SHVO Unveils Plans for Three Transamerica

Transamerica Transformed: Details Revealed for Architectural Addition to Transamerica Pyramid Center

SHVO, the luxury real estate development and investment firm, announced the renovation of the iconic Transamerica Pyramid Center in San Francisco by world renowned architects Foster + Partners in March and is now revealing plans for Three Transamerica (545 Sansome). The renovation includes the expansion and upgrade of the building to a contemporary high-design office building.

Forming a pivotal gateway to the site from Washington and Sansome streets and situated at the nexus between the Financial District and the smaller scale buildings of Jackson Square, the historic Three Transamerica – an Art Deco structure originally designed for the California Ink Company. Built in the 1930s, it features an innovative use of cast-in place concrete to support utilitarian industrial requirements.

Lord Norman Foster, Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners, said “I have always argued in favor of the reuse of historic structures, as a sustainable approach that continues the historic tradition of change, while preserving the spirit of the past. Three Transamerica is set to become a unique architectural addition to the Transamerica block, that is wholly of its place and time.”

The new design emphasizes sustainability and seeks to revitalize this historic structure. The building’s interior will be completely modernized and brought up to date with current building codes while preserving the integrity of the historic structure. Its two Art Deco facades will be sensitively restored, and the building floorplates extended towards Washington and the Redwood Park to create generous double-height office spaces. These double-height spaces open up the building, bringing fresh air and daylight into the office areas, alongside the lush green terraces that travel up the building, creating healthier workplaces. The new glazed facades reveal the existing structure behind, presenting a contemporary addition that draws its material palette from the context and provide a softer transparent edge defining a more open feel in Redwood Park.

New office space will also be created above the existing building, set back from the historic Sansome façade. The materiality of the new addition uses pre-cast concrete, complementing William Perrieira’s Transamerica Pyramid and other adjacent buildings.

This addition benefits from views across the Redwood Park, Jackson Square and North Beach, nestling comfortably within the existing cluster of taller structures at Sansome and Washington streets, and transitioning to the lower-scale buildings north of Washington Street.

Curated retail will wrap around the entire building on three sides, activating the Mark Twain Alley and Washington Street, while also giving the building an open and accessible street presence. New green spaces and animated retail will stimulate Redwood Park and open it up to its surroundings.

SHVO, which acquired the Transamerica Pyramid Center in October 2020, is committed to making significant investments to further cement the site’s status as one of the most coveted in the world while creating an inviting new destination for San Francisco and its inhabitants.

About SHVO
SHVO is a real estate development and investment firm built on the vision of Chairman & CEO Michael Shvo to create culture-defining experiences in iconic properties. Headquartered in New York City with offices in Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, SHVO owns and operates a national portfolio valued at more than $8 billion and 4.5 million square feet across commercial office and retail space, hospitality, and luxury residential assets. The firm’s selective portfolio of architecturally significant properties, from innovative ground up new developments to revitalized landmarks that define skylines in the world’s leading cities, includes the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, The Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach, 333 South Wabash Avenue (‘The Big Red’) in Chicago, Mandarin Oriental Residences at 9200 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Mandarin Oriental Residences Fifth Avenue in New York City and the AMAN New York Hotel and Residences at the Crown building. Renowned for its expertise, SHVO is fully integrated with highly diversified industry experience in every aspect of acquisitions, finance, development, design, sales, leasing, property management, hospitality, and sustainability.

For more information visit www.shvo.com.

About Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners is a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design, rooted in sustainability, which was founded over fifty years ago in 1967 by Norman Foster with his late wife, Wendy. Since then, he and the team around him have established an  international practice with a worldwide reputation for thoughtful and pioneering design, working as a single studio that is both ethnically and culturally diverse. The studio integrates the skills of architecture with engineering, both structural and environmental, urbanism, interior and industrial design, model and film making, aeronautics and many more – our collegiate working environment is similar to a compact university. These diverse skills make us capable of tackling a wide range of projects, particularly those of considerable complexity and scale. Design is at the core of everything that we do. We design buildings, spaces and cities; we listen, we question, and we innovate.

The studio has established an international reputation with buildings such as the Hearst Headquarters in New York, 30 St Mary Axe, popularly known as The Gherkin, in London, Millau Viaduct in France, the German Parliament in the Reichstag, Berlin, The Great Court for the British Museum, Headquarters for HSBC in Hong Kong and London, the ME Hotel in London, Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the Metro Bilbao, the Carré d’Art Nîmes, the sustainable Masdar development in Abu Dhabi, and research centres for Stanford University, California. Recent work includes the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Samson Pavilion for CWRU and Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Duo Central Park in Sydney, Apple’s headquarters in California, Bloomberg’s new European headquarters in London and the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. Currently, the practice is involved in projects such as the New Slussen Masterplan in Sweden, Kuwait International Airport, and 425 Park Avenue in New York.

For more information visit fosterandpartners.com