The West Coast's tallest building: 3 competing ideas show audacity that adds to the city's rising skyline
John King, Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Three competing proposals for what would be the tallest building on the West Coast were unveiled Monday in San Francisco amid architectural fanfare and political buzz.
There's no guarantee that any of the towers will be built, or that the design to be selected next month by public officials will reach the heights envisioned by the development teams. But the audacity of the designs - and the favorable response from elected officials - showed that the recent startling changes to the city's skyline are only a prelude to what could lie ahead.
"There they are," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said with a wave of his right hand as black mesh was pulled from three lavish large models. The event was held in a crowded event room at City Hall filled with dozens of people and several television crews. "Today is an historic day."
The three proposals range in height from 1,200 feet to 1,375 feet - each extending well past the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest tower in San Francisco. And each is accompanied by a transit terminal that is intended to become a major civic gateway.
The competition is being held by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a regional government body created in 2001 to bring about the construction of a new transit terminal in San Francisco that backers say could become the regional equivalent of Grand Central Station.
The authority would sell or lease the tower site to a developer, with the proceeds helping pay the estimated $983 million cost of the terminal and related elements such as new bus-only ramps from the Bay Bridge.
After the unveiling, the hearing where each team made its presentation attracted an overflow crowd to the Board of Supervisors chambers in City Hall, with more than 100 people watching a video hookup in another room.
But public officials aren't stressing the architectural flourishes as much as the transportation payoff of the new terminal located one block from Market Street and BART.
"Through this facility, we can create a statement to the rest of the world while creating a seamless transportation network connecting the Bay Area to the rest of the region and state," said San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill, who chairs the Transbay authority's Board of Directors.
Long-term plans for the transit complex include extending commuter rail lines from where they now stop at Fourth and King streets. The design would also allow for high-speed rail service from Southern California, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has delayed putting a bond for the service on the ballot.
In the early planning for the new terminal, it was assumed that any tower alongside it would climb no higher than 550 feet. Now, though, public officials say the extra height is merited - not just to boost the land sales, but to show that San Francisco continues to measure itself against other cities of global status that are seeing super tall towers proposed or built.
The three proposals are similar in several ways: Each cloaks the terminal in glass, and each tops the tower with a translucent or open crown with wind turbines tucked inside it. Each would be roughly the height of the Empire State Building, which is 1,250 feet high.
Also, with an eye toward environmental issues, each project emphasizes sustainable design elements such as the turbines, which would generate power for the complex.
Finally, each team played its presentation to the hilt - with elaborate models and videos as well as with assurances that a new civic landmark waited off stage.
"In a single stroke, this design will redefine for the world San Francisco's architectural, urban and environmental intentions," said architect Craig Hartman of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, echoing a theme struck by the other teams.
The Skidmore firm joined with Rockefeller Group Development Corp. to propose a 1,200-foot tower that would twist and fold as it rose, while a glass "crown" would extend another 175 feet. On the ground, the tower would be punctuated by an open-air passage 70 feet wide and 103 feet tall leading to the terminal concourse.
By comparison, the design by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects for Houston-based developer Hines is a 1,200-foot-high obelisk-shaped office tower with a sleek silhouette. The most dramatic element is a 1,300-foot-long park, designed by Berkeley's Peter Walker and Partners, that would sit atop the terminal at the sixth-floor level and measure more than five acres.
The third proposal is from a team including Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners with developers Forest City Enterprises and McFarlane Partners. The metal tower includes exposed elevators for a sense of movement, and rises 1,100 feet - but the steel frame would continue another 125 feet and enclose a wind turbine that would be visible on the skyline.
For all the hoopla connected to the tower, there's no guarantee that any of the visions unveiled on Monday will be built - or even that they'll be the deciding factor in determining which team wins the right to conduct exclusive negotiations with the authority.
Each proposal was evaluated in private last week at Fort Mason by an appointed jury that includes architects and engineers as well as a transportation expert and a real estate analyst. The jury will present its recommendation to the authority board on Aug. 30.
In evaluating the three proposals, jury members are directed to base 60 percent of their evaluation on the design for the transit station and on "functionality and technical issues," according to the evaluation sheet. As for the tower, economics are every bit as important as aesthetics, with such directives as: "The jury will focus on the timing and amount of revenue to the TJPA."
Another unresolved issue: how tall the tower will be allowed to be.
City planning officials aren't shy about wanting an extremely tall tower, and they encouraged the boldness seen in the three proposals. But a full environmental study is needed before zoning can be changed - and the planning work to test such heights only now is getting under way.
Whatever proposals do emerge will be scrutinized by potential foes in a city long wary of high-rises. Indeed, a voter-approved proposition from 1984 makes it difficult to erect any tower that cast shade on a public park.
Still, support for the tower is considerable.
Besides public officials, it includes a number of environmental groups who in the past have fought for height limits but now see mass transit as a critical issue for the region. There's also support from civic groups that want to concentrate development in the core of the city - the same impulse that prompted the residential towers now rising between Mission Street and the Bay Bridge.
But the tallest such tower - One Rincon, which was recently topped off at Harrison and Fremont streets - is 605 feet tall. That's less than half the height of what the three development teams are proposing.
The Transbay authority is scheduled to vote on Sept. 20 to select the development team. The goal is to have the new transit station in operation by 2014.
The models and other details of each proposal will be on display today from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. next to the rotunda in San Francisco City Hall.
Online resources
For more information about the Transbay Terminal competition:
links.sfgate.com/ZOG
PLAN A
The proposal: An 82-story tower topped by a wind turbine that includes offices, housing and a hotel next to a transit center that would have fresh food markets and cultural facilities.
The architects: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. The London firm's current projects include a tower for the World Trade Center site in New York City. Founder Richard Rogers is the winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession's highest honor. Assisting the Rogers team is SMWM, a San Francisco firm.
The developers: Forest City Enterprises with MacFarlane Partners. Cleveland-based Forest City was a developer of Westfield San Francisco Centre. McFarlane Partners is headquartered in San Francisco and is working with Forest City on the Uptown housing project in Oakland.
PLAN B
The proposal: A mixed-use obelisk-shaped tower along a transit terminal that would be topped by an open-air, 5.4-acre rooftop park with vast skylights that allow sunlight to shine onto the floor below.
The architects: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The Connecticut firm's work includes 560 Mission St., a 31-story tower in San Francisco. Founder Cesar Pelli is best-known for such high-rises as Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. Pelli is working with WRNS Studio of San Francisco, which also is involved with the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.
The developer: Hines. Based in Houston, Hines has developed a number of high-rises in San Francisco during the past 25 years, including 101 California St. and 560 Mission St.
PLAN C
The proposal: A 1,200-foot-tall tower with a torqued shape. The first floor would be raised 100 feet above the ground to allow for a public plaza next to a full-block park.
The designer: Skidmore Owings Merrill. The architects are in the San Francisco office of this storied firm. They include Craig Hartman, the lead designer of the International Terminal of San Francisco International Airport, and Brian Lee, the designer of two towers taller than 1,000 feet in China, both under construction.
The developer: Rockefeller Group Development Corp. The name is synonymous with urban icons - think Rockefeller Center - but the firm now is owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Estate Co.
E-mail John King at jking@ jking@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle