Project Overview

Salesforce Transit Center is a state-​of-​the-​art multimodal transit station in downtown San Francisco, linking 11 transit systems and connecting the city to the region, the state, and the nation.

Project Commissioner

Transbay Joint Powers Authority

Project Creator

PWP Landscape Architecture / Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Project Brief

The new Transit Center stretches for five blocks along Mission Street, one block south of the city’s Financial District. A gently undulating wall, floating above the street on angled steel columns, is visible from afar, creating a graceful, luminous, and welcoming image. At street level, shops and cafes draw visitors and energize the surrounding neighborhood, while high above, the trees and flowers of the rooftop park invite people to visit for longer periods, transforming the Transit Center from a commuter hub to an urban destination.

Project Innovation/Need

Within the Transit Center, the space is open and light-​filled. Tall, structurally expressive skylights — “Light Columns” — bring sunshine deep into the building, creating a vibrant, inviting atmosphere. The largest Light Column forms the central element of the 36-​meter tall (118-​feet tall) Grand Hall, the Transit Center’s primary public space.

Reaching from the park, down through the bus deck and Grand Hall, and all the way to the train platforms two stories below grade, this dramatic structure provides light and long views to all areas of the Transit Center.

The park has been conceived of as a multifunctional space providing respite, activity, and education for transit users and local residents alike. It is integrally designed with the building in order to achieve expansive areas of soil to support large, healthy trees and shrubs, and to seamlessly tie into the architectural sustainability programs.

The park design is composed of curving paths that lead visitors through different experiential settings, both contemplative and social. In order to create a topography that blurs the distinction between roof and ground, the park will integrate mounded vegetated hills with domed architectural skylights that allow daylight into the terminal below.

Sustainability

The park will actively improve the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide from bus exhaust, treat and recycle water, and create a locus in downtown San Francisco for birds, butterflies, and other pollinators. Storm-water runoff from the roof-top park, as well as water from the sinks in the terminal building, will be collected and polished in a subsurface constructed wetland at the east end of the park. The water will then be used in the restrooms throughout the terminal.