Organized Labor

Team #1

Forest City Executive Vice President Jim Ratner said the project would have a lasting impact and that his firm had six decades of experience in guiding projects to completion. “Our experience in completion of the San Francisco Center demonstrates we will work collaboratively,” he said. “The Transbay Transit Center is precisely the type of project upon which we have built our reputation.” Forest City is co-developer of Westfield San Francisco Centre and the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, and was chosen to develop the $4 billion, 22 acre Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

Forest City’s partner, architect Richard Rogers, said, “I’m passionate about city regeneration, which involves transportation, the public realm, and mixed-use like live-work spaces. San Francisco embodies a world city.” He said the challenge for the City was to “increase the number of people using public transit, to be sustainable, and not have climate change destroy our civilization.”

Rogers called his design for the Tower “a vertical section of the city put together with public transit.” He talked about other structures he is famous for designing, including Lloyd’s of London, the Madrid Airport, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He said the Madrid Airport was designed in part to express the enjoyment of travel and that his plans for the Transit Center would do the same.

The architect’s proposal includes siting the 82-story, 1,250 feet tall tower to the east of the existing terminal to give the area at First and Mission more open space, a 1300 foot long terminal building, and an open galleria with 16,000 square feet of retail space featuring unique local products. The tower would include a 200-room hotel with condominiums above and a top floor restaurant accessible to the public. A rooftop wind generator would provide 10 percent of the building’s power needs. He said his design would “speak to San Francisco’s agenda to be a sustainable, green city,” and would be a LEED Platinum project, using natural ventilation.

The TJPA is promoting sustainable design goals as part of the Transit Center Project—including efficient energy and water management, use of natural ventilation, solar power, and natural lighting, and improved indoor environmental quality. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. A LEED Platinum rating is given if a project meets 80 percent or more of the requirements for sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process.