Designers preview Mission Square, funicular and tower refinements for Transbay project

At an informational hearing on May 24, design team members presented refinements to the Transit Center Tower and the adjacent Mission Square plaza and park. John Ram (Planning Department) framed the presentation as informational; no entitlement action was taken on design questions during the presentation.

Peter Walker, the landscape architect, described Mission Square as a composed public plaza made of three zones — building edge and entry, a grove of redwood columns, and a retail/retail spill-out zone — organized to preserve sightlines and allow sunlight to penetrate between trees. Walker explained the team plans to use large, engineered troughs of soil and on-site rainwater capture to sustain redwoods in an urban setting and return collected water for irrigation during dry months. On the plaza’s vertical connection to the rooftop park, he described a small funicular designed to be kinetic and to animate the plaza but acknowledged detailed capacity and operations studies are just beginning.

Fred Clark (Pelli Clark Pelli) and the tower team showed visual studies of the tower’s taper, refined columns and a system of white painted solar sunscreens that emphasize verticality, help mitigate wind at street level and preserve viewing corridors. Clark noted a modest reduction from early competition heights — about 130 feet in total — but emphasized the design preserves the tower’s proportions and interior viewing qualities. He also noted structural updates such as a third exit stair to meet contemporary code requirements.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about shading, tree maintenance, funicular capacity and ownership. Staff and TJPA representatives said the TJPA would administer the park on the rooftop and contract for maintenance; the plaza in front of the tower would be maintained by the tower developer as part of open-space obligations; and temporary improvements are possible if tower construction lags behind the transit center schedule.

Design takeaways: the team emphasized a park-forward approach that uses engineered tree planting and water capture to create a memorable civic plaza and a sequence of experiences from street-level retail into the transit hall and up to the rooftop park. The small, low-capacity funicular is presented as a key kinetic element that signals access between levels, but its operational design and pricing (free vs. paid) are unresolved and a topic commissioners flagged for equity and access.

Next steps: the presentation was informational; design details, shadow studies and operational arrangements (funicular ownership/maintenance, park operations) will be considered alongside future permit-level reviews and funding/maintenance plans.