Foundry Square is a complex of four architecturally-linked, 10-story mid-rise buildings located at Howard and First Streets near the
Transbay Transit Center
The Transbay Transit Center (officially the Salesforce Transit Center for sponsorship purposes) is a transit station in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal — and potentially as a future rail terminal — for the San ...
in the
South of Market
South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill.
SoMa is home to many of the city's museums ...
neighborhood of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
Each of the four buildings stands on a different corner of the street.
Each building is a
mixed-use
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to som ...
structure. The four structures combined provide a total interior area of . The design team included STUDIOS Architecture, Jim Jennings Architecture, Page & Turnbull,
Webcor Builders
Webcor is a commercial construction contractor with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The firm also has regional offices in Alameda, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and Hawaii, and is among the largest builders in California with clien ...
, and
landscape architect SWA Group. The developer was Wilson Equity Office (now Wilson Meany). The Glazing Contractor used on these buildings was
AGA (Architectural Glass and Aluminum)
Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA) is a specialty glazing contractor located in the United States. Architectural Glass & Aluminum provides engineering, design, fabrication, installation, and assembly services for custom glazing systems, such ...
. Current tenants include the law firm of
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, STUDIOS Architecture, the headquarters of
Slack, and the
NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center.
The project's first phase, Foundry Square II (405 Howard Street) and Foundry Square IV (500 Howard Street), was completed in 2003. The third building, Foundry Square I (400 Howard Street), was completed in 2007. In April 2012,
Tishman Speyer
Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate.
History
The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer.
In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70-s ...
acquired the entitlements to the final building, Foundry Square III (505 Howard Street), from Wilson Meany Sullivan, and broke ground later that year. Foundry Square III was completed in April 2014.
The contained within Foundry Square's four open corners form a larger, unified public square. Each building's dual-glaze glass walls frame the square, establishing an arcade that defines the transition between interior building space and public exterior spaces. The four corners of the intersection are integrated by the use of public art and sculpture (such as
Richard Deutsch
Richard Deutsch (born 1953) is an American sculptor who works primarily in the Minimalist and Expressionist genres. Although his work ranges from small table-top pieces to multi-story sculptures, Deutsch "is well-known for his large-scale archit ...
's "Time Signature" stainless steel sculpture),
[Bennett, Richard. "At the Engineering Facility on the Stanford Campus, He Created an 'Axis' of Stone." ''Oakland Tribune.'' May 6, 2007; "Annual Guide '09." ''Art in America.'' New York: Brant Art Publications, 2009, p. 3; STUDIOS Architecture. ''Buildings: Innovation + Technology.'' Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia: Images Publishing, 2009, p. 90.] tree
bosques, ground-floor cafes, and over-scaled pots. The project earned SWA Group the ASLA Northern California Chapter Merit Award in 2006.
Notes
External links
STUDIOS ArchitectureFoundry III
{{South of Market, San Francisco
Office buildings in San Francisco
Buildings and structures in San Francisco
South of Market, San Francisco