SAN FRANCISCO: It is not the same here. The city has changed. On warm afternoons now, a thin line of ugly smog almost always hangs over the bay.

Downtown, jackhammers chop the last holes for a subway system soon to come. And up in North Beach, where topless entertainment was first introduced to the nation, a serious move is underway to put an end to the shows where entertainers now work in the nude.

The smog has brought concern. Uncertainty surrounds the subway. And as for the nude shows, there are different opinions. But of all the change that has come, what worries San Franciscans most nowadays is the sudden realization that this has become a high-rise city.

Many huge new buildings have risen here, shaping a skyline that local columnist Herb Caen recently said was “almost indistinguishable from Pittsburgh’s, Houston’s or Atlanta’s.”

Caen, who has written his column from San Francisco since 1936, mentions that Atlanta refers to itself proudly as the San Francisco of tomorrow. But he adds that it may already be the San Francisco of today if tall buildings are the yardstick.

“It’s the San Francisco of yesterday that has been last in the crush,” he wrote. “Something charming, perishable and, it turns out, unique is being trampled to death by those to whom less is more and ugly is beautiful.”

San Francisco in the 1970s: The Transamerica Pyramid photo

From the rim of the financial district downtown, the pyramid building built by Transamerica Corp. has emerged as the symbol of high-rise San Francisco. It is a giant building, the tallest in the city, and unlike any other.

Although it has but 48 floors of usable office space, a 212-foot spire perched atop the pyramid enables it to stretch above even the 42-story building that the Bank of America constructed as its world headquarters.

Just as the pyramid has become the city’s tallest building, rising 853 feet, it has also become the most controversial. Even while it was being constructed there were suggestions that it be torn down.

Now that it has been completed, the controversy has grown. Its location has been criticized. The spire that sits atop the building has been called an ego trip. Some have even called the pyramid a “Los Angeles-type building,” a stinging criticism here.

But oddly, even those who dislike the building the most concede that at night as it sits there alongside its formidable neighbors, together they make a breathtaking sight. Others argue that night lights mean little. As proof, they point to New York. “From a distance, Manhattan looks good at night, too,” they say.

.

In the last decade alone, some 40 new skyscrapers were built, finally leading to a rebellion in 1971 when voters went to the polls and attempted to force a seven-story height limit on builders. That initiative was defeated, but it did result in height limits being established in most neighborhoods.

Downtown, however, skyscrapers continue to rise. Just last month, plans were proposed to rebuild the city’s transit terminal, replacing the existing facility with a complex of three high-rise buildings. And while it is not entirely high-rise, there are also plans underway to develop a huge $385 million convention center complex south of Market Street, just off the downtown district.