[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1308926

Cesar Pelli’s Transbay Transit Tower, soon to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi, will reshape San Francisco’s skyline
The city by the bay will have a new heart in its skyline, once the tower’s 61 stories soar to 1070 feet.




Architect Cesar Pelli says he hopes his creation will add some spark to what has become a "rather boring skyline" in San Francisco.






By David Knowles
April 6, 2013

A tower rises in the west. Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, construction of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Tower is now officially underway. A mixed use skyscraper that will reside atop the Transbay Terminal — a future rail hub that developers are billing as the west coast equivalent to Grand Central Station — Pelli’s sleek tower will reach 61 stories, 1070 feet into the sky, making it the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

“The numbers don’t interest me,” Pelli told the Daily News. “What is important is that the building be visible above others.”

More than 200 feet taller than the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, the city’s highest man made peak since it was completed in 1972, Pelli’s design will go up just south of Market St., a part of town ripe for the addition of a bold architectural landmark.

“I have known San Francisco for over 50 years,” Pelli said, “and it used to have a much more cheery silhouette than it does today. I’m sad to say it has become a rather boring skyline because of building codes.”

Drawing inspiration from New York’s Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Pelli says the idea behind the Transbay Transit Tower’s tapered, illuminated crown is to draw the eye up into the sky.

“An architect has to be expressive,” Pelli, the founding partner of the firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, said. “This is going to be a very elegant and gracious tower. I wanted it to have a graceful note.”