The building was originally the headquarters of Crown Zellerbach, a Fortune 500 forest products conglomerate acquired by Sir James Goldsmith in a 1985 hostile takeover.

[5][6] The majority of the pulp and paper assets were sold to James River in 1986,[7][8][9] which in turn became a part of Georgia-Pacific in 2000.

[10] James River's headquarters were in Richmond, Virginia, and Gaylord's moved to suburban Chicago.

Constructed in the late 1950s, it was the first significant structure erected in downtown San Francisco in the thirty years following the start of the Great Depression.

The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed One Bush Plaza.