21st Century (2000–present)

San Francisco Transbay Redevelopment Plan

2005 · United States · North America · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by OCII; SOM (urban design)
Official basemap of the Transbay Redevelopment Project Area, bounded by Mission, Main, Second and Folsom Streets, San Francisco.
Official basemap of the Transbay Redevelopment Project Area, bounded by Mission, Main, Second and Folsom Streets, San Francisco. · Public agency document (credited) · San Francisco Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII)

Core idea

HSR/Caltrain terminal district with towers and park

Why it matters

Station-district urbanism with land-value capture

Description

A redevelopment plan adopted in 2005 for the area around San Francisco's Transbay Terminal, prepared under what became the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure with urban design by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The plan organised a high-density transit district around a rebuilt regional terminal intended to serve Caltrain and California high-speed rail, permitting a cluster of towers—including what became Salesforce Tower—alongside a rooftop park and a substantial share of affordable housing on former freeway parcels.

Significance

The Transbay plan is a leading American example of station-district planning financed through land-value capture, using the sale and taxation of publicly owned land to help fund the transit centre. It signalled a shift in San Francisco towards accepting significant height and density downtown, and it features in debates on tower clusters, value capture mechanics and the risks of tying urban districts to uncertain rail investment.

What shaped it

Plans it influenced

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.