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SAN FRANCISCO | Salesforce Tower | 326m | 1070ft | 61 fl | Com

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)


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Cesar Pelli’s Transbay Transit Tower, soon to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi, will reshape San Francisco’s skyline



The city by the bay will have a new heart in its skyline, once the tower’s 61 stories soar to 1070 feet.

By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Saturday, April 6, 2013, 12:01 AM
Updated: Saturday, April 6, 2013, 12:01 AM


Architect Cesar Pelli says he hopes his creation will add some spark to what has become a "rather boring skyline" in San Francisco.


SAN FRANCISCO--A tower rises in the west.

Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, construction of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Tower is now officially underway.

A mixed use skyscraper that will reside atop the Transbay Terminal — a future rail hub that developers are billing as the west coast equivalent to Grand Central Station — Pelli’s sleek tower will reach 61 stories, 1070 feet into the sky, making it the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. “The numbers don’t interest me,” Pelli told the Daily News. “What is important is that the building be visible above others.”


The Transbay Transit Tower will be more than 200 feet taller than the Transamerica Pyramid.


More than 200 feet taller than the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, the city’s highest man made peak since it was completed in 1972, Pelli’s design will go up just south of Market St., a part of town ripe for the addition of a bold architectural landmark. “I have known San Francisco for over 50 years,” Pelli said, “and it used to have a much more cheery silhouette than it does today. I’m sad to say it has become a rather boring skyline because of building codes.”

As with every building project in San Francisco, earthquake safety is a priority, but even though the tower is going up in a part of the city where landfill was used to cover over the Bay, Pelli says there’s no need to worry. “Towers are inherently safer in earthquakes than low buildings,” Pelli said. “If you know an earthquake is coming run to the tallest building you can find.”

The developers for the project — Boston Properties, Inc., which is owned by Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, and Hines — estimate that building the tower will cost upwards of $1 billion.


Part of the new Transbay Terminal, a high speed rail and transportation hub, the Transbay Transit Tower will feature approximately 1.3 million square feet of rental space.


With luck, by the time the tower is finished in 2016, the adjacent rail terminal will be have progressed beyond the planning stage. Then again, since California voters approved a high speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles five years ago, the estimated cost of the project has doubled to a jaw dropping $69 billion.

Still, with or without the high speed train, the Transbay Transit Tower will be completed and offer 1,300,000 square feet of rental space. “It will be a shame if California doesn’t build high speed rail,” Pelli said. “When I go to Japan I never fly while I’m there. I take the Shinkansen everywhere.”


Set at the corner of First and Mission Streets, the Transbay Transit Tower will cost an estimated $1 billion to build.


With anticipation running high in San Francisco to see how the Transbay Transit Tower will reshape the city, Pelli is already on to new projects. When asked if there’s anywhere in the world he’d especially like to leave his architectural mark, he laughs and says he leaves that up to his clients. “I’m like a kid on Christmas, waiting to see what I’m going to be given,” he explained.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...san-francisco-article-1.1308926#ixzz2PfQXjXNm

Previously:


Older designs:

See posts 74 and 88 for older models/renderings.

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SOM design c.2007:


Proposal To Build Two Massive Towers In SF

- John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006

(12-21) 15:01 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Developers have filed a proposal to erect the nation's tallest buildings outside of New York and Chicago - a pair of slender San Francisco towers that would climb 350 feet higher than the Transamerica Pyramid.

The plan, filed today with the city's planning department, envisions a cluster of unusually thin high-rises spread across two acres at the northwest corner of First and Mission streets: two 1, 200-foot towers, two 900-foot structures and a 600-foot companion.

Down on the ground would be an open plaza, covered passageways and two small existing buildings.

By comparison, the Transamerica Pyramid is 853 feet high and the Bank of America building is 779 feet. The only buildings in the United States of greater height than what is proposed for San Francisco are Sears Tower in Chicago and New York's Empire State Building.

Today's filing is an application to start the environmental review process, rather than a formal design unveiling. By the time that occurs, the heights and dimensions of the towers could change.

The lead architect for the project is Renzo Piano, who also is doing the new home of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

"It is highly conceptual at this point," Mark Solit, a member of the development team, said of the project. "Conceptual in terms of our discussion with the city, and conceptual in terms of Renzo Piano Building Workshop's vision of what they think might be appropriate."

E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com.


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/21/BAGUNN44C07.DTL
Earlier Richard Rogers 1,200 ft. proposal:



*Tower renamed after anchor tenant Salesforce.com

 
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#477 ·
No matter how good a proposal is there always exists the possibility of something better. If by your logic we must wait for the best possible thing to build on a particular site, then we would never build anything again so we might as well all abandon cities now and live off the land before all the cities in the world crumble
I'm sorry but in this world money talks so tough luck.
 
#469 ·
I've got to agree on the fact that Pelli's plan looks like to damn many of his other buildings, now if it resembled the tower he did in Minniapolis, (i think it was called the Norwest tower) i could go for that, but this design, without looking closer at the skyline, i'd find myself saying, "look at this skyline, is it Hong Kong,....... no wait,.... Santiago,..... no, Charlotte,.... no, Jersey City.................................................
 
