History of the HAAS Building
The HAAS Building opened in 1915 with the Bank of Italy as its ground floor tenant. The structure was built by Abraham Haas, president of HAAS, Baruch & Co., with reports at the time saying that the building was costing roughly $500,000. It was designed by architects Morgan, Walls & Morgan.Unless you list notable tenants. In June of 1916 the Chicago Tribune opened a branch office there, hoping to attract California advertisers to the midwestern paper.