It's Pelli
most of the way for me guys. I agree with CityKid's earlier comment that Pelli really took into account the character of San Francisco, and how the design will integrate into the [new] skyline as a whole. A couple of comments that were made during his presentation that really stood out to me, but that you may have missed:
1) The rate at which the turbines on the top of the tower spin dictates the intensity of the light for the crown (awesome!)
2) The "3-dimensional" structuring of the facade. Pelli had a slide up briefly where he brought attention to the fact that 100% percent of the air in the building will come from outside - nothing will be recirculated - which is made possible by the unique facade. He then went to so far as to say no building in San Francisco should have an entirely glass curtain wall, and the proof is in the pudding based on his earlier work at 560 Mission.
3) The absolute detail that went into making the park what could only be considered an eastern Golden Gate with its water features and awesome selection of trees and plants (
Peter Walker from Berkeley knows his stuff!). Plus, another great kinetic action was that the water jets on the northern fountain along the perimeter of the terminal would rise and fall according the pressure from the wheels of the AC Transit buses as they drive along below (awesome!)
Even beyond all my praise for the majority of the proposal, the underground portion of the terminal itself was extremely underwhelming. That, however, I would assume would be easily fixable in the future. I wish there were some renderings of the interior of Roger's terminal, with its wood interior ceilings and beautiful feats of integrated engineering. To me, that was the best terminal proposal, albeit the concrete roads on top aren't the most attractive (a park would be much nicer ;-) And the tower? The fact that they kept reiterating how it was only preliminary should give you an idea.
As for SOM, I'd definitely be happy if it wins as well, but obviously I'm rooting for Pelli. I just feel like that latticework facade is going to be dated even before its begun. Speaking of which, their proposal for the Shanghai Center tower, while symmetrical, is nearly identical to this one (check it out
here). Lame for something that is supposedly audacious and new.
Go Pelli!