Renzo Piano Designs Mixed-Use Tower in San Francisco
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) designs 555 Howard, a mixed-use hotel and residential tower in San Francisco, for developer Pacific Eagle. The new 36-storey tower will be located in Transbay neighborhood, and it will include 69 residential units, 255 hotel rooms, and an open rooftop terrace, accessible for the public.
San Francisco’s Planning Department has released new renderings for the project, which shows a slick tower, entirely enveloped in the transparent curtain wall. The tower stands on a podium supported by thin round columns, pointed at both ends. The podium has a double-height ground floor and two cantilevered floors above, which will host the reception and retail space.
The hotel will occupy the first 20 floors of the building, while the residential units will occupy all the floors above, up to the 36th floor. The building’s straight façade steps back at the 21st floor forming an outdoor terrace for the residents. Besides the rooftop garden and the open terrace, the project includes a plan to turn the adjacent grounds, below the elevated highway, into an “under-ramp” park and plaza.
The project is planned to be a “green” landmark and is aimed to achieve a Platinum LEED. Its construction works are expected to last for approximately three years, and once finished it will be Renzo Piano’s second building in San Francisco after the California Academy of Sciences in 2008.