Transamerica Pyramid Center

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Transamerica Pyramid Center

The colonnade of the Transamerica Pyramid Center is reimagined as an outdoor lounge that blurs the boundary between inside and outside.

Credit

Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

Site overview

Extremely controversial when built, the Transamerica Pyramid has become a San Francisco landmark and one of the country's most recognizable skyscrapers. The design is counterintuitive from a practical and financial standpoint, since the most desirable upper floors have the least area. Yet the scheme works well for a building dominated by a single tenant and illustrates the ability of modern structures to create strong corporate identities for their owners. The pyramid form was chosen as a way to maximize building height under planning regulations, and as a strategy to allow more light to reach the street level where the building rests on concrete clad steel piers forming a loggia between the sidewalk and lobby. Below the aluminum sheathed point, cladding panels of glass and precast concrete complete the exterior and demonstrate the ascendancy of exposed concrete in modern building construction by the early 1970s.

Transamerica Pyramid Center

Site overview

Extremely controversial when built, the Transamerica Pyramid has become a San Francisco landmark and one of the country's most recognizable skyscrapers. The design is counterintuitive from a practical and financial standpoint, since the most desirable upper floors have the least area. Yet the scheme works well for a building dominated by a single tenant and illustrates the ability of modern structures to create strong corporate identities for their owners. The pyramid form was chosen as a way to maximize building height under planning regulations, and as a strategy to allow more light to reach the street level where the building rests on concrete clad steel piers forming a loggia between the sidewalk and lobby. Below the aluminum sheathed point, cladding panels of glass and precast concrete complete the exterior and demonstrate the ascendancy of exposed concrete in modern building construction by the early 1970s.

Awards

Design

Award of Excellence

Commercial

A Commercial Design Award of Excellence is given to the redevelopment of the Transamerica Pyramid Center, one of San Francisco’s most recognizable landmarks, remastering it for a new era while also preserving the beauty and utility of its history. Completed in 1972 by William Pereira, the Transamerica Pyramid’s audaciously futuristic form provoked initial debate, but it has since become a symbol of the city’s identity. Occupying an entire city block, comprised of multiple buildings, and with the Transamerica Redwood Park at its center, revitalization presented a complex challenge. The team conducted intensive research on the history of the wider site, drawing upon its rich social history to inform their innovative approach to reinvigorating the block, drawing as well as upon Pereira’s original vision in order to discover how best to conserve and clarify it. Interventions include the careful introduction of native plantings; the addition of seating, a range of culinary experiences, and a curated arts program to the public ground plane (inspired by the presence of Montgomery Block, a historic hub of Bohemia at the site); the reopening of the ground floor lobby to the public; and the exposure of a diagonal structure, formerly concealed by the lobby’s ceiling, uncovered by forensic study of the original blueprints. 

“It is one of my favorite buildings. The knitting together of exterior and interior by bringing Redwood Park back and expressing the structure more clearly is commendable.”

- Tina Bishop, PLA, FASLA

“Skyscrapers are being reconsidered for new uses, and Transamerica Pyramid makes an ideal case study. Both the buildings and the interstitial spaces are being used in a new way. It used to be an empty plaza, and seeing the space inhabited now is wonderful.”

- Dung Ngo, Jury member
Client

SHVO

Restoration Team

Foster + Partners

How to Visit

Private commercial building

Location

600 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA, 94111

Country

US
Credit:

Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

Designer(s)

Other designers

William Pereira & Associates, architectTom Galli, landscape architect for adjacent Redwood Park

Related News

Completion

1972

Commission / Completion details

Commission unknown, completion 1972(e).

Current Use

Office building and restaurant.

Current Condition

Excellent. the restaurant space toward the rear has undergone renovations.

General Assessment

Extremely controversial when built, the Transamerica Pyramid has become a San Francisco landmark and one of the country√.s most recognizable skyscrapers. The design is counterintuitive from a practical and financial standpoint, since the most desirable upper floors have the least area. Yet the scheme works well for a building dominated by a single tenant and illustrates the ability of modern structures to create strong corporate identities for their owners. The pyramid form was chosen as a way to maximize building height under planning regulations, and as a strategy to allow more light to reach the street level where the building rests on concrete clad steel piers forming a loggia between the sidewalk and lobby. Below the aluminum sheathed point, cladding panels of glass and precast concrete complete the exterior and demonstrate the ascendancy of exposed concrete in modern building construction by the early 1970s.