State and local officials held a ceremony Monday in celebration of the newly renamed Senator Dianne Feinstein Federal Building at 50 United Nations Plaza.
US Senator Alex Padilla hosted Monday’s ceremony, which was attended by members and former staffers of the late US Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, as NBC Bay Area reports. Padilla said he hopes future public servants entering the building “reflect on the bar she set.”
“Her impact on gun safety, on environmental protection, on healthcare, of course intelligence oversite,” said Padilla, “it's only fitting that we dedicate this building in her honor.”
According to ABC 7, Lurie said Feinstein’s results-driven approach has served as a model for all future mayors of San Francisco, calling her one of the city’s "great mayors."
The renaming reportedly stems from legislation introduced in 2024 by Padilla and former Senator Laphonza Butler, who filled Feinstein's vacant seat after her death in 2023. The measure, which also proposed renaming the post office at 180 Steuart Street after Feinstein, passed Congress and was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.
As SFist reported previously, the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport was also renamed after Feinstein in 2024.
Feinstein served in the US Senate from 1992 until her death at age 90. She was reportedly California's longest-serving senator and the longest-serving woman in Senate history. Prior to the Senate, Feinstein served as San Francisco mayor for a decade after succeeding George Moscone following the 1978 assassinations of Moscone and Harvey Milk. Her political career began with her election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969.
Built between 1934 and 1936 and designed by architect Arthur Brown Jr, the old federal building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. United Nations Plaza was added alongside the building in 1975, creating the pedestrian plaza that honors the founding of the UN in San Francisco in 1945.
The building was reportedly vacated after the new federal building opened on Seventh Street in 2007 before it was restored and reopened in 2013 as headquarters for the US General Services Administration's Pacific Rim region.
Amusingly, in NBC Bay Area's video coverage of the dedication, there are several seemingly mistaken shots of the Phillip Burton Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue, which is not being renamed.
Related: SFO's International Terminal to Be Named After Dianne Feinstein, Pending Final Board Approval
Image: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia
