666 Folsom updates
28 Friday Jun 2013
Posted 666 Folsom
in28 Friday Jun 2013
Posted 666 Folsom
in28 Friday Jun 2013
Posted Around the neighborhood
in28 Friday Jun 2013
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inIn addition to the new flag pole, some metal grating showed up today, and the foreman of the iron workers told me that this stuff will also be installed on the roof.
I also had the chance to chat today with the project manager from Bagatelos Architectural Glass Systems, who remembered me from when we first met months ago when the window installation began. He gave me a lot of fascinating information.
The windows do indeed only open a few inches on the bottom half, for security and safety of course, but also so that an ugly safety bar is not required that doesn’t look good ! The fresh air that Wilson Meany’s website talks about is enabled by the window’s upper half, which moves down a considerable amount. Also, most interestingly, the windows are NOT THE SAME on all sides of the building. Different glass compositions are used depending on a number of factors, including the amount of daily sunlight expected, the distance from the ground, and even reflected glare at the street level. Wow, this is really fascinating ! And lastly, he gave me the count that I have long been hoping for — there are 1,397 windows being replaced at my old building. He said this is actually quite a small job for Bagatelos. Their work is beautiful, and the windows – and the window frames as well — really do look outstanding.
And last, but not least, THIS showed up today. And I really, really wanna play with it, maybe try rolling it down a steep S.F. hill.
28 Friday Jun 2013
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inRemember that shiny metal pipe-like thing I saw being flown to the top of the building yesterday ? I said I had no idea what it is going to be used for.
Well, today I found out.
Thanks to Todd Freeman, I returned to the 140 New Montgomery site for a second day in a row today. Yesterday afternoon, Todd had let me know that the new flag pole would be going up today.
As I walked down New Montgomery Street from BART at 5:30 am, I noticed something a bit familiar on the roof.
Click the photo to enlarge it, and you will get a better view of that shiny metal pipe-thing, just waiting to receive the new flag pole high atop our beautiful old building !
It was July 14, 2012 when the old flag pole came down.
At about 6:00 am today, I was (thanks to Todd Freeman) present to see the new flag pole show up, on a very cool truck.
The pole is the wrapped in a brown paper covering, and you can see there are two sections of it on the truck. The tower crane was used to lift it from the truck and place in the courtyard to be prepared and rigged. I got the chance to touch it while it was still mounted in the truck. I was not able to ask how tall it is when assembled, or how the two sections actually connect together — hopefully, I can find out more about this later. I really love the toolboxes mounted on that truck.
Accompanying the new pole where two really nice guys.
The first was Larry W. Bolander, Jr., from the company L.Ph. Bolander & Sons. This company goes all the way back to 1881, and the fourth and fifth generations of the Bolander family are now in charge. They supply a huge variety of flag poles, related hardware, and flags. Larry is a great guy, and took some time even at 6:00 am to chat with me and listen to my stories about the removal of the old flag pole 50 weeks ago — the poor guy had to view copies of the two above photos from last year as well ! Have a look at the very interesting web site of this company at Bolanderflagpole.com.
The second guy was completely fascinating — and this is my second time to see him. When the original flag pole was taken down last year, I remember one of the Plant Construction folks told me that they had found old documentation that detailed how a guy named Jim Phelan had worked on that old relic previously. Well, at that time Plant was amazed to find that Mr. Phelan was still around and still climbing high and dangerous objects, and arranged for him to remove the old flag pole. So of course he had to return today to see it’s replacement installed, to carry forward for the next 80+ years !
Jim Phelan is the 3rd generation of his family to work as steeplejacks. His grandfather began the tradition over 100 years ago in Ireland. He has worked all over the U.S., on many notable buildings and structures. He has fantastic photos on his Flickr account and on his really cool company website uphigh.com. His firm is J.C. Phelan Company. Jim is an incredibly nice guy, and even while he was super-busy completing all of the work preparing the flag pole and rigging – and preparing himself to go high atop the building to install it – he called out to me as I stood across the street with my camera, giving me status and letting me know when the action would begin.
Both Larry Bolander and Jim Phelan made this a memorable event for me, and they made a wonderful contribution today to bringing our beautiful old building back to life, new and improved.
Lifting the new flag pole from Larry’s truck.
Larry & Jim get things underway.
The experts confer.
