History Reborn

Bridging the Gilded Age and tomorrow, Ken Fulk refreshes a San Francisco icon

- SAM COCHRAN

Where should I stay in San Francisco? That, according to Ken Fulk, has long been too tough a question. “We had grand hotels but not great hotels,” notes the local AD100 luminary. For years, those in the know checked into The Huntington, an erstwhile 1922 apartment tower atop Nob Hill, with spacious rooms and a perennially popular dining room, The Big Four. (Its name refers to the railroad magnates, among them Collis P. Huntington, whose mansions once dotted the neighborhood.) Then, in 2020, the property closed its doors, a victim of pandemic shutdowns.