SAN FRANCISCO | Salesforce Tower | 1,070 FT | 61 FLOORS

[mt_climber13]

^backpeddle, backpeddle. lol

[fflint]

^The sky is falling, the sky is falling! I can see it from Sacramento!

[biggerhigherfaster]

Originally Posted by fflint

It seems the tower is behind schedule, but they may have padded the delivery date to account for such things. It's not like this never happens. This is a huge and complicated tower, much more so than anything we've seen in San Francisco before.

It also seems there is a subset of forumers who strongly feel any potential deviation from the most optimistic schedule means the sky is going to fall and the tower canceled, and they apparently cannot be calmed or reassured, even by professionals in the field, because of an inexplicable emotional investment in playing the role of Chicken Little.

Speaking for myself at least, I really don't care or have any emotional investment in Salesforce Tower or any other particular building. But what bothers me is that these overruns, long schedules, huge budgets, etc. seem symptomatic of a larger problem for infrastructure/city development that is particularly acute in SF, but also present across the USA -- we can't seem to get anything done anymore, despite pressing and obvious needs for more infrastructure, housing, and office space.

As cited in this thread, the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge were constructed in in 3-4 years and the Empire State Building was built in 2 -- all in the 1930s during the Depression. Just re-doing the Eastern span of the Bay Bridge took 11 years (2002-13) and apparently the project has a variety of defects; building Salesforce Tower (much smaller than Empire State) is taking 5-6. This doesn't even take into account the costs that are magnitudes higher today, after adjusting for inflation. Presumably construction/materials technology are now light years ahead today than in the 1930s, so it just doesn't add up. Fortunately, Salesforce Tower appears to be a privately funded project; for publicly funded projects, the current timelines/budgets/overruns are outrageous

Meanwhile parts of Asia are building epic projects that are analogous to the grand projects that this country used to do, but are now no longer possible for a whole host of reasons (cost, NIMBYs, litigation, financing, reliability)

(The same can be said about a lot of other things; e.g., military costs; healthcare costs, etc, but that's for another forum).

[plinko]

^The issue is that you are generally citing projects built during a time when labor and occupational safety laws weren't nearly as prevalent as they are now. In the Depression they could be speedy because there weren't that many projects around, people were hungry, and you had your pick of available laborers to do anything and work any time if there was work to be done. None of those things are valid today. In addition, throw in seismic zone 4 code requirements and this becomes an absurdly complicated project. I realize that the GG is in zone 4 as well, but it has been painstakingly and constantly retrofitted over the past 80 years. Not something you can easily do with an occupied skyscraper.

To me this project is very analogous to the IFC project in Hong Kong, built from 1994-2003. A central train station, a large central tower, within a densely developed urban area all built on landfill. I assure you, 2IFC was not built in 18 months. Excavation and shoring was done in 1997-1998, then a delay and foundation work began in late 1999. The tower opened in 2003. Of course the towers are by the same architect...

[rocketman_95046]

Looks like they are adding rebar cages and concrete forms to the tops of the caissons. Perhaps we have finally reached bottom?

Courtesy of italiaboy7 on instagram.

https://instagram.com/p/6_ymThj_j7/

[simms3_redux]

Amazing picture. that is way down there! This thread has gotten hard to read; would love it if the past page/page and a half of personal attacks was deleted.

[njcco]

Originally Posted by simms3_redux

Amazing picture. that is way down there! This thread has gotten hard to read; would love it if the past page/page and a half of personal attacks was deleted.

I agree. Where are the moderators? Stick to the topic or begone.

[jaypkatl]

Saw the 1st pieces of a crane being erected today

[rocketman_95046]

Originally Posted by jaypkatl

Saw the 1st pieces of a crane being erected today

yup! tower crane going up in the north east corner of the site!

http://oxblue.com/open/clarkconstruc...alesforcetower

[summersm343]

Tower crane! Nice!

Deleted the off-topic and personal attack posts.

[david_h]

[Yackemflaber69]

Wait I thought this was getting delayed?

[rocketman_95046]

Originally Posted by Yackemflaber69

Wait I thought this was getting delayed?

No,,, it's behind schedule (how much behind, is up to great debate) because of foundation issues. But the work has not and is not stopping. Actually, they are working 7 days a week now to catch up. The tower crane installation is obviously a great milestone. We should be building up instead of down soon, if not already.

[bobbyv]

It's such an elegant and more timeless design compared to the Wilshire grand imo, it will definitely give the SF skyline a Chicagoish look from certain views, just my 2 cents from an Angeleno

[Bikemike]

^I agree. I like the Korean Air building enough, but it looks like something straight out of some Australian city, not that that's a particularly bad thing, but this building is going to be much classier. Less "noisy". And its claim to height comes without any hesitation. It's going to be the de facto tallest building on the West Coast. No architectural spires needed for that claim.

[SFView]

As previously mentioned, artist Wendi Norris is working closely with the architects to produce some sort of lighted artwork that will be incorporated into the design at the top of the building that should be visible from many miles around. Details of the artwork and the building's design at the top have not yet been made public.

Has anyone noticed how the top of Salesforce Tower has been cut off in the elevation drawings for Oceanwide Center? In spite of this, connection to the unspecified design at the top is still inconclusive. I am keeping my hopes up for this.

[minesweeper]

A view of the new crane, this evening:

[bobbyv]

Originally Posted by Bikemike

^I agree. I like the Korean Air building enough, but it looks like something straight out of some Australian city, not that that's a particularly bad thing, but this building is going to be much classier. Less "noisy". And its claim to height comes without any hesitation. It's going to be the de facto tallest building on the West Coast. No architectural spires needed for that claim.

Not only will WG be shorter than salesforce, I will see at as 2nd in LA to the US bank tower.

[Tico]

Courtesy by RChin, on Flickr

[mt_climber13]

These new towers will catapult SF's skyline into one of the best, most dramatic in the world. Which is why I'm so impatient!