Francisco helps with the rigging.
Up she goes.
After Jim, Larry, and the flag pole made it up to the roof, I headed over to my second favorite viewing location — the parking garage roof by 525 Mission Street — and watched with my binoculars.
Sorry these photos are not closer — it was amazing to see Jim not only atop the tallest point on the roof, but also standing on the top rung of a ladder as the flag pole was placed. Probably just an average day for him, but it definitely made my day.
A great job by two really great guys. The old girl is now all gussied up — at least on top — and ready for another 80+ years as the most beautiful building in San Francisco. Hopefully the up-lights will be installed, the terra cotta cladding repairs will be finished (including removal of some rusty/discolored spots I hope they are not ignoring), and the entire thing will look like C3PO did at that medal ceremony.
…and did I say that Larry has a really cool truck ?
27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inSidewalk demolition and preparation continues.
New curbs and some new granite.
I wanna know more about our new “unique” elevator interiors.
Demetrius told me that these guys are demolishing an old tile deck on top of the back entrance way, and it will be re-done with a new surface.
Originally, I didn’t have a clue what this thing is for. But I discovered what it is — tomorrow !
Didn’t notice this before — there is a bit of a ramp area on the newly poured courtyard surface.
…and also this area — perhaps a drain cover to go here ?
Can’t wait to see this part of the courtyard finished once the crane departs.
But, hey ! How do we know what the speed limit is in this new courtyard ?
Some new cabinets selected by Yelp.
I give them a low rating.
Some new pipes on the Minna Street side. I hope they plug (and cover) that ugly old hole.
Another new item on the Minna Street side is this vent. Perhaps it relates to the restaurant space (Aziza ?) on this side of the building and the need to vent the gas connection for the kitchen.
Although it is pretty ugly and a bit of a blight on the side of our beautiful building, I KNOW that Wilson Meany and Plant Construction are going to great lengths to find the best solutions for things like this that are required by code (PG&E in this case) and are not easily or elegantly accommodated by the nature of our old building. So we will learn to like it !
27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted 140 New Montgomery
in27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted Around the neighborhood
inFrom TheRegistrySF.com
Developments Rise Like Dandelions Near San Francisco Transit Center
Posted on June 27, 2013
By Sharon Simonson, TheRegistrySF.com:
Tishman Speyer and its Chinese development partner China Vanke Co. Ltd. begin construction next week on what is being billed as the largest residential development project ever in San Francisco.
The Lumina, with one 350-foot tower and one 400-foot tower, will have 655 condominiums. It will be situated in the South of Market neighborhood two blocks south of the new one-million-square-foot Transbay Transit Center, two blocks from the Embarcadero and around the corner from AT&T Park.
Sales are to begin next summer, and the first residents are expected to take occupancy the summer of 2015. The towers are joined at the base by two midrise podium buildings supporting a rooftop garden.
The two cranes that will anchor the buildings’ construction will number 36 and 37 in the San Francisco skyline, said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. China Vanke’s investment in Lumina also should open a new channel for cross-border communication between the city and the Pacific Rim.
“It is just more meaningful to have international partners here, especially from China, which represents a considerable part of our future tourism and business,” Lee told those gathered for a June 26 groundbreaking. “Vanke and its leadership will open up a lot of conversations. It is a great opportunity.”
“In 2015 when [Lumina] is opened, the U.S. Conference of Mayors will be here, and I get to show off how we do it right, how we do it internationally and how we do it with other agencies like transportation. It is so inspiring to the rest of the country,” he said.
Lumina’s construction start is the latest iteration of a developer gold rush to downtown San Francisco’s Transbay district with its new Transbay Transit Center.
San Francisco’s TMG Partners and Northwood Investors LLC also said June 26 that they had acquired 1.17 acres in multiple parcels at First and Mission streets, also next to the transit center. They expect to build two towers with approximately two million square feet of offices, shops and housing. The site was rezoned in 2012 as part of the city’s land-plan for the Transbay district to allow an 850-foot commercial tower and a 605-foot residential tower, according to a prepared statement.
Tishman Speyer itself recently developed 555 Mission St., a 555,000-square-foot office building, and is currently developing Foundry III, a 10-story building at 505 Howard St. with not quite 300,000 square feet of offices. Both are within short walking distance of the public transit hub.
In April, Boston Properties and Hines celebrated the start of their Transbay Transit Tower, the signature property in the area slated to be the tallest office building on the West Coast. The same month, Kilroy Realty Corp. began 350 Mission St., a 450,000-square-foot office building also adjacent to the transit center. Kilroy is building the $275 million building for Salesforce.com Inc.
“We live in an incredibly special time and remarkable place in San Francisco,” said Carl D. Shannon, Tishman Speyer senior managing director and lead in Northern California. “This neighborhood has changed dramatically as the vision of creating jobs near housing and transit in downtown comes to reality.”
Tishman Speyer’s faith in San Francisco’s continued prosperity springs from the strength of the echo-boomer demographic tide and the generation’s clear preference for city life, Shannon said. Just as companies followed workers to the suburbs post World War II, they will follow them back to city centers like San Francisco.
“You look at the number of employees with Google, Apple, Cisco, Adobe who live in San Francisco and take the bus to Silicon Valley. They want to live in a rich, dynamic, urban environment,” he said. “I believe Silicon Valley will be tremendously important, and the employers will increase their footprints in San Francisco not because of the business environment but because their employees are here.”
Tishman Speyer and Vanke are not releasing financial details for the development, and home prices won’t be decided until the sales office opens next year, Shannon said.
Tishman will develop and manage Lumina; China Vanke is participating as a venture equity partner. Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers is representing an institutional investor, according to a prepared statement.
The groundbreaking drew both Rob Speyer, president and co-chief executive of Tishman Speyer, and Wang Shi, chairman and founder of China Vanke. The development is China Vanke’s—China’s largest real estate company—first-ever U.S. venture. China Vanke last year sold 140,000 homes, Speyer said. It begins more than 100 new projects a year in China, the Vanke chairman said.
“The Bay Area is the perfect place for Vanke to start in the United States because it is about diversity, innovation and community—all our values that we treasure at Vanke for almost 30 years,” Wang said. “Vanke’s first mission to come to the United States is to learn from a much more developed social and economic context. Not just form our great partner Tishman Speyer but also from local communities.”
Like the neighboring Infinity, another Tishman Speyer development, architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Arquitectonica and San Francisco’s Heller Manus Architects designed Lumina. The towers share The Infinity’s curvilinear forms, floor-to-ceiling glass walls and views of the city and bay.
“It gives you all of these rooms with an amazing panoramic glass view. People walked into The Infinity, and they had never seen a living room like that. The view surrounds you,” said Fort-Brescia. “That feature reappears in this building because that was a very hot item.”
Tishman sold two-bedroom homes in Infinity Tower II for an average of not quite $700 a square foot while one-bedrooms sold for an average $801 a foot. The tower sold between February 2009 and March 2011, according to research from Polaris Pacific. On the resale market, the two-bedroom units are now selling for $1,000 a foot on average, and one-bedroom homes are selling for $845 a foot.
The Infinity, which also has two towers and 650 homes, was financially successful despite timing, Shannon said.
27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted Around the neighborhood
in26 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inSo far, here are the leasing tenants for the new and improved (but still old and much loved) 140 New Montgomery:
Tenant | Floor(s) | Date |
---|---|---|
Yelp | 4th-12th* | Sep 2013 |
AmWINS Insurance Brokerage | 16th | Nov 2013 |
Lumosity | 17th-19th | Oct 2013 |
G2 Insurance Services | 21st | Feb 2014 |
Knoll, Inc | 25th | Oct 2013 |
* Yelp has an option for one additional floor
Hopefully, I will ‘on prem’ to take care of all of them as they grow and prosper in my beautiful old building.
26 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted Around the neighborhood
inFrom Socketsite today:
LUMINA (The Development Heretofore Known As 201 Folsom)
The name for the development heretofore known as 201 Folsom Street has been revealed. Presenting LUMINA, a joint venture between Tishman Speyer and China Vanke.
LUMINA’s 655 condos, studios to three-bedrooms, will average 1,275 square feet and should be ready for occupancy by summer of 2015. The building’s sales office is slated to open mid-2014.
The development’s two commercial spaces include a 1,000 square foot space at the corner of Folsom and Beale envisioned as a cafe and a 9,500 square foot space along Folsom Street envisioned as “a restaurant or upscale market.”