One Montgomery
An entire city block in downtown
San Francisco was redeveloped in the early 1980s including removal of the top
10 floors of the Crocker Bank at the corner of Post and Montgomery Street as
part of a planning bargain to allow construction of the Crocker Tower.
What was left at the corner was what looked like the base of a building whose
upper floors had disappeared. The New York owner approached us to examine
the site for untapped value, and we found development rights remaining from the
1980s that could accommodate a 500 foot tall building. The hotel/housing
proposal was intended to demonstrate the potential of the site for significant
development, increasing its value leading to a higher sales price. It was
successful in this regard.
The design was an exercise to show how a large tower could grow out of a historic base with minimal physical and architectural disruption. The tower is distinctively modern – a glass and steel box adorned by photovoltaic fins arrayed in a manner to optimize the sunlight on them. Due to the site orientation, the fins would have generated about 15% of the electrical demand of the tower.
The design was an exercise to show how a large tower could grow out of a historic base with minimal physical and architectural disruption. The tower is distinctively modern – a glass and steel box adorned by photovoltaic fins arrayed in a manner to optimize the sunlight on them. Due to the site orientation, the fins would have generated about 15% of the electrical demand of the tower.