SAN FRANCISCO | 555 Howard Street | 418 FT | 35 FLOORS

[Pedestrian]

The formal application for a 36-story tower to rise up to 405 feet in height at 555 Howard Street, directly across the street from what could become the fourth tallest tower in San Francisco, has been filed with the City and could be approved next month.

While the preliminary plans for the proposed Transbay District development had called for cantilevering a section of the new tower over the existing two-story building at 557 Howard Street, which is currently occupied by The Melt, the latest plans call for razing the three buildings at 547, 555 and 557 Howard Street to make way for the tower to rise.

As newly designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Mark Cavagnero Associates for SKS Partners and Pacific Eagle Holdings, the tower consists of 69 condominiums over a 255 room hotel, with a ground floor restaurant fronting Howard and an underground garage for 70 cars with its entrance on Tehama.

And as proposed, the tower would be topped with a publicly accessible open space, connected to a bar on the 36th floor below.

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2...-revealed.html

Looks like those upset over the lack of a tower-top observation space in SF may be getting their wish, albeit one at only 40% of the height of the Salesforce Tower.

[edwards]

Comment from the above link:

This is what I would come up with if you asked me to draw up a plan for a skyscraper. I would use a ruler to draw a rectangle, use the existing squares from the grid paper to be the ‘details’, then put a rooftop bar at the top.

I am Renzo Piano?

[chris08876]

Some serious infill and height is gracing SF. This area has changed so much in the last 10 years.



On the topic of observation decks, they are money magnets I feel. Even if it's 40% of Salesforce's height, given the lack of decks, a monopoly for the meantime with respect to decks will make it profitable. So long as the market and advertise it effectively.

Having a bar is a good idea. That alone will garner interest.

[Pedestrian]

^^If the rooftop space is their legally required publicly accessible open space, I don't believe they can charge the public to use it so it won't make any money by itself. What it will do is lure patrons to the bar on the floor below which may allow the building owner to charge higher rent for that space.

[botoxic]

If that's a spire, this one's height could be close to 460 feet.

[tall/awkward]

Looks like the NY Times Building's little brother.

[Pedestrian]

Streamlined Review for Proposed Renzo Piano Tower Approved
February 16, 2017

As the proposed 36-story Renzo Piano tower to rise at 555 Howard Street is being designed to meet LEED Platinum standards, its processing has been fast-tracked by Planning as a “green” development.

And as the 555 Howard Street site sits within the boundaries of San Francisco’s Transit Center District Plan, for which a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has already been approved, the proposed tower is eligible for a streamlined environmental review, the certification of which was just approved as well.

. . . construction . . . would take around three years to complete . . . . piles down to the bedrock below is not proposed nor required.

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2...-approved.html

Note in this more realistic rendering the apparent "spire" is gone.

[SLO]

^^there is a line in the center of the rendering, it may still be there, but hard to see from ground perspective

[homebucket]

New renderings!

Designs released for 36-story Renzo Piano hotel in Transbay
Italian architect promised landmark on a smaller scale for site
BY ADAM BRINKLOW FEB 23, 2017, 9:00AM PST

http://sf.curbed.com/2017/2/23/14711...ard-renderings

[SLO]

^^^The rooftop is incredible.
I don't know if the building is a landmark though!

[SFView]

Moderators, may I suggest we have this thread also appear here?

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/tags...=san+francisco

It is not currently doing so. This would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[botoxic]

Socketsite: Fast-Tracked Renzo Piano Tower Slated for Approval

We weren’t kidding when we noted that the review process for the proposed Renzo Piano tower to rise up to 405 feet in height at 555 Howard Street had been fast tracked and streamlined. And in fact, the hotel/condo project is slated to be approved by San Francisco’s Planning Commission next week on March 2.

[Pedestrian]

^^I'm really happy for the city's hipsters having a place to party with some screening from the constant wind but I still suspect that, other than on rare evenings, the "marine layer" (aka fog)is going to make it colder than the proverbial witch's t*t up there and once they've looked at the view for 2 minutes they'll all take their cocktails back down to the bar on the floor below.

[1977]

Interesting article and a rough timeline.

...the shower water in San Francisco’s newest ultra-luxe hotel will be heated by tall solar tubes embedded within the building’s glass walls.
Those tubes, which would also screen the bathroom interiors from outside eyes, would be part of a 37-story tower at 555 Howard St. being designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The pairing of system and structure is novel and not by accident.
“The idea is to express in some ways how a building can be used, how it works,” said Elisabetta Trezzani, a partner in Piano’s firm, which is working on the tower with San Francisco’s Mark Cavagnero Associates. “We want people to wonder, ‘What is the story behind what we see?’”

Construction isn’t set to begin before next spring. But there’s a faux curtain wall test panel tucked in an Embarcadero pier, with 20 6-foot tubes lined up vertically, large acrylic panes on either side.

The acrylic is a stand-in for what would be double walls of clear glass, a cladding system that’s common in Europe but unusual here. There’s a sustainability advantage: The 12-inch void between the two layers would function like a chimney to pull hot air upward, keeping the rooms behind the walls a bit cooler. It’s also a space, potentially, to be creative.

Construction of the tower designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects is set to begin in the spring of 2018.

More: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/p...photo-14279894

[timbad]

we ought to be hearing something about this one getting going soon

[patriotizzy]

Don't understand why they assume this to be a shorter "landmark." Looks like exceptional infill, but nothing more. Better than a squat straight box at least!

[Zerton]

Looks very Tokyo imo. I like it, it's simple and elegant.

[timbad]

no peeps about this one?

[pseudolus]

Originally Posted by timbad

no peeps about this one?

bouncing around the DBI, at the site permit review

http://dbiweb.sfgov.org/dbipts/defau...75918&Stepin=1

as always: DBI approval is a two-step process, first the site permit, then all the addenda

[timbad]

Originally Posted by pseudolus

bouncing around the DBI, at the site permit review

http://dbiweb.sfgov.org/dbipts/defau...75918&Stepin=1

as always: DBI approval is a two-step process, first the site permit, then all the addenda

thanks. guess they're probably not going to make 'Spring 2018' start