Places to Stay

Exclusive: Waldorf Astoria to Open in San Francisco

The brand is looking to grow its presence in California, from the coast to wine country.
Image may contain Office Building Building Human Person City Town Urban Housing Condo High Rise and Downtown
Courtesy Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts

If there was ever a sign that America's tech capital is flourishing, it's the coming of a Waldorf Astoria. In an exclusive reveal to Condé Nast Traveler, the iconic brand announced it will open a San Francisco outpost in 2020 or 2021. The hotel will occupy the first 21 floors of a mixed-use tower in the SoMa neighborhood on Mission Street between 1st and Eckert streets, a short walk from the Embarcadero and the Financial District and part of a two-million-square-foot complex that will include shopping and office space. Exteriors will be handled by Heller Manus Architects and Foster + Partners (the London-based architecture firm has also worked on the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich and England's Stansted Airport); the hotel interiors will be handled by Hirsch Bedner Associates, known for their work on other upscale resorts and hotels like the Park Hyatt Maldives and the Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville.

"San Francisco needed a proper luxury hotel," John Vanderslice, global head of luxury and lifestyle brands at Hilton Worldwide (which operates the Waldorf brand), tells Condé Nast Traveler. "This project is ground zero for luxury there." The hotel will have 171 rooms and suites, plus several restaurants (although no specific concepts or chefs have been named yet) and a trademark Waldorf spa.

The hotel will be part of a large multi-use complex.

Courtesy Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts

The upcoming San Francisco opening isn't the only big change happening within the brand. The Waldorf Astoria New York will close in early 2017 for three years; the renovation will turn the storied Art Deco building into a combination hotel and residences via a partnership with Chinese-owned real estate company Anbang. Meanwhile, the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, named the no. 1 hotel in the U.S. in Condé Nast Traveler's annual Readers' Choice Awards, is showing off the results of a $22 million makeover that added new rooms, new art, and an elegant Italian-style open piazza.

The Waldorf Astoria San Francisco news hints that the brand is going full-on in California. The company already owns and manages the La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, and it will open the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills in summer 2017. Vanderslice believes the debut of the Beverly Hills property will be a "bellwether" for the company. As for the future? "I’d love to look at hotels in coastal California and have something in wine country," he says.