Here's my update. I missed this thread because it's in the "skyscraper" section when, as the "update" makes clear, this is going to be a midrise and nowhere near 700 ft. In fact, I'm going to suggest that the thread be moved and its title revised. Multiplying 27 floors times the typical 13 ft per floor for office construction, it's likely to be about 350 ft with maybe another 30 - 50 ft for a crown.
Quote:
Friday, July 11, 2008
S.F. tower developer GLL goes to green extreme
Transbay action fuels new $220M highrise
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen
In the latest sign that Mission Street continues to thrive despite the economic downturn, GLL Development & Management is pushing forward with a 27-story tower at 350 Mission St., a super green design that could be the first San Francisco skyscraper to use non-biodegradable materials like plastic bottles and Styrofoam in some places instead of concrete.
GLL, which also built 199 Fremont St., hopes to win planning approvals on the $200 million Mission Street building by early 2009, which would allow for construction to start in mid-to-late 2009, according to company President David Wall. The developer will start marketing the building late this month and is seriously considering building on a speculative basis.
"Right now my charter is to have it partially pre-leased, about 30 percent," said Wall. "However, it is possible that I will get approval to go spec. If the city gave me approval today, I would push very hard to go spec because I think we're in the right cycle."
The new tower would replace a five-story building Heald College occupies on the corner of Mission and Fremont streets. If the tower is built without a tenant in hand, it would be the third speculative tower rising within two blocks of the proposed Transbay Terminal and Tower along the burgeoning Mission Street corridor. Tishman Speyer is expected to complete its 550,000-square-foot 555 Mission St. at the end of this year, and Beacon Capital Partners received permits July 2 to start driving piles at 535 Mission St., which will be just under 300,000 square feet. Six months away from opening, 555 Mission is over 50 percent leased, with DLA Piper, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, and Sequoia Capital all signing significant deals.
At 27 stories, the 340,000-square-foot building proposed is shorter than the current 550-foot height limit allowed and dramatically less than the 700 feet the proposed Transbay District rezoning would allow. But with its relatively small lot -- about 19,000 square feet -- a higher building doesn't work economically, Wall said. Going beyond 27 stories would require a second elevator bank and force GLL to increase the "load factor" -- the non-leasable portion of the building dedicated to elevators, restrooms and mechanical rooms -- from 20 to about 30 percent.
"It just doesn't pencil," said Wall. "Believe me, I wish it did. Everybody wants more height. Give me a larger parcel, and I'll get more height."
The green approach
While all proposed new office buildings in the city are striving for certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, GLL says it is committed to achieving a gold rating and hopes to create one of the first carbon neutral commercial buildings on the West Coast. Besides environmental provisions that are becoming increasingly common -- such as providing bike parking, harvesting rainwater, and creating HVAC systems that only heat and cool areas that are occupied -- the developer is hoping to use a new material Skidmore Owings and Merrill engineers are developing called a Sustainable Form Inclusion System. The system takes post-consumer recycled materials -- everything from plastic bottles to old recycled tires -- and uses it instead of concrete to fill voids within the superstructure and foundation. "Throwaway" materials, such as Styrofoam or plastic bottles, which would normally sit in a landfill for centuries, both decrease the weight of the building and add additional strength.
In 350 Mission St., the recycled materials used would be equal to approximately 5,400 cubic yards of concrete -- equal to 600 truckloads or enough to lay approximately 20 miles of residential sidewalk, according to Wall.
"David came to us looking for something unique and looking to create something great," said Masis Mesropian of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, who is designing the building with colleague Craig Hartman. "I think it's going to be a wonderful urban space."
A special public realm
What the building may lack in height, the developers are hoping to make up for with pioneering sustainable features as well as a dramatic public space at the street level. The design lifts the first floor of office 50 feet above grade, creating a spacious public lobby with 90 linear feet of space that will open up to the street, when weather permits, with folding glass panels. A glass and wood "grand staircase" will connect the ground floor with an additional mezzanine level facing the street, where an upscale restaurant and bar will open onto the existing plaza at 45 Fremont St.
"We are trying to blur the line between what is the public realm and what is the private realm," said Wall.
As an extension of the grand staircase, the architects have created a stepped amphitheater within the lobby allowing informal lunchtime dining and special event viewing. Digital lighting and metallic scrims will create an "ephemeral cloud-like effect," and video art installations will be projected in the lobby. A retail pavilion will be housed in a two-story translucent glass oval, lit from below and culminating in a floating cloud-like roof on which images, visible from the lobby, will be projected. The developer is also looking into lobby benches that automatically move. Bold statement
In addition to SOM, the development team includes engineers Flack + Kurtz and Cornish & Carey Commercial. Cornish & Carey's Nick Slonek, Karl Baldauf and John Cashin are handling the leasing of the building.
With the Transbay Tower slated to rise catty-corner from 350 Mission and the Millennium Tower under construction across the street at 333 Mission St., Wall said it was imperative to make as bold a statement as possible with the tower.
"It's a pretty powerful intersection surrounded by very tall buildings," said Wall. "It almost looks like it's in a bowl. Everything is converging on Fremont and Mission because of the new Transbay."
Given the size limitations of the site, the plan seems to strive to make the lobby "as gracious as possible," said senior planner David Alumbaugh.
"I do think they are working hard to connect the inside to the outside and activate the public space to make it seem as public and open as possible," he said.
jkdineen@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4971
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Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...ml?t=printable
To make up for the lack of height . . . . I like the sound of that. His heart's in the right place.
The site--per http://www.socketsite.com/
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