Smith's Building) after the Smiths Brothers Men's Clothiers department store, is located at 1330 Broadway, on the corner of 14th and Broadway, kitty corner from Frank Ogawa Plaza in Downtown Oakland, California. Designed by architects Stone Mulloy Marraccini & Patterson (SMMP) and constructed from 1956 to 1959, the building was the first International style high rise office building in the East Bay.

The building is an excellent example of mid-century highrise with an easily-identifiable elevator bank located in a separate section of the building in the back. It is similar in that respect to the (unfortunately) more famous Crown Zellerbach Building on Bush and Market in San Francisco (possibly because that one was designed by the famous architectural Skidmore, Owings & Merrill).

It also has another element that's found in some international style highrises which is a large band of windows ringing a large open space inside on the second floor. This is really similar to the PSFS building in Philadelphia, one of the earliest examples of the international style in the United States).

If the building seems to stand out from its surroundings, that effect is intentional. International style architecture intended to separate the international style building from its surroundings (and by implication, what came before - buildings around it which would have been older, in an older architectural style).

The building has gone through a number of occupants on the ground floor, currently housing a Chase bank branch and before that a Walgreens occupied the space. Walgreens is now located across the street.

Other international style buildings in Oakland include the Kaiser Center (which also has the second floor bank of windows!) and the Coliseum.

This building and garage are noncontributors to the Downtown Oakland Historic District.