Transbay Transit Center

With San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center project running a projected $300 million over budget, proposed changes to the Transit Center’s design are more than skin deep.

In addition to the Center’s new perforated aluminum skin which will employ a Penrose pattern and be coated in white epoxy flecked with mica for bits of sheen, a new café on the west end of the transit center’s rooftop park seems to be growing in size as consultants “see a potential revenue source and dining hot spot.”

13 thoughts on “Transbay Transit Center Changes: More Than Skin Deep”
  1. “”Dining Hot Spot” at a bus station?” -anon94123
    I think you mean “on a large rooftop park, that is right in the middle of downtown, and above a bus/train station”. Having food up there sounds like a good idea, but I guess it’s fun to whine about everything.

  2. I may be reading the wrong sites and articles, but at this time, there is no funding or construction for any trains to this station. (HSR, Caltrain, Muni or BART). This is why I call it a bus station.
    I would rather have them spend money on making this an integrated station with Caltrain and Muni (at least!) instead of a roof park.

  3. Sure, why not on a bus station? A roof is a roof, it doesn’t matter what’s beneath it. Union Square is the roof of a parking garage if you want to snark about it. I fear that people won’t go up 3 stories just for a park in itself, but a good restaurant would be a draw and activate the park.

  4. Phase I never had plans to include the extension of trains to the station. Phase I does include the infastructure for the trains (below ground tubes/stations, etc) once they are extended.
    The restaurant can be successful if it is a quality restaurant. The location won’t matter and could be a nice addition. Grand Central in NYC has a good restaurant or two so no reason transbay can’t have the same.

  5. yes, but they are taking money from phase 2 to cover the overages of phase 1, meaning getting the trains to the station just got a lot harder.

  6. I love how, in the rendering, the shadow on the street cast by the structure above appears to be only a couple dozen feet deep.

  7. ^^^ Not only excellent but also convenient and reasonably priced. I’m planning to have a ‘layover’ at a French train station in a few weeks specifically to have lunch at their cafe. Otherwise I would have just blasted on through. And it isn’t just France where you can find good food at the station. Japan and Switzerland do well too.

  8. ^^^But those are TRAIN stations. This is a bus station with a completely different client base.
    (Sorry to be so negative but I am furious at how Transbay planning has fallen apart. I no longer believe I will see HSR in my lifetime, let alone electrification of Caltrain, or even a Caltrain tunnel to this station. And I have completely given up on MUNI coming here since they seem focused on bikes and parking meter funding and no longer show any plans with direct connection to this station)

  9. On one side, yes, this bus station will have a very limited and specific client base.
    But on the other side, it’s a green space that will be visible by many office workers all around and therefore will be a lunch magnet. Think Crocker Galleria on steroids.

  10. Agreed. This is much more a restaurant in a park than a restaurant in a station. The fact that the park has a station under it is almost irrelevant.

  11. Furious – I feel your pain too. At least the “train box” is being built now so that sunk cost will make completing the rail line from 4th and King to the Transbay more attractive. Hopefully the extension will get built but who knows when?
    Caltrain electrification on the other hand is much more of a certainty. It both improves service and lowers cost, making it a no brainer.

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