“Grand Central of the West” is what San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center project, now under construction, is being touted—and it’s no wonder. This massive, $4 billion bus and train station and mixed-use development, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, will stretch nearly from Second to Main streets, and will feature five levels with a 5.4-acre rooftop park and surrounding plazas—all of it completely enveloped in perforated aluminum. A complementary Transit Tower designed by PCPA and developed by Hines will be built adjacent to the Transit Center.
The project promises to transform downtown San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area’s regional transportation systems, and is spurring on creation of a whole new transit-friendly surrounding neighborhood with homes, offices, parks and shops. The new transit center will replace the current Transbay Terminal at First and Mission streets in San Francisco with a modern regional transit hub connecting eight Bay Area counties and the State of California through 11 transit systems: AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit, Greyhound, Muni, SamTrans, WestCAT Lynx, Amtrak, Paratransit and future High Speed Rail from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim.