San Francisco, California, USA

The project Salesforce Tower and Salesforce Transit Center—the focal point of a massive 145- acre development complete with residential housing, hotels, retail space and a transit center serving as the northern terminal of the state’s high-speed rail project—are superlative examples of excellence—the Best New Building for 2020.

Designed by Pelli Clark Pelli Architects, the tower stands as the tallest building in San Francisco as it pushes new limits in both its performance as a leading-edge office tower and its robust seismic design, while establishing significant connections to the surrounding urban habitat.

Salesforce Tower and the three-block-long transit center alongside it, which now bears the official name Salesforce Transit Center, were conceived by Pelli in 2007 in response to a competition held by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. Pelli’s team, which was organized by the development firm Hines, was the clear favorite of the design jury.

Initially, the project was developed by Houston-based Hines, the tower was later sold in April 2019. The tower is now owned and operated by Boston Properties.

Sadly, the lead architect, Argentina-born César Pelli, the visionary behind this quintessential project, died at age 92—less than a year after the completion and opening of the development.

And although the complex officially opened in August 2018, both the tower and transit center won two American Architecture Awards in 2020 from The Chicago Athenaeum.

In its quintessence, the shimmering Salesforce Tower is the newest iconic building on the skyline of San Francisco, and the centerpiece of the Transbay redevelopment area. The tower is located in the SoMa (South-of-Market) district of San Francisco, above the new Transit Center, which is destined to become a major transportation hub for America’s West Coast. At a height of 1,000 ft., it is one of the tallest buildings west of the Mississippi River.

“Salesforce Transit Center is everything a great building is destined to be,” states architecture critic Christian Narkiewicz-Laine.

“Not only is the project—the skyscraper and the transit center—exceptional and exemplary, but it also fulfills the necessary requirements to be considered as of the highest urban aesthetic, the caliber that meets the strictest criteria for best of modern design.”

“The tower has the simple, timeless form of the obelisk, giving the 61-story tower a slender, tapering silhouette and a most welcomed addition to the San Francisco skyline. The tower has the simple, timeless form of the obelisk, giving the 61-story tower a slender, tapering silhouette and a most welcomed addition to the San Francisco skyline.”

“The walls rise past the top floor to form a transparent crown that appears to dissolve into the sky. Carved into the tower top is a vertical facet that is illuminated at night.”

“Salesforce Tower is more controversial, given its 1,070-foot height and rounded silvery silhouette that commands the skyline from all perspectives.”

“But for Pelli, the final design embodied his desire to do large buildings that both define their setting and resonate their context.”

“Both the tower and transit base are so compelling wedded into a cohesive place and in a seamless fusion of the most cutting-edge architectural achievements of sustainability, technology and engineering,” continues Narkiewicz-Laine.

“With keen and skillful erudition and an intellectual tour de force, the project represents the ultimate approach to public-private collaboration, neighborhood development, balanced environment, and financial feasibility in the right and proper urban surroundings.”

“And coming from the hands of César Pelli and his equally visionary team comprised of Fred W. Clarke and Ed Dionne, you would never expect anything less: the complex is as much a fine tribute to the late Mr. Pelli as it is a stirring monumental achievement in this first quarter of the 21stCentury.”

The project deserves the accolade as the ‘Best New Building for 2020’

ChristianNarkiewicz-Laine

“A masterpiece.”

Located between first and Fremont Streets, Salesforce Tower looms tall above the city.

The tower’s blue glass and integrated sunshades gleam in the sunlight, creating a beacon-like effect from dawn to dusk. At street level, the tower’s ultramodern design meets the ground with a sleek glass-enclosed lobby.

Its slim, though slightly inflated, form is slender in the skyline, forming a sharp contrast to San Francisco’s 1980s-era skyline.

Recalling the design of supertall towers from Singapore to Hong Kong, the sleek tower incorporates many familiar supertall motifs: a grid of metal fins running the height of the building’s exterior, curved corners, an aerodynamic form, and a dramatic crown at the top.

The tower is connected at its base to the Salesforce Transit Center, a publicly owned facility realized through a public-private partnership with funding from Salesforce. Now home to eleven Bay Area transit systems and a rooftop park, the center replaces the Transbay Terminal, a 70-year-old terminal located nearby. Salesforce Tower, along with nearby 181 Fremont, enjoys direct access to the rooftop park above the transit center.

The $1.1-billion tower will grow to house a daily workforce of 5000 employees, serving as a beacon for the technology industry in California’s urban Silicon Valley.

“We wanted a very special tower in San Francisco, so we pushed ourselves,” Pelli told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017.

“This will be a tower you can’t find anywhere else.”

In response to those who criticized the massive structure, Pelli told the Chronicle: “A tall building serves to mark the sky. In this case, it also marks the location of such an important transit center. Those signals are very important.”

“They make a city more understandable,” said Pelli.

Architects: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Design Team: Cesar Pelli, Fred W. Clarke, and Ed Dionne
Architects of Record for the Tower: Kendall Heaton Associates
Developer: Hines
Client for the Tower: Boston Properties
Client for the Transit Center: Transbay Joint Powers Authority
Landscape Architects: PWP Landscape Architecture
Photographers: Jason O’Rear, Tim Griffith, and Vittoria Zuppicich