Park Tower at Transbay vs The Avery Building

Comparing the Park Tower at Transbay and the The Avery Building is interesting because they both stand in San Francisco, CA, and were completed just one year apart, 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 The Avery Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 617ft (188m) with 56 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 The Avery Building 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 OMA 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 The Avery Building is primarily residential.

The The Avery Building offers 548 residential units.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with Park Tower at Transbay offering 117 spaces and the The Avery Building offering 218.

Both the Park Tower at Transbay and the The Avery Building rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, 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.