Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
i'd like to hear an honest consensus architectural assessment from san franciscans of saleforce's new SF tower, not the highly selective and self-reinforcing feedback loop responses given to us by someone who CLEARLY has an axe to grind.
i myself feel like it's the crowning peak the SF skyline has desperately needed as it grew ever more "plateau-ish" over the decades since the heady days of transamerica and BofA.
but i'm just an internet skyscraper nerd from chicago, not a san franciscan, so what do i know?
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I think the overall consensus from SF Bay Area nonskyscarper nerds is mixed at worst, but generally good. I've noticed the ones that are native to SF (city proper) tend to not like the tower and what it represents, the tech and what they view as outsider, takeover. They tend to not like change. SF residents can be a bit uppity in this way, where you can't claim you're from SF unless you actually live within the city limits.
The ones I feel that generally find the tower more impressive and a sight to behold are those from surrounding Bay Area cities, or transplants from other parts of the state or country, which kinda makes sense, since to them, SF is "The City" around here, so of course it must have big skyscrapers. Since this "outsider" population is actually far greater than the SF city proper population, the overall consensus skews towards good. People take pictures of it all the time and are amused by the LED crown. I don't get the sense that there is an intensifying loathing doom and gloom that the author in the OP is projecting. I'm aware there is a loud minority that strongly dislikes the tower, but they're definitely in the minority.
Overall, architecturally speaking, I think it's an excellent addition to the skyline. I would've much rather preferred one of the original competing designs by SOM, but this tower has certainly grown on me, most notably with its dynamic texture. It changes with every angle, and the way the sky reflects off of it can be breathtaking, kind of giving it a pearlescent quality. It also adds a new peak to the skyline (breaking the plateau as you mentioned), extending it southwards, and it gets framed in really nicely by the surrounding topography.
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