This is not your mother's Transamerica Pyramid. | Flickr/Bernard Spragg

On a chilly Thursday night, an opening party sent tentacles of lines all over downtown San Francisco and into Chinatown and North Beach. The queued-up guests were clamoring for a new experience, but they weren't headed to a new club or bar. They were all waiting to get into the Transamerica Pyramid, a building that, until now, was merely a background image.

The William Pereira-designed Transamerica building has been an iconic part of the city since its completion in 1972 -- but as an office building, it wasn't really feasible for the average San Franciscan or tourist to do more than look at it. With an exciting rebrand, though, it's aspiring to become San Francisco's most coveted cultural destination, building out its culinary cred and enticing new tenants.

"The Transamerica Pyramid center occupies perhaps the most important block in San Francisco," says Michael Shvo, whose eponymous luxury real estate company purchased the Pyramid four years ago with the intention to redefine and transform it. "We wanted to make sure it's not only the most photographed building on the West Coast, but it's also the most visited one," he said, adding that one of the biggest questions surrounding the purchase and renovation has been "What is private, and what is public?"