The Icehouse San Francisco is a historic commercial complex at 151 Union Street in the city’s Northern Waterfront Warehouse District. The buildings were constructed in 1914 for the National Ice and Cold Storage Company and served the fishing industry for nearly half a century before being renovated and connected in the late 1960s with a five-story bridge made of glass and lightweight steel.[1] The complex became a hub for designer showrooms after Henry Adams left the Western Merchandise Mart in 1967 to help form the Ice House on Battery Street.[2]
Design and History
Documented visual identity work for The Icehouse is limited to a poster rather than a standalone logo. Michael Vanderbyl designed a poster dated to the 20th century for the complex’s 10th anniversary celebration, which is held in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.[3] The Smithsonian’s object record describes the poster as showing, on a red ground, gray text reading “Celebrate 10” with white text above reading “Designers Row / invites you to / Celebrate / The Icehouse’s / Tremendous / 10th Anniversary; Sat., Jan 21 / 5-8 p.m. / on all floors / of.”[4]
Vanderbyl established his own design firm in San Francisco in 1973, and his practice evolved into a multidisciplinary studio with expertise in identity, print and digital communications.[5] The poster was a gift from Vanderbyl to the museum in 1991.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The name “The Icehouse” directly references the buildings’ original industrial function. The complex was constructed in 1914 to provide ice to the city’s fishing industry, and the name preserves that history even as the buildings were adapted for new uses.[2] The property is today described as an important historical reference for design and warehouse reuse patterns near the north waterfront.[6]
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