SF's New Towers

[Charles Pearson]

California Street & Market at Embarcadero Station...(Photo taken about 2 years ago...)

[Charles Pearson]

Finally, the Transbay Terminal skyscraper was unveiled at City Hall this evening. At 1,200 Ft., the super tall contemporary building will be taller than the TransAmerica Pyramid (853 Ft.), currently the City's tallest. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority -- the agency holding the competition -- hopes to start building in 2010.

Competiting designs:

Cesar Pelli -- designer of dozens of towers worldwide in recent decades -- and his firm Pelli Clarke Pelli would insert a tapering tower into the skyline next to a terminal with a rooftop open space. Hines is the developer.

English architect Richard Rogers and his firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designed a tower for Forest City Enterprises with a streamlined metallic look that has marked other projects by the renowned architect.

The San Francisco office of Skidmore Owings Merrill, working for Rockefeller Group Development Corp. They propose a tower that twists as it rises, topped by a glass veil extending another 10 stories into the air.

[Charles Pearson]

Main and Howard Street

One Rincon U/C

South of Market Skyline from Pier 14

[atlrvr]

Hmmmm....of the three proposed Transbay Towers, I would select the Pelli proposal. It's a knock-off of several of his own buildings, but they look great. The other's just don't work for SF in my opinion.

[Charles Pearson]

Hmmmm....of the three proposed Transbay Towers, I would select the Pelli proposal. It's a knock-off of several of his own buildings, but they look great. The other's just don't work for SF in my opinion.

[Charles Pearson]

InterContinental readies new hotel for downtown San Francisco

David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, August 25, 2007

_{Coming Soon: The InterContinental Hotel}

_{InterContinental U/C at 5th & Howard}

With the Bay Bridge visible in one direction, the Golden Gate Bridge gleaming in another direction and the bay shore curving softly inland 32 stories below, the top of the InterContinental Hotel San Francisco boasts one of the best views in town. Or will, when the hotel opens in February as the latest major built-from-scratch hotel in the city.

London's InterContinental Hotels Group - the largest hotel chain in the world by number of rooms, with 558,000 rooms in 3,700 hotels - is dropping a cool $195 million to build the hotel, a slender tower with a translucent blue glass "skin" that will add 550 more rooms to the group's total.

Occupancy rates and room charges in San Francisco hotels have bounced back from the doldrums early this decade, when about 60 percent of rooms were filled. San Francisco hotels filled 81.1 percent of their rooms in June, the most recent month for which figures are available, according to PKF Consulting. That's up 0.7 percent from the same month last year.

For now, the property at the gritty corner of Fifth and Howard streets is a clanking, humming construction site. A recent tour, complete with hard hats and sturdy shoes for visitors, revealed a hardened steel skeleton with bare light bulbs hanging from the ceilings and wires snaking across dusty floors.

Even so, the tour provided glimpses of elegance to come: floor-to-ceiling windows practically everywhere, expansive desks in model guest rooms set up with flat-screen plasma TVs, in-room safes configured to hold a traveler's laptop, and a 5,000-square-foot spa that's taking shape on the lower floors.

The amenities and fast-forward technology in the new building will enable the operators to command a healthy room rate. Although rates aren't firm yet, the hotel will probably charge $290 to $400 per night, according to Connie Perez, who handles public relations for both the Mark Hopkins and the forthcoming Fifth Street property.

InterContinental, which operates 21 U.S. hotels and is planning five more, already operates the Mark Hopkins Hotel, a Nob Hill heritage property and San Francisco landmark. The post-9/11 return of business travel, open spigots of liquidity for investors - at least before the recent market meltdown - and San Francisco's newfound commitment to putting up tall buildings to reshape its skyline have spurred InterContinental to open a second San Francisco hotel, industry analysts say.

The transformation of South of Market that accelerated in the 1990s has added another inducement.

"Yerba Buena and SoMa have become the happening place," said Anwar Elgonemy, senior vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, a hotel consulting company. "It's the vortex of sexy activity. The Mark Hopkins is a world-class asset, but it's somewhat passe, it draws an older crowd of leisure folks. The venture capitalists, the hip crowd, they like to stay in the flatlands."

There is another, pragmatic business reason for installing a major hotel South of Market, Elgonemy said, pointing to the InterContinental's location just down the block from Moscone Center and the 32-story hotel's allocation of 43,000 square feet of meeting space.

"They want to capture the group meetings market," he said. With the Mark Hopkins as a destination for leisure travelers and a focus for weddings and celebrations, adding a nouveau SoMa companion to the Nob Hill classic helps balance the company's presence in the San Francisco market, he said.

"It's a very prudent move. It diversifies their risk," Elgonemy said.

The hotel intends to capture the sleek, hip SoMa style with its spa and fitness center and California Italian restaurant, said Gail Gerber, the InterContinental's director of sales and marketing. The restaurant, as yet unnamed, will be located streetside on the ground floor, the better to capture foot traffic, Gerber said.

Four-wheeled traffic will enter the hotel on the north side of Howard Street. The main lobby is just behind the semi-circular entrance for cars.

The hotel plans a soft opening - hotel industry lingo for a dress rehearsal where guests are accepted before the official opening - the second week in January, Gerber said. The hotel is scheduled to open for real the following month. Peter Koehler, lured from the Kimpton Group's stylish boutique Palomar Hotel, will be the general manager.

The InterContinental will join a crowded field of hoteliers competing for city center and South of Market business travelers. Obvious rivals include the W Hotel, the Marriott, and up toward Union Square, the Hilton, the Parc 55 and the Westin St. Francis.

For now, the rivers of liquidity that had been driving hotel development are on hold, thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco that's soaking the economy, Elgonemy said. He foresees a pause of perhaps two or three months but says strong economic fundamentals will drive future development - as will the San Francisco Planning Department's interest in creating dramatic statement buildings.

"They are very flexible and open to new ideas," he said of city planners, adding, "We need a new skyline to compete with other world-class cities."

E-mail David Armstrong at [email protected].

[Charles Pearson]

A Tenderloin view of Rincon Hill Tower U/C

A new high rise u/c in the Civic Center area, Polk Street near Market

[Charles Pearson]

Massive Midrise housing, South Van Ness Ave.

New condos to open early 2008 over Zuni's Restaurant & Cafe, Rose Alley

New City-Government Office Bldg rising, Fell/Larkin at Market Street

...near Mission Street down from Fox Plaza & San Francisco MART, a new high rise rising...replacing th2 24-hour doggie diner & parking lot

[Charles Pearson]

Millennium Tower will be The City's 4th tallest building & tallest residential tower in SF at 645 ft.

20-story Argenta building

Trinity Tower crane in front of SOMA Grand Homes

Affordable Housing U/C, Mission Street

[Charles Pearson]