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.