Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects won with their obelisk-tower design (but really because their team bid almost twice the runner-up)… Here is a virtual tour of the winning design. The impact on San Francisco and especially downtown, Rincon Hill will be tremendous.

Here’s a good video clip that summarizes the goals and scope of the Transbay Terminal Project in dowtown San Francisco. The plan is also linked to the Caltrain line extension efforts from 4th and King in Mission Bay as well as a high-speed rail line that will connect Sacramento, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

The size of the project is 40 acres and will have over 3000 new homes and 35% of them to be affordable.

By J.K. Dineen at the SF Business Journal

SKS Investments is proposing a 900-foot, mixed-use tower at 181 Fremont St., a razor-thin skyscraper that would play a prominent supporting role in the new Transbay District at First and Mission streets.

The 66-story tower would include 500,000 square feet of office space beneath about 140 residential condominiums, according to SKS principals and an application for environmental evaluation filed with the city.
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The Fremont Street parcel is one of several sites where the city is considering allowing tall towers as a source of tax revenue to help bankroll the $3.4 billion Transbay Terminal and Tower. Under the plan, developers around the transit center and tower — likely to soar 1,300 feet or more — could build well above current 300- to 500-foot zoning restrictions in exchange for pumping millions of dollars in additional taxes to help pay for building new infrastructure in the Transbay District as well as the terminal programing itself. City officials estimate that taxes from upzoning the properties around the Transbay Terminal and Tower could generate $250 million.

Daniel Kingsley, a managing partner with SKS Investments, said the 15,500-square-foot site between the eastern edge of terminal and Town Hall restaurant lends itself to the sort of slender, airy tower city Planning Director Dean Macris has been promoting. Creating a home for new residents and workers next to the terminal would help foster the dense live-work, transit-based neighborhood that Transbay leaders are aiming for, he added.

Read the full story here>>

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

(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.…[continue to article]

John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer Thursday, October 26, 2006 Thirty-five years after the Transamerica Pyramid seemed to top off San Francisco”s skyline once and for all, a new international competition could lead to construction of an even-taller tower near Market Street. The competition would be managed by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a government body working to build a transit hub near First and Mission streets to serve buses and commuter trains. It would seek a development team to build the new center — and also an adjacent tower that “is expected to be an iconic presence that will redefine the city”s skyline” and help pay for the transit project. On Friday, the Transbay board is expected to vote to proceed with the competition. “A lot of the comments we”ve heard from the public is that they want a world-class station and a world-class transit tower,” said Maria Ayerdi, executive director of the authority. “Design quality is paramount.” The idea to push beyond the once-controversial Transamerica Pyramid and its 853-foot peak gained momentum in May, when city planning officials suggested zoning changes to allow three skyscrapers in the Transbay area that would generate revenue for the project. Any changes require extensive environmental studies; however, the Transbay authority can move forward on its own site and leave the tower details for later. In the first round, where teams present their qualifications, the track record of each developer counts for less than the impression made by each team”s architect, who must show a “flexible and imaginative attitude” as well as commit to “personal involvement throughout the life of the project.” The seven-member jury includes Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Robert Campbell of the Boston Globe, as well as three other architects and experts in transportation, engineering and real estate financing. … [continue to Original Article] E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com.

San Francisco Business Times – June 2, 2006

by J.K. Dineen

 

A small San Francisco mortgage lender has quietly spent $60 million for four pieces of land near the future Transbay Terminal, making it a major player in the city’s ambitious plans to reshape downtown.

California Mortgage and Realty, a 25-employee firm that provides short-term commercial real estate loans, has purchased four key parcels around the northwest corner of First and Mission streets, a site that the city Planning Department identified last week as one of two spots suitable for 800-foot towers. Along with a dazzling 1,000-foot skyscraper at the current Transbay Terminal site, planners see towers at First and Mission and on Howard Street, between First and Second, as a crucial component of creating a high-density neighborhood around a new “Grand Central Station of the West” transportation hub.

Headed by 42-year-old David Choo, CMR bought 62 First St. in 2004 for $10 million. This year the company has shelled out another $50 million for three other buildings on the block: 76-80 First St., and 88 First St., and 50 First St., an acquisition which closed in late May for $26 million.

CMR’s frenetic investment activity in the area has prompted speculation that the company is partnering with a prominent national developer. Planning Director Dean Macris declined to comment on any conversations the city has had with Choo but called him an “active guy with big aspirations.” Macris said Choo and his company would be a key player in redesigning the Transbay plan to allow taller buildings.

“I’m not sure where he is in his process — he has to make a decision on who is going to be the developer,” said Macris. “Obviously this is a key piece of property in the city’s future.”

He added: “Anytime somebody has assembled a property of that size, the possibilities are manifold.”

Speculation swirls

Sources in the real estate community say that Choo has told some national developers active in the area, including Tishman Speyer and Hines, that he intends to develop the property alone. Others suggest that CMR is working with an out-of-town developer and that an announcement is imminent, a position bolstered by the fact that the company has just recently signed on a public relations specialist as well as a political consultant.

Through representatives, Choo referred questions to CEO James Gala. Gala declined to elaborate on plans for the parcels. He downplayed the real estate development as “adjunct to the company’s core business” of commercial mortgage lending.

“We’re good investors. It is a stretch to refer to us as developers,” Gala said. “We have real estate investment activities.”

Gala said the decision to buy the properties was driven by “location, opportunity and timing” and that the firm has developed a sharp eye for value through its lending practice. With office rents rising and approximately 3 million square feet of commercial space being converted into residential condos, he said the company was bullish on office development.

“There is no plan, there are many ideas being presented,” he said. “The discourse has begun and it’s very, very early in the process.”

More than one idea

Gala said Macris’ vision of a high-density neighborhood anchored by a trio of breathtaking skyscrapers is “one of several ideas that have been discussed.” He declined to say whether CMR has been involved in the new Transbay planning process, but said, “because of his stature, we listen intently when Dean speaks.”

CMR also recently acquired a lot at 1540 Van Ness Ave., near the corner of Market Street. The company bought the old St. Francis theater at 949 Market St. in 2003 for $7.5 million, but sold it last year. Choo, through his California Mortgage and Realty, has owned apartment buildings in San Francisco in the past, including 860 Geary St. and 650 Ellis St., but sold them when he shifted his efforts to Oakland in 1995.

J.K. Dineen covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.