Transbay Transit Center
San Francisco, California


In 1939, the current Transbay Terminal opened to become San Francisco’s depot for the electric Key System trains arriving via the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. In 1958, the lower deck was reconfigured to accommodate the ever-growing automobile traffic, train tracks were removed and the Terminal was converted to a bus-only facility. As public transit grew, this building began to show its age and is now very outdated and in need of replacement.
In 2007, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects was selected to design the new, multi-modal San Francisco Transbay Transit Center. When completed, the new Center will serve nine transit systems, including the highly anticipated California High-Speed Rail, transporting more than 100,000 people per day.

The Transbay Transit Center will be the centerpiece of a new neighborhood, a hub of activity that nurtures complex street life. A rhythmic pattern of curving steel trees animates the building’s exterior, forming its four facades. These structures consist of steel members arranged in groups, cinched together at their bases and expanding gracefully into petal-like shapes as they reach the roof. The undulating exterior skin is clad in glass panels lending to the overall aspect of transparency in the building. The central public space has become known as the “Grand Central Station of the West”. This space features a central light column topped by a large skylight feature that protrudes through the 5 acre park cited on the roof. The new Transbay Transit Center will be an iconic and transformational architectural addition to the city of San Francisco.

Auerbach Glasow French has been selected to provide the architectural lighting design for all the public interior spaces and the exterior skin/façade of the building, as well as the attached ground floor exterior, pedestrian and sidewalk lighting.

Client: Transbay Joint Powers Authority
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Renderings: Courtesy of Transbay Joint Powers Authority

Transbay Transit Center