10 Buzzworthy Buildings Coming to San Francisco

Home to some of the West Coast’s most iconic structures, San Francisco is naturally a magnet for many of today’s top design talents. The current wave of development has seen world-renowned architects—including Norman Foster , César Pelli , and Enrique Norten—devise dazzling additions to an already famous skyline. A tech-industry mecca, the city will soon be home to the 423,000-square-foot, SHoP-designed headquarters for Uber, the ride-hailing company valued at $68 billion by Forbes . And construction on the new basketball arena in Mission Bay, devised by Manica Architecture, can now move forward thanks to a favorable ruling last month from the San Francisco Superior Court. Here, AD rounds up the buzzworthy projects that will soon dot the cityscape.

SHoP Architects teamed up with local firm Studio O+A on Uber’s new 423,000-square-foot headquarters, to be located in Mission Bay. Comprising two glazed volumes connected via multiple skybridges, the campus departs from the open-plan office trend with its clusters of segmented “neighborhoods” designed to foster collaboration.

Slated to occupy the first four floors of 706 Mission, a rising 47-story residential tower in Yerba Buena devised by Handel Architects , the Mexican Museum boasts a striking design that was conjured with help from acclaimed architect Enrique Norten, of TEN Arquitectos . The 41-year-old museum, which became part of the Smithsonian Institution in 2012, maintains a 16,500-object collection of centuries-spanning art.

Finishing touches are now being put on the Pacific, a glistening 66-unit condominium in Pacific Heights that was masterminded by Glenn Rescalvo of Handel Architects . The amenity-rich development, which features a private observatory lounge with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, is slated to welcome residents in September.

Set to soar 1,070 feet above the massive Transbay redevelopment, the Salesforce Tower will be the tallest structure in the city when construction wraps up next year. Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli , the 60-story office building is named for anchor tenant Salesforce, which signed a history-making deal in 2014.

Anchoring downtown San Francisco’s mixed-use redevelopment project, the Transbay Transit Center stretches five city blocks and will ultimately link 11 transportation systems. Pelli Clarke Pelli is responsible for the undulating design, which will be crowned by a 5.4-acre public park.

Award-winning firm Foster + Partners collaborated with locally based Heller Manus Architects for this two-million-square-foot project, dubbed Oceanwide Center, which comprises a pair of soaring mixed-use towers near the Transbay redevelopment. The taller of the two, rising 850 feet, will hold office space and residences, while its 605-foot-tall neighbor will include a hotel as well as housing.

Construction on the 43-story Park Tower, designed by Chicago firm Goettsch Partners , is now underway in SoMa, and is expected to wrap up in 2018. The 750,000-square-foot office building is completely clad in glass and includes a series of vertical double fins.

Known as the Chase Center, this 18,000-seat arena in Mission Bay will be home to the Golden State Warriors basketball team when it opens for the 2019 season. Manica Architecture , based in Kansas City, Missouri, devised the space, which is also expected to host conventions and musical acts.

Featuring a striking façade of zigzagging cast-in-place concrete beams, this mixed-use building, named Rowan, has 70 residential units and is set to open this fall. A statement from Handel Architects, which designed the structure, says the goal was “to strike a chord of continuity with the industrial past of Potrero and the Mission and celebrate its urban, transit-oriented future.”

This 70-story tower, located at 181 Fremont Street in SoMa, was crafted by Heller Manus Architects and includes superluxe residences on the top 15 floors (which boast interiors by Hornberger + Worstell and Orlando Diaz-Azcuy ). The remainder of the 600,000-square-foot tower’s space will be dedicated to commercial usage, and construction is expected to be completed next year.