Park Tower at Transbay vs One Rincon Hill South Tower

Comparing the Park Tower at Transbay and the One Rincon Hill South Tower is interesting because they both rise in San Francisco, CA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Goettsch Partners and Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of San Francisco across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The One Rincon Hill South Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 640ft (195m) with 54 floors above ground, while the Park Tower at Transbay reaches 604ft (184m) with 43 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Park Tower at Transbay and the One Rincon Hill South Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Goettsch Partners and Solomon Cordwell Buenz followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Park Tower at Transbay is primarily commercial, while the One Rincon Hill South Tower is primarily residential.

The One Rincon Hill South Tower offers 390 residential units.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with Park Tower at Transbay offering 117 spaces and the One Rincon Hill South Tower offering 455.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.