Pelli-Hines Team Tapped for Tower, Transit Center

SAN FRANCISCO-The Transbay Joint Powers Authority Board on Thursday selected the team of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Hines for the design and development of a new Transbay Transit Center and an adjacent landmark tower at First and Mission streets that would be by far the tallest in the city. The team’s selection means it will enter exclusive negotiations with the TJPA for a disposition and development agreement for the tower property and a design agreement for the Transit Center. MetLife would be its financial partner.

The TJPA board’s decision affirms that of the jury for the international design and development competition, which placed Pelli-Hines proposal well ahead of the others. The jury gave the Pelli-Hines proposal an average score of 90, saying it was superior to the two other proposals in all respects, aesthetically, functionally and financially. The second-place proposal, from Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Rockefeller Group Development Corp., garnered an average score of 72. The third-place proposal, from Richard Rogers Partnership, Forest City Enterprises and MacFarlane Partners, had an average score of 61.

Pelli-Hines’ proposal calls for a 1.8-million-sf, 1,300-foot tower alongside a new transit terminal topped by a public park. Two defining components of the Pelli-Hines proposal are the price it is offering to pay for the Tower property, which, at $350 million, is more than double that of the other proposals; and the elevated 5.4-acre park it designed atop the Transit Center Building, something the two other proposals do not include. In addition, Hines envisions the tower containing exclusively office space while two other tower proposals had significant residential and hospitality components. Hines is projecting annual gross office rents at $83 per sf.