A new pair of towers proposed for downtown San Francisco would include the city's second-tallest building - and perhaps its most startling public space, an open-air plaza set beneath the main tower's elevated first floor.
The project straddles the northwest corner of First and Mission streets, with a 605-foot tower on Mission and a broad 910-foot high-rise on First. By comparison, the Salesforce Tower under construction on the southeast corner will top off at 1,070 feet.
— sfchronicle.com
11 Comments
Got to love that impartial journalism.
"What we do has to feel relaxed, not corporate. If it goes too slick, we won't achieve what's possible." A high-tech skyscraper by Foster too corporate and slick? Perish the thought.
I get a bit of a laugh from the Nimby comments, and then someone invoked the royal "We"
Who is San Francisco enough. do you have to bee born there or are you excluded from being of the city because you make too much money or work in the tech industry.
Chicago is getting ready to announce the architects for the Lucas museum the Nimby folks in San Fran chased away, we have a huge former post office just waiting for a Google or a twitter to occupy. If you manufacture stuff and have to use clean water we have plenty of that too. Lake Michigan is up 27" from last year
We are not amused
We in Chicago can deal with it; the weather, the politics, the fact that our baseball teams lose more often then they win.
But who am I to speak for others as if I alone have my pulse on the city and know exactly what people want and or need.
Over and OUT
Peter N
Really? because we needed a slightly shorter copy of a copy? "proposed tower" looks just like Salesforce tower which looks exactly like Costanera tower in Santiago... everyone sees this right? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
This city is in the midst of a transition, from something totally unique and interesting into something overpriced, generic and full of boring people. Thanks tech industry!
wtsall, I think you are seeing the result of tight zoning rules and even tighter market demands at play. when a formed based zoning ordinance is passed it shapes the buildings built under it and thus we get a lot of things looking very similar since the maximum leas able area possible is going to be the same shape for each project with little variation in the form based on the size of the project. Think of the wedding cake buildings of New York, the setbacks are the result of zoning ordinances not design based gestures of good will.
as to the Lucas museum in Chicago - it's studios Mad and Gang -
The height and zoning of San Francisco is shaped like a pyramid with Sales Force Tower at it's apex.
@peter norman, I get that possibility because most everything going up in san francisco is absurdly formulaic and copy cat, from simple two story houses to condos to these towers, but a better architect wouldn't let that control them so much. Sure new york has those set backs but the chrysler building isn't a virtual copy of the empire state building, tokyo has the same setbacks and they manage to make things original. It's just sad that some things so expensive and impactful and loong lasting add absolutely nothing to the skyline. They are beyond generic and it makes me sad. This city is sterilizing itself in every way, from people to it's architecture. It'll be a homogenous mess in the next two decades.
This whole 'homogenization' discussion is happening to all our healthy large cities. It's called prosperity in the modern world. I'm not saying it isn't sad or fair, but it ain't some apocalypse. People have always come to big cities, but with our more transient population and how much time we spend staring at screens rather than actually being engaged with community, this sense of homogenaity becomes all the more prevalent. Ironic though that progressives claim nostalgia for a city they wouldn't have moved to in the 1980's but now that things are improving in many a city, they claim moral outrage when folks move in and fix their properties up.
San Francisco seems to be an extreme case though. With so few walkable and humane environments in California and such a gem of a city, it's no surprise that the whole country west of the continental divide are moving there, to say nothing about downtown LA, Portland and Seattle. In SF, the cost issue (like London and New York) exacerbates this feeling. There seem to be a ton of low-income 'hotels' especially concentrated around the Tenderloin. Also, there are large sections of the city with dumpy low scale buildings that could be redeveloped to increase the supply of housing and help alleviate the housing price insanity. This isn't directly to the point of the homogenization, but it does seem interesting that the city isn't doing more to alleviate the flood of folks moving there for work.
Speaking of copy catting in SF though, the amount of local foods, neighborhood character, and simple topography would (I think) ensure SF from the worst of the homogenization critique. Cities change and we'll all be nostalgic for what 'our' cities where, while the new crop of kiddies enjoy what we've left them, if we're smart.
Why does SF, which is a beautiful city, keep getting these ugly tower designs?
Lately I've noticed a trend in visualizations of city towers: the illustrator leans heavily on a "colorless and transparent" appearance to the tower, with a prominent reflection of horizon elements on the building envelope and (one presumes) clear or simple-mirrored glazing . . .
These factors are present in both distant-view renders of the Foster + Partners tower (and its larger neighbor, already in construction) seen in the link.
Not that the building will necessarily reflect (ahem) these images. The recently-completed Linea residential block further up Market, designed by Architectonica, was presented with clear glass, interrupted twice on the street facade by "recessed" portions of the glazing shown heavily tinted. As built these accent elements were "erased" by the simple expedient of sheathing the entire envelope with darkish gray-green glass. Rather disappointing . . .
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.