The Harrison Building vs Park Tower at Transbay

Comparing the The Harrison Building and the Park Tower at Transbay is interesting because they both stand in San Francisco, CA, and were completed within 4 years of each other, 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.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The Park Tower at Transbay rises higher at 604ft (184m), while the The Harrison Building reaches 495ft (151m). However, the The Harrison Building accommodates more floors with 49 levels above ground, compared to 43 floors in the Park Tower at Transbay.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The Park Tower at Transbay has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4.3m, while the The Harrison Building has more compact floors averaging around 3.1m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the The Harrison Building 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 Solomon Cordwell Buenz 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.

The The Harrison Building is primarily residential, while the Park Tower at Transbay is primarily commercial.

The The Harrison Building offers 298 residential units.

The Park Tower at Transbay also provides 117 parking spaces.

Both the The Harrison Building and the Park Tower at Transbay 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.