Salesforce Tower vs Park Tower at Transbay

Comparing the Salesforce Tower and the Park Tower at Transbay is interesting because they both stand in San Francisco, CA, and were completed in the same year, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Salesforce Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 1070ft (326m) with 61 floors above ground, while the Park Tower at Transbay reaches 604ft (184m) with 43 floors above ground.

Salesforce Tower also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,399,996 sqf (130,064m²), which is about 596,299 sqf (55,398m²) more than what the Park Tower at Transbay offers.

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 Salesforce Tower and the Park Tower at Transbay 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 Pelli Clark & Partners and Goettsch Partners followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the Salesforce Tower and the Park Tower at Transbay were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The Park Tower at Transbay also provides 117 parking spaces.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The Salesforce Tower uses a Framed Tube In Tube structural system, which combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns, while the Park Tower at Transbay uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.