Transamerica Building (Old Fugazi Bank Building)
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Old Fugazi Building Frontage
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The Transamerica Corporation is essentially a holding company for a multitude of life insurance and investments firms that do business primarily in the US. It was founded by A.P. Giannini, who created the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904, later becoming the Bank of America. In 1928 he decided to put his banks into a holding company - the Transamerica Corporation.
In 1930 the company acquired Occidental Life Insurance Company, which had been founded in 1906, and renamed it Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company. Over time, the company became more diversified and included film studios, airlines. and even a budget rent a car.
In 1972 they completed construction of the Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper which became the new headquarters for the company. Today the company only occupies a small part of the building.