With decreased use since the 1950s, after bridges were constructed to carry transbay traffic and most streetcar routes were converted to buses, the building was adapted to office use and its public spaces broken up.

It served as the destination for commuters to San Francisco from the East Bay, who rode the ferry fleets of the Southern Pacific and the Key System.

A large pedestrian bridge spanned the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry building to facilitate safe crossing of the busy plaza and transit hub.

After the bridges opened, and the new Key System and Southern Pacific (Interurban Electric/IER) trains began running to the East Bay from the Transbay Terminal in 1939, passenger ferry use fell sharply.

The formerly grand public space was reduced to a narrow and dark corridor, through which travelers passed en route to the piers.

[5] In the late 1950s, the Embarcadero Freeway was built, which passed right in front of the Ferry Building, and views of the once-prominent landmark were greatly obscured from Market Street.

[7] As the most iconic element of the waterfront, the Ferry Building was central to the aesthetic and the overall success of the development plan, and its status as a historic landmark for both architecture and engineering made a sympathetic restoration essential.

Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris Architects (SMWM), founded by Cathy Simon, created an overall plan for the building; Baldauf Catton Von Eckartsberg Architects (BCVE) examined and planned for the needs of new retail spaces; Page & Turnbull, specialists in historic preservation, dealt with the restoration, replacement, and recreation of the historic elements of the structure.

Therefore, in order to draw visitors, the Ferry Building has been transformed into a retail and restaurant space on the ground floor that focuses on local, sustainable products.

The Port and the project developers believed that the combination of transit, office use, and unique retail would make the Ferry Building a destination for locals and tourists alike that would drive the greater goal of stimulating the waterfront.

The ground floor of the building is occupied by a marketplace featuring about 50 restaurants, retail shops and food purveyors, most of which are open seven days a week.

Page Brown, a New York architect who had started with McKim, Mead & White, was influenced by studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later moved to California.

With the restoration however, the developers argued that the public's historic interaction with the space was defined by the natural light cascading from the nave, not by the elevated entry way.

In the center of the space at the top of the main stairway is a reproduction of the Great Seal of the State of California worked entirely in mosaics.

[18] This feature was considered integral to the historic character of the building, and as a primary public space, the tiling was a key component of community memory.

The final agreement reached between the SHPO and the development team found that as long as the important decorative portions of the flooring were restored and extra tesserae would be used to repair damaged sections, the cuts would be approved.

[18] In the process of removing of the 1947 and 1950 third-floor additions, Page & Turnbull discovered the extent of the damage to the brick and terra cotta arches of the nave.

Over 25 percent of the original material had been removed in the first remodel, including terra cotta scroll-work, the arches themselves, and sections of the surrounding brickwork.

The prohibitive cost and effort of replacing these materials in kind led to the choice of a cast-stone with fiberglass support that mimics the buff brick in both color and finish.

[8] The addition of fiberglass as a support material—that allows for both flexibility and compressive strength—was seen as an added benefit in meeting concerns over the building's continued seismic safety.

Page & Turnbull invited faux-finishing specialist Jacquelyn Giuffre to disguise the new sections and recreate the continuity of pattern and color.

[8] Guiffre's job was made more difficult by the fact that the structure had not been completely sealed against the elements during the restoration and the salts of the bay air triggered a staining process that created green marks in the yellow and buff brick.

Around 2008, WETA and the Port of San Francisco began planning the construction of three new ferry piers to support increased frequencies and new routes.

[28] The two Muni historic streetcar lines — the E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves — stop at a surface station located on the pedestrian plaza in front of the Ferry Building.

[19] The terminal is also served by a single northbound SolTrans route 82 bus trip in the late evening, intended for passengers who miss the last ferry to Vallejo.