Famed architect in line to design new S.F. tower
San Francisco Business Times - June 2, 2006
by J.K. Dineen and Emily Fancher
Superstar architect Renzo Piano has tentatively agreed to design an 850-foot tower at First and Mission streets, a significant coup for city planners as they build support for a denser, taller neighborhood around the Transbay Terminal.
The building would be constructed on a development site that has been quietly assembled by David Choo, the president of commercial mortgage lender California Mortgage and Realty. In the past three months, Choo's company has paid about $50 million for three buildings on the northwest corner of Mission and First streets.
Supervisor Chris Daly, whose district includes the site, raised the possibility of Piano's involvement at Transbay Joint Powers Authority meeting Friday morning. He later told the San Francisco Business Times that he had met Thursday with Choo and Planning Director Dean Macris to discuss the project. Other sources confirmed that Piano had agreed to design a building for the site, but that no contract had been signed. Daly said he does not have a problem with great height and density, but that negative impacts need to be offset. In Rincon Hill, Daly convinced developers to pay fees to support affordable housing and community groups.
"I'm interested in ensuring an open process and that the public has ample opportunity to participate," Daly said.
If Piano signs on, it could be the first glamorous project in what city officials hope will be a new era of architectural distinction. Several months ago, Planning Director Dean Macris and Mayor Gavin Newsom announced an initiative to encourage more modern, innovative, high-quality design in San Francisco. Macris said Piano and Choo are in conversation, and expressed his admiration for the architect.
"The idea that we would have an opportunity for one of the world's leading architects to do a building at this location is great," said Macris. "We're looking forward to that possibility."
A global heavyweight
Piano, who designed the rebuild of the California Academy of Sciences now under way in Golden Gate Park, is known as an international superstar. He's behind the expansion of both the Whitney in New York and the High Museum in Atlanta and has public and private projects around the world in Sydney, Tokyo and Paris, but recent American commissions have made him a familiar and golden name in the United States.
"He's certainly one of a very short list of preeminent architects in the world that have a significant body of work," said David Meckel, director research and planning and former dean of architecture at California College of the Arts. "He's done a lot of buildings, and almost every one of those buildings responds to place. No two look alike."
Meckel said Piano's work is rooted in the geography, climate and culture of a place.
"This is a very important project in heart of San Francisco that should be matched in importance with the talent chosen to design it," he added.
Plan approved
The news of Piano's interest in the First and Mission site comes as the Transbay Joint Powers Authority board Friday agreed to a plan to build a trio of soaring towers that would help fund a new Transbay Terminal as well as a funding and phasing plan for the transit hub. After 30 years of planning -- and political wrangling -- over rebuilding the worn-out bus terminal, the approval was a historic moment.
"We've taken a significant step forward," said Nathaniel Ford, chair of the TJPA. "I see this as one of the most important projects in the country."
The Transbay Joint Powers Authority's approval creates a two-step process to build a terminal that connects BART, Muni and regional bus services, as well as extend Caltrain from Fourth and King Streets, and could eventually bring in high-speed rail to Los Angeles.
The TJPA also endorsed increasing some building heights in the 40-acre redevelopment area, embracing a vision for a 1,000-foot tower next to the terminal and two 800-foot skyscrapers nearby, including the Piano tower. The new heights will also need environmental review and approval by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The zoning changes could bring as much as $250 million in new funding to the terminal project.
The approval also kicks off an international competition to choose an architect and development team to design the 1,000-foot tower and the terminal -- sure to attract high-caliber big-name architects on par with Piano. Construction on the terminal could begin as early as 2010 and wrap up in 2013, said Emilio Cruz, the program manager for the TJPA.
A new player
In assembling the four parcels, the relatively low-profile California Mortgage and Realty becomes a central player in the long Transbay Terminal debate, one that is sure to heat up in the coming months.
In the last three months, the company has bought 76-80 First St., and 88 First St., and 50 First St., an acquisition that closed in late May for $26 million. In 2004, Choo bought 62 First St. for $10 million and moved his company headquarters there from Oakland.
In an interview on Tuesday, company CEO James Gala said that real estate investment was an "adjunct" part of the company's core business of arranging short-term commercial real estate loans funded by the lending capital of the company and its private investment clients.
Gala declined to elaborate on plans for the parcels.
"We're good investors, it is a stretch to refer to us as developers," Gala said. "We have real estate investment activities."
Gala said the decision to buy the properties was driven by "location, opportunity, and timing" and that the firm has developed a sharp eye for value through its lending practice. With office rents rising and approximately 3 million square feet of commercial space being converted into residential condos, he said the company was bullish on office development.
"There is no plan, there are many ideas being presented," he said. "The discourse has begun and it's very, very early in the process."
Gala said the Macris' vision of a neighborhood anchored by slender skyscraper, similar to the Rincon Hill plan, is "one of several ideas that have been discussed." He declined to say whether CMR have been involved in the new Transbay planning process, but said, "because of his stature, we listen intently when Dean speaks."