SF New Developments

by Dan Levy

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Transbay Terminal planners are viewing their controversial idea for a new San Francisco high-rise as nothing less than the signature building of our time — much like the Transamerica Pyramid defined the skyline in the 1970s.”It would be a landmark statement,” said architect Paul Woolford of HOK, which has been hired by Transbay project manager URS to do the master plan for the terminal redevelopment area.

“The tower would essentially speak to the pyramid and the Bank of America building. If you were on one of the hills or on the bay, you would see those towers as the spires of the city.”

The current proposal is for an 850-foot mixed-use tower on Mission Street, but a spire on top of the building would bring the height to 925 feet, making it the city’s tallest.

An international design competition is being coordinated by architecture consultant Don Stastny. Transbay Joint Powers Authority Director Maria Ayerdi said she hopes to get board approval for the contest early next year.

Still, city officials remain skeptical about the $4 billion Transbay financing scheme and question whether the authority should be pursuing the high-rise proposal at all.

“The high-rise is not the project voters approved,” said Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, which doles out sales-tax revenues to the Transbay planning process. “It’s a deviation from the plan.”

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