[BTinSF]

Friday, April 3, 2009
Developers press plan for tower by pyramid
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

The Aegon Group and Lowe Enterprises are pushing ahead with a proposed 38-story condo tower next to the Transamerica Pyramid, hoping that the residential market will have bounced back by the time the highrise could be finished in 2012.

In the revised design by San Francisco-based HellerManus, 555 Washington St. would start with a rectangular base and twist a quarter-turn as it rises, morphing into a circle at the top. The design, with a footprint that is 30 percent less that the zoning allows, enables the developer to expand Redwood Park, the half-acre cluster of soaring redwoods at the northern edge of the financial district.

Under the proposed project, which requires a variance for height, the redwood grove would be expanded and ownership of the park would be transferred to the city. In addition, Mark Twain Alley, a dead-end that cuts from Sansome Street into the park, would be converted into a pedestrian piazza, with ground floor restaurants spilling out from the new condo tower and other buildings along the alley.

The draft environmental impact report on the 330,000-square-foot project was published March 25, and the 248-unit project could be before the Planning Commission for approvals in the fall.

Project manager Andy Segal said the developers have been meeting with neighbors and building support for the project.

“We challenged HellerManus to come up with a design that complements the Pyramid, that fits into the skyline and that was an attractive piece of architecture,” said Segal. “By most accounts they have succeeded.”

HellerManus principal Jeffrey Heller said the idea behind the design was to “create something with some taper and shape and reduced upper tower mass.” He said the twisting of the tower into a cylinder would “relate to the sloping angle of the Transamerica without being a mini-me.”

“You don’t want to do an intrusive box,” Heller said. “You want the silhouette of the building to become more serene and passive, subordinate and uncompetitive to the Pyramid.”

Thus far, opposition to the proposed development has been surprisingly quiet. Sarah Stocking, president of the Jackson Square Merchants, said: “I don’t have a problem with the height. I think it will help make this area a more vibrant area — the more the merrier.”

Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...ml?t=printable