555 Mission Rendering
555 Mission Street (downtown San Francisco between first and second) is a thirty-three story office tower that’s being developed by Tishman Speyer, is “registered for LEED certification,” and should be completed around October 2008.
And if you don’t feel like waiting a year to see how the tower will fit into the neighborhood, check out the virtual tour and interactive digital views that include renderings for Millennium Tower, Infinity (both towers), and the first tower of One Rincon Hill.
And no, we wouldn’t read too much into any towers that haven’t yet been rendered.
555 Mission Street [555missionst.com] [Virtual Tour] [Interactive Views]
Neighborhood Identity Crisis Alert: Is It FiDi? Transbay? SoMa? [SocketSite]

16 thoughts on “A Virtual Tour Of 555 Mission Street (And Downtown San Francisco)”
  1. Very cool tour, but the exterior of the building looks completely undistinguished. Do all our office buildings have to be so dull? Sigh…

  2. Tishman is also building Infinity so it’s not surprising they put both towers there. The twin towers do look beaufiful together, a good match and great addition to the neighborhood…

  3. I walked by this building a few weeks ago and became covered in tiny sprinkles of white paint. I’m guessing some jackle spilled paint at the very top. I was not happy. Therefore, I hope this building fails miserably.
    I wish I were the type that filed lawsuits for things like that, but I’m not. I enjoy complaining without doing anything about it.

  4. “I walked by this building a few weeks ago and became covered in tiny sprinkles of white paint. I’m guessing some jackle spilled paint at the very top. I was not happy. Therefore, I hope this building fails miserably.”
    Are you sure it’s not the sky falling?

  5. “Are you sure it’s not the sky falling?”
    Pretty sure… the chances of both the market and the sky falling at the same time are slim.

  6. Wow, the virtual tour is kind of cool, but what an unattractive sculpture of little rainbow-colored men stacked on top of each other. It reminds me of the barrel o’ plastic monkeys I had as a kid.

  7. This building is anything but bland. The glass fins that surround portions of the building create a prism like rainbow effect when viewed from certain angles. The graphic effects on the glass create a nice 21st century style facade in that they replicate moldings, and the crown will light up in a gradient glowing light at night. A very high tech building that is perfect in San Francisco, if you ask me.

  8. Here is a question for fellow designers, are we spending too much time on the virtual tours and not enough on the design itself? I have to admit that is a very well done virtual tour, but it really presents a rather ordinary building, though the details are rather pleasing. I know in my case in particular, clients are expecting more and more “gee wow” virtual presentations, and not really spending enough time looking at the actual design and construction details of a building. We need to return to judging architecture by the actual finished building, and not by fancy fly through presentations.

  9. I see a lot of people here complaining that SF does not have great design in architecture. Well where are all of you at the public meetings?? We need to speak up, loudly and clearly, about the dire need for a great urban downtown space with great architecture. Write to City Hall, attend the Transbay meetings, speak up, even if your voice trembles. That is what it is going to take, because so far, the NIMBY minority has succeeded in voicing their opinions the loudest, thus shaping the debate and leaving us all with bland, suburban, uninspired buildings. It’s time we have a voice, the champions of greatness and big dreams. And coming on here and bitching in a small message board isn’t going to get a damn thing accomplished.

  10. My company is currently looking for space to house 250 executives along with supports staff and meeting space, it is hard to do. The town just does not have the kind of office space that makes clients say WOW. This looks nice, and may do the trick with the future park and other developments in the areas, but it is really too bad we don’t have more WOW buildings. We are multinational and have spots at the top of some of the most amazing buildings in London, Dubai, Abu Dabi, etc; man was our CEA pissed when he saw the options in SF. Actually, the only one he really wanted was Peli (not sure about spelling), but that will not be done for . . . who knows.

  11. “The glass fins that surround portions of the building create a prism like rainbow effect when viewed from certain angles.”
    I like the design but is it practical? All I could think of when I saw those little glass fins is how impossible it will be to keep them clean. Can you imagine the window cleaners having to clean not only the windows but both sides of those fins?

  12. I initially had the same thought as “anon” when i saw the Torre Agbar building in Barcelona which is clad in horizontal glass louvres. But our hotel was right across from it and (http://www.torreagbar.com/home.asp) i actually got to watch them clean the windows from our room (which was not nearly as exciting for my husband…) It looked very efficient, and the building sparkles. Then i felt dumb for even wondering. If we can manage open heart surgeries, surely we can come up with ways to clean complex window/glass cladding systems…And aside from that, sometimes impractical wins the prize, on lots of other levels….

  13. “If we can manage open heart surgeries, surely we can come up with ways to clean complex window/glass cladding systems…And aside from that, sometimes impractical wins the prize, on lots of other levels….”
    Of course there are ways but that does not mean they will be cheap.

  14. Dumb question. With all those fins on the building, what will they do for wind as it moves across the building. Will there be turbulence created by wind crossing the fins that walking by the building will require holding on to everything you own with both hands?
    Or, will the fins break up air flow and reduce gusts?
    Any engineers care to take a shot at this one?

  15. I first posted this on Juen 12, 2007
    The Millennium Tower is going to be the most sought after residential building since 2006 Washington was offered in 1925. Still, today 2006 Washington is recognized as the pre-eminent apartment building in Northern California. With values from $7M to $25M (the penthouse was offered for $25M last year in a private sale) this building has no piers.
    Now comes The Millennium Tower. The location alone is the most powerful draw. Located across the street from the New Trans Bay Terminal, this will replace Pacific Heights in the decades to come, as “The Address”. It may be 12 years or longer away to see, (www.transbaycenter.org/transbay/content.aspx?id=40)
    but you will be taking high speed rail to the SF Airport in 15 minutes, 30 minutes to San Jose and LA in 2 1/2 hours. This will be the most important change in San Francisco in the next 20 years. In July, the competition to win the rights to design the new “Grand Central West” will begin, with a Panel Comprised of Renowned Experts to Select the Architect to Build the New Transbay Transit Center and Transit Tower. This process will bring this location at Mission and Fremont into the forefront.
    Now what type of building could sit next to the future of San Francisco?
    Today, I met Mr. Glenn Rescalvo, the designer of The Millennium and principal of Handel Architecture. A native of San Francisco.
    In a 1 1/2 hour presentation he presented a truly exciting building. Its glass skin is akin to a prism, the building has 8 corners. All the facets are first class, from the parking and ingress for cars to the various lobbies, to the restaurant, to the owners private 2nd level facilities (in a class by themselves), to the various floor plans, to the finishes, lighting and appliances.
    This IS the building to live in beginning in 2009. Over the top! Built by the same group that built the Four Seasons Hotel and Condominiums (144 units offered in 1st quarter 2000), “The Mill” my quote (Frederick) will have 419 new homes.
    My advice, for those of you that are betting on the future at 1 Rincon Hill or The Infinity, call your broker and get a reservation at a “real building”.
    Frederick
    Posted by: Frederick at June 12, 2007 7:24 PM

  16. I was recently hired to work for the building and my first impression of the skyscraper was its Green like nature……

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