Salesforce Tower | San Francisco, California | 2018

Architects: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Client: Boston Properties
General Contractor: Clark Hathaway Dinwiddie Joint Venture
Landscape Architects: Peter Walker & Partners
Photographers: Jason O'Rear and Vittoria Zupicich
Design Team: Cesar Pelli, Fred W. Clarke, and Ed Dionne
Architects of Record: Kendall Heaton Associates

Salesforce Tower is the tallest building in San Francisco, joining the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Building as one of the skyline's defining elements.

Standing 1,070 feet tall, the tower has the simple, timeless form of the obelisk, giving the 61-story tower a slender, tapering silhouette. The walls are composed of clear glass with pearlescent metal accents. These horizontal and vertical accents gradually taper in depth to accentuate the curved glass corners. The walls rise past the top floor to form a transparent crown that appears to dissolve into the sky. Carved into the tower top is a vertical facet that is lit at night.

At its base, Salesforce Tower connects directly to the Salesforce Transit Center, which houses 11 Bay Area transit systems. On top of the transit center and linked directly to the tower is a 5.4-acre public park, which offers recreational, educational, and nature activities. Salesforce Tower also connects directly to the Transit Center via a 5th-floor pedestrian bridge and a cable-supported gondola. The bridge enables those tenants in the tower direct access to the park to enjoy lunch, as well as convenient access for those who commute into the city via the transit center.

There is 45-foot perimeter column spacing'—15-feet wider than normal'—for greater tenant flexibility and views. The radiused glass on the corners are not only aesthetically pleasing both inside and outside; they greatly help to decrease wind-load pressures.

This structural design, combined with the 10-foot-wide curtain wall units (typical units 5 feet), created incredible views and allowed for faster installation of the wall.

Certified LEED Platinum, daylight reaches 75% of the spaces, and the tower provides views for 90% of the spaces. Each floor of the tower has integrated metal sunshades, calibrated to maximize light and views while reducing solar gain. High performance, low-emissivity glass also helps to reduce the building's cooling load. Cooling is provided in part by heat-exchanging coils wrapped around the tower's foundation.

The tower also has the largest on-site recycling system in a commercial high-rise in the United States. High-efficiency air-handlers take in fresh air on every floor by intake/exhaust louvers, conditioned by two air-handling units in the core, and brought to the tenants through a raised-floor-system, making the air quality in this tower the cleanest air possible.

The United States' tallest public art installation was commissioned for the tower top. The lighting installation was initially planned for the interior of the panels; however, after the artist Jim Campbell was selected from a global competition, the lighting scheme was designed to be attached to the exterior of the perforated panels. This allowed the artist to use the tower top as a projection screen for lighting, which uses 11,000 LED lights and can be seen for miles away.