The area is sometimes referred to as 'Tendernob,'[3] a colloquial term that reflects the blending of the two neighborhoods, and is also commonly called 'Lower Nob Hill' by real estate agents and developers to market properties in this transitional zone.

Though historically linked to Nob Hill, its location closer to downtown and the Tenderloin gives the district a unique, transitional identity between the two neighborhoods.

[4] The Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District is architecturally remarkable for its dense multiple-unit residential buildings, unequaled in quantity and quality anywhere in California except possibly in the Tenderloin.

[4] Notable architects and firms that designed building in the Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District included Frederick Herman Meyer, Sylvain Schnaittacher, G. Albert Lansburgh, James Francis Dunn, Herman Carl Baumann, Charles Oliver Clausen, and Rousseau & Rousseau.

[7][8] This district was the subject of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1930) with the fictional private detective Sam Spade living in the area.