#478 · (Edited)
SF's always struck me as the continent's most conservative place....................this is why it reckons it must prop struts, to make up for what it could never get.......and there's all this wonderment feebly shooting up here about why the place chases crap (haven't they there learned how to clean out holes yet?)............
 
#483 ·
:eek:hno: I'm amazed that SOM wasn't even in 2nd place. The Rogers building looks awful. It just goes to show it all come down to money. If they pay enough, they can plop a giant turd there.
 
#486 ·
An interesting presentation here about the temporary terminal, including a timeline for the entire project. It has construction of the tower beginning in April 2010.

http://www.transbaycenter.org/TransB...Mtg9-17-07.pdf

TJPA Created Apr-01
EIR Phase Sep-02 Feb-05
PMPC/DTX Preliminary Engineering Consultants NTP Feb-05
Program Planning and Phasing Strategy Development Dec-04 May-06
Approval of Recommended Implementation Strategy Jun-06
Select A/E, Design and Construct Temporary Terminal Jun-06 Jul-09
Bus Operations commence in Temporary Terminal Jul-09
Demolish Transbay Terminal Aug-09 Mar-10
Selection of Developer and TC Building A/E Jun-06 Oct-07
Negotiations with Developer and TC Building A/E Oct-07 Jan-08
Award A/E and Developer Contracts Jan-08
TC Building Design, Bid & Award Construction Feb-08 Sep-11
TC Building Construction, Testing & Commissioning Apr-10 Jan-14
Bus Operations commence in Transit Center Building Jan-14
Developer Environmental Clearance & Entitlement Jan-08 Oct-08
Transit Tower Design Sep-08 Aug-10
Transit Tower Construction Apr-10 Mar-14
DTX Preliminary Engineering - Part 1 Feb-05 Dec-07
Funding Plan (FP) for DTX Oct-07 Nov-10
DTX Preliminary Engineering - Part 2 May-10 Apr-11
DTX Final Design May-11 Jun-13
DTX Construction & Testing & Commissioning May-12 Apr-18
Rail Operations commence in Rail Station Apr-18
Caltrain Yard Improvements & Storage Construction May-18 Aug-21
 
#487 ·
The approval of the Pelli design concerns me regarding surrounding highrise development for 3 reasons.

1. The planning department is in the middle of studying height increases on surrounding parcels that will help fund the terminal. However, now they are planning on a giant park in the midst of some of the tallest towers proposed. I wonder if shadow considerations will force them to lower the 850' TJPA site, or the 900' Heller Manus, to prevent the park from being cast in shadows much of the day and year.

2. With the SOM proposal at 1375', the 1200' height of Pianos towers still allowed the Transbay tower to be the tallest structure in downtown. With Pelli only at 1200' it might force the reduction of other proposed heights to retain Transbay as the tallest of the bunch.

3. With Pelli proposing all office, versus SOM's mixed use, it sucks a lot of the wind out of the sails of the other proposed office buildings. With 1.8 million square feet proposed in Pelli's tower (almost two BofA Buildings) the probability of other sites being developed as office is very low. I'm not sure the market can even absorb Pelli in less than 5 years.
 
#494 ·
:eek:hno:

I KNEW this post looked familar.

From SSP:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3071628&postcount=1341

The approval of the Pelli design concerns me regarding surrounding highrise development for 3 reasons.

1. The planning department is in the middle of studying height increases on surrounding parcels that will help fund the terminal. However, now they are planning on a giant park in the midst of some of the tallest towers proposed. I wonder if shadow considerations will force them to lower the 850' TJPA site, or the 900' Heller Manus, to prevent the park from being cast in shadows much of the day and year.

2. With the SOM proposal at 1375', the 1200' height of Pianos towers still allowed the Transbay tower to be the tallest structure in downtown. With Pelli only at 1200' it might force the reduction of other proposed heights to retain Transbay as the tallest of the bunch.

3. With Pelli proposing all office, versus SOM's mixed use, it sucks a lot of the wind out of the sails of the other proposed office buildings. With 1.8 million square feet proposed in Pelli's tower (almost two BofA Buildings) the probability of other sites being developed as office is very low. I'm not sure the market can even absorb Pelli in less than 5 years.
Rule #1. Make sure what you post is from your own fingertips and not from someone else's.
 
#488 ·
The TJPA Howard Street and 181 Fremont Street towers are among 7 or more proposed tower sites that might cast shadows on the proposed rooftop terminal park. If TJPA Howard and 181 Fremont are not to cast any shadows on the park, they might need to be not any much taller than the park elevation itself. These sites are almost adjacent to the south of the park. Since the potential new park is not protected by the Planning Code, other potential tower sites are at serious risk of being drastically reduced, and this is a new park introduced as an extra bonus to the plan, I suspect this park could be exempt from the same shadow concerns.
 
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