Designed by architect Timothy Pflueger[1], the San Francisco TransBay Terminal opened at First and Mission on January 14, 1939. It was the train hub for lines that linked San Francisco to Oakland, including the Interurban Electric System, the Key System, and the Sacramento Northern Railway, all of which ran trains across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge[2]. By 1941, only the Key System operated trains out of the terminal. At its peak in the early 1940s, the terminal served 26 million annual passengers. When gas rationing was eliminated at the end of World War II[3], annual ridership began to decline. In 1958, the lower deck of the Bay Bridge was opened to all vehicular traffic, and the TransBay Terminal was converted to a bus facility. Service thrived until BART[4] fully opened in 1974. After that, activity at the terminal declined drastically. When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake[5] severely damaged the terminal, San Francisco voters approved a new TransBay Center.
On September 20, 2007, the TransBay Transit Center Plan, designed to include 13 associated towers, was chosen. The last bus left the old TransBay Terminal on August 7, 2010. A temporary bus terminal was set up on the block of Howard/Main/Folsom/Beale, and construction on its replacement began immediately. The debris was to be used for a sculpture designed by Tim Hawkinson, but the project was ultimately cancelled because of cost and engineering concerns.
The new TransBay Terminal, called the SalesForce Transit Center[6], opened on August 12, 2018, only to be closed less than a month later because cracks were found in the support beams. It took a year for the terminal to reopen, and serves primarily as a bus terminal for Greyhound, Golden Gate Transit, Muni, and WestCAT Lynx, though there are plans to also make it a rail hub that would connect CalTrain via an underground extension. It is located on the Minna/Beale/Natoma/2nd block and is four stories that includes platforms, retail, a food hall, offices and waiting areas. The third floor is the bus depot, which has a ramp that feeds directly onto the Bay Bridge. The fourth floor is a 5.4 acre rooftop park that includes an amphitheater, a restaurant, and lots of green space with water features and five public art installations. A free aerial tram located at Mission and Fremont transports people from the street level to this rooftop park.
Of the built or proposed towers associated with the terminal, the TransBay Tower, now known as the Salesforce Tower when Salesforce[7] became the tower’s anchor tenant, is the tallest building on the City skyline. It connects directly to the Transit Center’s rooftop park. Construction of the tower started in 2013 and was completed five years later. It has a concrete core, wrapped in a steel frame, wrapped in a glass and steel curtain wall. It was built at the sight of the ground level entrance to the old terminal on Mission between Fremont and First. It’s foundation includes 42 piles 300 feet deep to bedrock. At 1,070 feet, there are 61 floors with the famous crown at the top. Before COVID-19, SalesForce opened its top floor – The Ohana Room, to the public once a month.
The crown is a nine-story electronic sculpture. Activated on May 21, 2018 (a foggy night that obscured the art), the first installation was silhouettes of dancers against a tan background. That piece was there for quite awhile before being replaced by scenes of water and sky. If you are like me, you now check out the Crown at night to gauge the mood of the City. During the initial Covid-19 lockdown, there were pictures of clapping hands and prayer flags every night. On Chinese News Years, there is always that year’s animal – always solid red – doing something interesting. And on Halloween, everyone looks forward to the eye of Sauron.
In 2019, it was reported that Salesforce Tower had settled 18 inches, and was leaning 14 inches, leading to two cracked windows. Plans are currently under development to add up to 300 micro-piles to the foundation.
[1] Timothy Pflueger: see story coming November 17th
[2] Bay Bridge: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3306
[3] World War II: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4222
[4] BART: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3533
[5] Loma Prieta earthquake: see story coming October 17th
[6] Visit them at www.SalesForcetransitcenter.com
[7] Visit them at www.salesforce.com
