Albert Pissis, who was the first San Francisco architect to study at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, is credited with introducing the Beaux Arts style to San Francisco.

Pissis was born in Guaymas, Mexico, to a French father and Mexican mother. The family moved to San Francisco when Pissis was six.

In 1882, after his studies in Paris, Pissis and his partner, William P. Moore, designed a number of buildings in the popular Queen Anne and Eastlake styles (see San Francisco Landmark 168, Vale House, for an example. With his 1892 design for the Hibernia Bank, Pissis joined the Classical Revival movement.

He was important in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.