[Reminiscence]

- SAN FRANCISCO -

Search starts for team to design tower

John King

Tuesday, October 31, 2006


An ambitious international competition to find an architect and developer for what could be San Francisco's tallest building was launched yesterday by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority.

The authority's board, which consists primarily of local elected officials, voted unanimously to begin the competition as part of its effort to build a new transit center for buses and commuter trains near First and Mission streets. The competition seeks a designer for the transit center and the tower, as well as a developer to build the tower.

The schedule calls for interested teams to submit their qualifications in January. Finalists would submit detailed proposals and a design-development team would be selected in August. The authority hopes to begin construction in 2010.

Meanwhile, San Francisco's Planning Department will soon seek a consultant to study how to raise building-height limits around the terminal. Two skyscrapers in addition to the transit terminal tower could be allowed to exceed the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid, now the city's tallest building. Money generated by land sales and new property taxes would help fund construction of the transit center.