Salesforce Tower, formerly known as the Transbay Tower, is a office skyscraper in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. It is located at 415 Mission Street between First and Fremont Streets, next to the Transbay Transit Center site. Salesforce Tower is the centerpiece of the San Francisco Transbay redevelopment plan. The plan contains a mix of office, transportation, retail, and residential uses. This was the last building designed by César Pelli to be completed in his lifetime. Upon its completion in 2018 it became the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline, with a top roof height of and overall height of, surpassing the Transamerica Pyramid. It is also the second-tallest building west of the Mississippi River after the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles. While the Salesforce Tower is taller than the Wilshire Grand if decorative spires are excluded, the Salesforce Tower has a shorter roofline than Los Angeles' U.S. Bank Tower, meaning that the Salesforce tower is also second-tallest according to roofline.
History
Developer Hines Interests Limited Partnership, with a proposal by architect César Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, was selected as the winner of a global competition in 2007 to entitle and purchase the site. A seven-member jury of development experts assembled by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority selected Hines over proposals from Forest City Enterprises and architect Richard Rogers; and from Rockefeller Development Group Corp. and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2012, Boston Properties acquired a 50% stake in the project and in 2013 acquired most of Hines' remaining interest to become 95% owners of the project. The site of the tower was in a dilapidated area, formerly used as a ground-level entrance to the San Francisco Transbay Terminal, which was demolished in 2011. The TJPA sold the parcel to Boston Properties and Hines for US$192 million, and ceremonial groundbreaking for the new tower occurred on March 27, 2013, with below-grade construction work starting in late 2013. The project is a joint venture between general contractors Clark Construction and Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction. The development was originally contracted on spec, as Hines did not have a major tenant lease secured beforehand. On April 11, 2014, Salesforce.com announced that it signed a lease for to become the building's anchor tenant. Previously known as the Transbay Tower, the building was renamed Salesforce Tower. The lease was valued at US$560 million over 15 and a half years starting in 2017. The tower opened in 2018 and has 61 floors, with a decorative crown reaching. The original proposal called for a tower, but the height was later reduced. The building's first tenants began moving in on January 8, 2018. Upon opening, the building was 97% leased to tenants including Salesforce, Covington & Burling, WeWork, Bain & Company, Accenture, McDermott Will & Emery and Hellman & Friedman. The 61st floor is known as the "Ohana Floor" and serves as an observation deck and lounge for Salesforce employees and guests. It is made available for use by nonprofits on evenings and weekends. The Transbay Transit Center is located directly adjacent to the building, and is connected to the park level by a bridge on the 5th floor. On February 5, 2019, the company announced and opened advance registration for public tours of the "Ohana Floor" once every month starting February 23. In May 2019, Boston Properties bought out Hines' remaining 5% stake in the building to become the sole owner and operator.
Design
The architectural firm chosen to design the Salesforce Tower were also the designers of the Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in South America to which the building is heavily influenced. The Salesforce Tower consists of a glass and steel curtain wall, surrounding a structural steel frame, which surrounds a reinforced concrete core. The footprint of Salesforce Tower rests on land fill near San Francisco's original waterfront, an area prone to soil liquefaction during earthquakes. To account for this seismic risk, the tower uses a design that is modeled to withstand the strongest earthquakes expected in the region. Its foundation includes 42 piles driven down nearly to bedrock and a thick foundation mat.
Awards
On 10 April 2019, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat named Salesforce Tower as the “Best Tall Building Worldwide" for 2019 at the 17th Annual CTBUH International Best Tall Building Awards Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner, celebrated at the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
Salesforce Tower's first appearance in film was the 2014 animated film Big Hero 6. Although construction on Salesforce Tower had only started a year ago at the time the film was released, a stylized version of the completed tower appeared in the film.
The tower can also be seen in several shots in the 2018 film Venom.
Video games
In Ubisoft's Watch Dogs 2, the tower can also be seen completed, even though the video game was released in 2016 and set in that same year, while the building was still under construction.
Others
The crown of the tower features a nine-story electronic sculpture, "Day for Night", created by artist Jim Campbell that features low resolution, abstract videos of San Francisco that will be filmed each day. At its activation on May 21, 2018, it was considered the tallest public art piece in the world.
For Halloween 2018, in response to a petition that gathered 11,000 signatures, the tower's pinnacle light installation was made to look like the Eye of Sauron.
Salesforce Tower is also included in the Lego Architecture 'San Francisco Skyline' set, released in 2018.
