The original description of the Ferry Building as published in the Board of Harbor Commissioners' Biennial Report (1888) specified that "Passengers should pass from the upper decks of the ferries through the second story, with a bridge over the crowded and dangerous portion of East [now Embarcadero] Street."
The first floor was not intended for public viewing or access and was filled with the movement of baggage, mail, and freight.
Instead, the public was meant to enter the structure from an elevated walkway and move through the more refined spaces of the second floor lit by the nave.
By 1992, the nave had been turned into private offices and the loss of the foot bridge meant that all public approach to the building would be at street level, altering the way in which the building was understood and experienced.

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.
With the movement of the primary public space to the first floor, it became essential to their proposal that this historic experience would be recreated.
Beyond removing an added third floor and restoring the 660-foot-long (200 m) nave to its two-story height, the proposal included cutting two openings, each at 33 by 150 feet (10 by 46 m), into the floor of the second level.
These openings would allow for this historic feature to be extended to the visitor's experience of the first floor.
This was a controversial choice, and due to the building's historic status, the proposal had to be approved by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO); this was the subject of multiple hearings.
The original description of the Ferry Building as published in the Board of Harbor Commissioners' Biennial Report (1888) specified that "Passengers should pass from the upper decks of the ferries through the second story, with a bridge over the crowded and dangerous portion of East [now Embarcadero] Street." The first floor was not intended for public viewing or access and was filled with the movement of baggage, mail, and freight. Instead, the public was meant to enter the structure from an elevated walkway and move through the more refined spaces of the second floor lit by the nave. By 1992, the nave had been turned into private offices and the loss of the foot bridge meant that all public approach to the building would be at street level, altering the way in which the building was understood and experienced.
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. With the movement of the primary public space to the first floor, it became essential to their proposal that this historic experience would be recreated. Beyond removing an added third floor and restoring the 660-foot-long (200 m) nave to its two-story height, the proposal included cutting two openings, each at 33 by 150 feet (10 by 46 m), into the floor of the second level. These openings would allow for this historic feature to be extended to the visitor's experience of the first floor. This was a controversial choice, and due to the building's historic status, the proposal had to be approved by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO); this was the subject of multiple hearings.
San Francisco Ferry Building