Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects

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    • Salesforce Plaza
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    Salesforce Plaza

    Status

    Completed, 2018

    Size

    24,000 sf

    Client

    Salesforce and Boston Properties

    Scope

    Programming, Concept Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documentation, Construction Administration

    Project Team

    Mark Cavagnero
    Brandon Joo
    Chris Campbell
    Chris Lee
    Matthew Ininns
    Anna Pawlowska
    Jennifer Redel

    Project Collaborators

    General Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie
    Owner’s Representative: KASA Partners
    Executive Architect: Kendall Heaton Associates
    Civil: BKF Engineers
    Landscape: SWA Group
    Executive Landscape Architect: RHAA
    Structural: MKA
    MEP: WSP
    Lighting: HLB Lighting Design
    In-Ground LED Light Pods: Sensory Interactive
    Security: AON
    Architectural Photography: Tim Griffith

    Description

    Located on the Southwest corner of Mission and Fremont Streets, Salesforce Plaza is a public open space that serves as the gateway to Salesforce Transit Center to its south and Salesforce Tower to its west. Originally designed with a grid of twenty redwood trees as the centerpiece, Salesforce and Boston Properties engaged Mark Cavagnero Associates in 2015 to re-envision the shady grove into a sunny, flexible plaza to host various public events and gatherings. In removing the redwood trees, it provides a clear, open pathway to the Transit Center’s front door and direct visibility to the public gondola that transports visitors up to the Transit Center’s remarkable rooftop park. It also creates an outdoor living room directly in front of Salesforce Tower’s retail lobby, providing a coveted event and gathering space for the local community and the wider public.

    Since the infrastructure below the plaza level, including the site drainage and the original tree grates/pits, was already in construction, the team repurposed the tree pits and filled them in with in-ground LED light pods. These subtle, color-changing pods animate the plaza in the evenings and can be customized for special events.

    The gondola enclosure, which was once a utilitarian, rectangular box enveloped by redwoods, was redesigned as a gentle, curved glass form to better relate to the curved form of the Salesforce Tower and Transit Center. Each glass panel of the enclosure is slightly offset from each other in a crenulated formation, providing some texture to the overall enclosure and visual interest via its casting shadow lines. A slatted, ipe wood bench compliments the soft curve of the enclosure and allows for visitors waiting for the gondola or meeting friends a comfortable place to sit.

    With the sum of the carefully coordinated interventions noted above, the re-envisioned Salesforce Plaza creates a new civic space that is open, friendly, and distinctly San Francisco.

    Location

    Recognition

    Awards

    International Design Awards, Public Space Architecture Design – Vistas & Plazas Category – Honorable Mention, 2023