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Pelli Clarke Pelli's Transbay Tower Breaks Ground in San Francisco

Pelli Clarke Pelli's Transbay Tower Breaks Ground in San Francisco

Last Wednesday, Pelli Clarke Pelli’s long-anticipated Transbay Transit Tower, at San Francisco’s First and Mission streets, finally broke ground, and architect Cesar Pelli was on hand to help turn dirt with ceremonial gold-plated shovels. At 1,070 feet and 61 stories, the tower would be the tallest on the West Coast—at least until AC Martin’s Wilshire Grand opens in Los Angeles—and seventh tallest in the nation, taking the title from New York’s Chrysler Building. At the ceremony, Pelli told the San Francisco Business Times the tower is “svelte but dynamic, elegant, and very gracious.”

The developers, Boston Properties and Hines, delivered a check for more than $191 million to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), which owned the 50,000-square-foot parcel of land before the sale was wrapped up this week. Completion for the whole complex is set for 2017, although that still looks like an ambitious goal. According to the Business Times, Boston Properties CEO Mortimer Zuckerman, responding to a name gaff from Mayor Ed Lee, dropped hints that Facebook may be the future anchor tenant of the tower.

As AN recently noted, the horizontal component of the Transbay project, a $4 billion transportation terminal being built next to the tower, looks to be shedding its glass facade for budget-saving perforated aluminum.

Pelli Clarke Pelli’s video rendering of the entire Transbay complex. See videos of the tower here and here.

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