SFCityScape has an editorial on the past, present, and future projects that will make up San Francisco’s new skyline. An image of many of the buildings that comprise this skyline can be seen here.

…each of the condominium towers proposed by planners on Rincon Hill has been proposed by developers. And now that two developers who’d been pushing to have their previously proposed, squatter and too-close-together projects grandfathered in have sold to a developer proposing to build the single, taller and less-bulky tower preferred by the Planning Department, the neighborhood’s future skyline has assumed its final form.

If all goes as planned, in a few years there will be nine towers between 350 and 550 feet tall in the district, five near the summit and four on the flats closer to the waterfront. Given their highly visible location between the Financial District and the base of the Bay Bridge, they will transform the city’s skyline; the three towers already under construction set a high standard for design. But will San Franciscans without a special appreciation for highrise architecture be better off? We believe so.

But will only the wealthy be able to enjoy the neighborhood? Developers are contributing $34 million to programs for the poor elsewhere South-of-Market; thanks to San Francisco’s affordable housing quotas, hundreds of non-luxury homes will be built; and we still believe that even high-end housing makes all homes cheaper by increasing total inventory. In fact, we believe the entire Bay Area will benefit as pressure to sprawl is reduced.

Rincon Hill towers get permits after OK for seismic safety [SFHomeBlog]
Applications for 27,000 units raise prospect of housing boom [SFHomeBlog]

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 26th, 2006 at 12:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.