Park Tower at Transbay Rendering

The ground has officially been broken for the 43-story office tower to rise on Transbay Block 5, fronting Howard Street between Beale and Main.

As designed by Goettsch Partners with Solomon Cordwell Buenz, the “Park Tower at Transbay” will yield 740,000 square feet of office space; 10,000 square feet of high-end retail space; 17,000 square feet of outdoor space; and 14 skydecks with 1,000 square feet of private outdoor space apiece.

Transbay Block 5 Rendering: The Terraces

A basement garage will provide parking for 128 cars.

The tower should be ready for occupancy by spring 2018. And once again, the centrally-located parcel was originally zoned and envisioned for the development of a residential tower as part of the Transbay redevelopment plan.

33 thoughts on “Ground Broken For 600-Foot Park Tower At Transbay”
  1. Hopefully this will among the lst major office towers built in SF.

    Another too high shadow casting built to the lot line with no demand for a limited footprint, as all major towers in SF should have.

    That said, by SF standards for architecture – which are among the worst of any US city IMO, this building tries to be a little different. It is forced, but better than most of the recent towers. Which is a sad commentary on SF architecture. Think the 5M project or … the list goes on

      1. I tend to point this out a lot, but Oakland is nowhere near the murder capital you claim (#1 in murder rate).

        Oakland has had around 75 murders this year
        Baltimore has had…258 according to some quick Google research.

        1. Murders per capita would be a better stat, or murders in a particular density of location (Iron Triangle etc)

        2. OK your’re right. I jsut checked and Oaklnad has the 8th highest murder rate of any city in US over 250K in population. It is #1 in California

      1. Pipelines don’t mean much. We’re in the first innings – widening credit spreads, implosion of biotech valuations, a very meaningful decline in corporate earnings, etc. will put a lot of these projects on ice. Anyone investing in commercial or residential RE right now is the last fool in the game.

        1. biotech is still WAY WAY up over the past 3 years. fundamentals still good, just political sensationalism over pricing right now. not to mention, there was so much capital infusion and IPOsover the past few years, biotech is more flush with cash than ever, and drug approval rate has skyrocketed. i like the way the overall stock market looks right now as a buyer. RE is overinflated, but valuations for S&P looks good.

    1. Yeah, it casts shadows on….a bunch of other office towers.

      Seriously, though this “casts shadows” argument illustrates the desperation of the anti-development crowd. What is so catastrophic about shadows? I mean, so what? On a hot day, I like to walk in shadow.

    2. No Dave, this will not be the last skyscraper project in San Francisco. There are other buildings that will be bigger and higher… BTW, what is being built in Oakland, chirp chirp.

    3. (1) “1st major office towers built in SF” – you mean, besides all of the other major office towers already built? (He says from his 25th floor office in Embarcadero Center…)

      (2) “too high shadow casting” – on what?! Oh yeah all those other already-existing major office towers to the NW, N, and NE of this site!

      (3) “SF standards for architecture – which are among the worst of any US city IMO” – setting aside the squat boxes that constitute “downtown Oakland”, you mean?

      1. I look forward to the joyous era when the most virulent complaints of the THD will be of the shadows cast by the supertalls of Oakland.

  2. Another great addition to the San Francisco skyline. The city desperately needs more density, both working and living spaces to support the growth of jobs and residents in town. Shorter commutes equals less congestion, this benefits all of us.

  3. I feel like every rendering for every proposed tower over the past 10 years has trees and lush landscaping on the ledges and rooftops. yet I have never seen it once in reality.

    1. Yep. Maybe some lichens instead?
      It seems like a lot of space devoted to skydecks that will be pretty windy and cold a lot of the time.

      1. :—>) A few years after the Fox Plaza was built I observed lichens on the concrete on the roof. It does not take long for it to take hold.

  4. looks like they altered the design a bit. the base seemed more open in the the previous renders. still… more, bigger, faster!

  5. It looks like a letter-sorter albeit a dramatic one, and different: some flare. Like the Jukebox Marriot, rather bad architecture perhaps, yet breaks up the skyline. Too bad the letter sorter doesn’t face west so more locals could purvey the in-boxes.

  6. I agree. Different from the typical cookie bad architecture SF has gotten lately in these towers. Could be lots better but at least it is different.

    An ad for the Aquilina condos in Miami popped up a bit ago. – those two towers look much better than any of the condo towers that have gone up or are planned in SOMA.

    1. it’s funny Architectonica has done some very showy towers in Miami, but here, they always go for the basic box in neutrals with a lil detail but not much. Standing out isn’t always so bad.

      1. I think part of that is our planning costs (which eat into the budget and hence narrow flexibility for more expensive or frivolous design elements), and also engineering and structural issues related to seismic issues. Probably much more the former than the latter, though.

  7. At least the tower does not look like some of the stone-clad monstrosities that have horrible hues, and do nothing to improve the skyline… I would like to see more projects that “re-skin” existing towers, in more environmentally thought through passive heating/cooling skins, and provide multi-mix housing/office combinations, especially some work-force housing floors to allow workers the ability to live near the downtown.

    1. I walked by there today – its still there….for now…and i was thinking, gosh i hope they keep that little shop…it will definitely add character and stand out in the developing district….

  8. Aaron’s thought about multi-use towers with offices and hosing for workers (affordable to workers) is spot on.

    Google is building housing near its MV campus. For its workers. Despite being high paid these folks ar struggling to buy housing in the South Bay.

    SF is not the South Bay and does not have a huge company based here with thousands and thousands of workers which might drive the development of such a tower in SF,

    Hope to see more South Bay companies take this approach. .

  9. Isn’t this the same block where the temporary transbay terminal is? How can they be breaking ground if that’s needed for buses before the permanent one is built?

  10. You really need to get over the “casting a shadow” part. This is a city! SF high restrictions already has most of the buildings shrunken, sadly! Get over it! This city is going through a good change, no one is worried about shadows! SF hardly gets sun in the summer anyways with all the fog!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *