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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
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Rising 1070 feet, the Transbay Transit Tower will be the tallest
building west of the Mississippi when it is completed in 2016.
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.”
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.”
No stranger to spicing up a city’s visual geography, Pelli, who was
born in Argentina, got his start as an assistant to Eero Saarinen when
the Finnish-American master was designing the space age TWA Terminal at
JFK airport. After going on to serve as the Dean of the Yale University
School of Architecture, Pelli founded his own firm, Pelli Clarke Pelli,
and went on to design such eye-popping skyscrapers as Kuala Lumpur’s
Petronas Towers.
Drawing inspiration from New York’s Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Pelli says the idea behind the Transbay Transit Tower’s tapered, illuminated crown is to draw the eye up into the sky.
“An architect has to be expressive,” Pelli, the founding partner of the firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, said. “This is going to be a very elegant and gracious tower. I wanted it to have a graceful note.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Peter Hurley
Architect Cesar Pelli says he hopes his creation will add some spark to what has become a "rather boring skyline" in San Francisco.
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.”
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
The Transbay Transit Tower will be more than 200 feet taller than the Transamerica Pyramid.
Drawing inspiration from New York’s Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Pelli says the idea behind the Transbay Transit Tower’s tapered, illuminated crown is to draw the eye up into the sky.
“An architect has to be expressive,” Pelli, the founding partner of the firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, said. “This is going to be a very elegant and gracious tower. I wanted it to have a graceful note.”
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
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.
“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.
Ken James/Bloomberg
Set at the corner of First and Mission Streets, the Transbay Transit Tower will cost an estimated $1 billion to build.
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.”
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.
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