Dirty Harry - Police Headquarters
Then … Throughout the movie we see several shots of the exterior and interior of the city’s main police headquarters. Here Callahan and Gonzalez approach the main entrance, filmed in front of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, South of Market at 850 Bryant Street (map).
… and Now, the spillover of the Financial District transforming SoMa has yet to reach this block.
Then … Later we see the front of the Hall of Justice; the door at far left is the main entrance. The Seal of the City and County of San Francisco is prominently displayed on the side of the building.
… and Now, the building looks essentially the same today. The seal is still there, hiding in the shade of the now-matured trees.
Then … Earlier in the movie Callahan descends into the building from the roof. This too was filmed at the Hall of Justice, on the rooftop’s helipad.
… and Now, an aerial view shows that the helipad is still there but it’s no longer in use.
Then … Images from two of the interior scenes are shown below. On the left is the office of Callahan’s boss in room 750 and on the right the D.A.’s office in room 710. But these were not filmed inside the Hall of Justice; instead, a brochure accompanying the Blu-Ray disc tells us that they were filmed on the 7th floor of the PG&E building…
… and Now, but the brochure doesn’t say which PG&E building it was - there were two of them when the movie was filmed. The recent photo on the left below shows the original 1925 building downtown at 245 Market Street. The photo on the right is taken around the corner on Beale Street; it shows the original building on the left and a new taller structure next to it at 77 Beale Street which opened in 1971, the year the movie was filmed. So… which one was it? Several online movie location sites claim it was the new building at 77 Beale, but CitySleuth disagrees…
Why? Because exterior windows visible in another office scene give us the clue. The design is a pair of side-by-side windows with a wider separation between each set, matching those on the Market Street and Beale Street sides of the original building, above. The new building’s windows are completely different. So CitySleuth nominates the 7th floor of the original 245 Market Street building (map) as the filming location of the interior scenes.