The Chambord Apartments were designed by self-taught San Francisco architect, James Francis Dunn (1874-1921), who is mainly remembered for his flamboyant apartment buildings and flats designed in the style of fin de siècle Paris.

During the modernization madness at the midpoint of the 20th Century, the Chambord was stripped of its ornamentation and subsequently threatened with demolition. It was restored by Marquis Associates based upon Mr. Dunn's original plans and the detailing of other Dunn buildings which had escaped the plaque of aluminum siding, asbestos and stucco that infected much of San Francisco in the two decades following World War II.