Temporary Transbay Terminal Building: 6/22/09 (www.SocketSite.com)
The site was cleared in January and now the first of the prefab buildings that will compose the Temporary Transbay Terminal at 200 Folsom have been placed on site. A reminder of how it should look by the end of the year once others and awnings are in place:
Transbay Temporary Terminal Perspective
And as is envisoned at some point after that:

Temporary Transbay Bus Terminal Update: 200 Folsom Cleared [SocketSite]
Transbay Transit Center Groundbreaking, Fat Mike & Infinity All In One [SocketSite]
T-Minus Two Weeks Until Transbay Temporary Bus Terminal Start [SocketSite]
Transbay Park Potential: Post-Temporary Transbay Terminal (Et Al.) [SocketSite]

19 thoughts on “Temporary Transbay Bus Terminal: First Prefab Buildings Placed”
  1. “Can’t wait for the overpass roadway to be demolished on the corner …”
    I second this! Anyone knows when they’ll knock them down? I’ll be corking a bottle of Dom Perignon when that day comes to celebrate no longer having to hold my breathe for half a block on my commute to work every day.

  2. I walked by the construction site the other day and asked one of the contractors. The overpass demolition should begin in September once part of the temporary terminal is open. I’m not sure when the whole thing will be down but I do know that area will look infinitely better (no pun intended).

  3. Marc – that’s my fear: that the temporary terminal will be in use much longer than planned. Meanwhile, the real terminal site will be a huge dirt lot in the middle of the southern end of the FiDi.

  4. I saw the semi’s truck those pre-fabricated buildings onto the site. Definitely seem very flimsy and temporary. Key word – “Temporary”.
    And yes – I will drink to the destruction of that overpass as well.

  5. I saw the semi’s truck those pre-fabricated buildings onto the site. Definitely seem very flimsy and temporary. Key word – “Temporary”.
    Perhaps. But I too am worried about the “temporary” nature of this site despite how flimsy those buildings are.
    If Transbay fizzles there is nothing to stop them from converting those temporary buildings to more lasting buildings. where I went to school they put up temporary buildings that ended up staying there for over 15 years. they made a mobile home look posh.
    SF is simply over-office spaced right now. That won’t change any time soon. It’s also over-condo’d. thus, it doesn’t seem feasible to build a major tower on the Transbay site. California and the city of SF are essentially bankrupt.
    Unemployment hasn’t even peaked yet, Calfironia and SF’s budget is a disaster, the Federal Govt budget is a disaster, businesses and households are retrenching, and yet people keep telling me they’re going to build a massive tower there sometime soon?
    cuts are coming, and politically Transbay was difficult even in good times. it’ll be easy to cut that program when the other options are cutting aid to seniors or police/firemen.
    I’m not saying that Transbay will/won’t happen. I’m saying that there is a very large possibility it won’t any time soon (well over a decade).

  6. I think Socketsite does an excellent job of news regarding Transbay, but I must admit I am completely confused at this point regarding transit planning in this city. If California is broke which therefore puts HSR on hold, and the mayor says Transbay will be on hold until HSR comes to the city, how is this all really to get built in the next 10 years?

  7. some clarifications:
    @ex-SFer: not sure why you’re focussed on the Transit Tower. That has nothing to do with the construction of the Transit Center itself or the elimination of the Temporary Terminal. The Tower is a separate, private project. Indeed, some funding for the Transit Center will be coming from the Tower (along all the other RE development in the area), but it’s a minority of the funding. There is still funding available from a variety of sources to build the Transit Center without the Tower being built in the near term (most of the funding is coming from federal loans).
    @morgan: the Transit Center is not “on hold” until HSR comes. The mayor never said that, nor would it be true even if he said it. It was never anticipate that HSR would service the Transit Center until a long ways out. The Transit Center will be built regardless. When the train extension from 4th/King happens to service the Transit Center is the $1.8 billion question. Ten years is a long time, and there’s a bunch of rail money coming out of the feds over the next 4 years.

  8. I saw the semi’s truck those pre-fabricated buildings onto the site. Definitely seem very flimsy and temporary. Key word – “Temporary”.
    The K-6 school near my home installed temporary buildings to accommodate a larger student body in the mid 1990s. They are still there even after a major renovation and expansion of the main school building. Temp buildings can last a long time.
    Maybe a better name would be “quickly installed buildings”.

  9. intheknow:
    thanks for the follow up.
    I agree, I shouldn’t focus so much on the Transit tower when discussing the transit center. I have not followed up on this particular project as closely as you have.
    Thus, I’ll ask you (these are honest questions and not rhetorical):
    are you saying that the Transit center has FULL FUNDING assured, no matter what should happen to California’s and SF’s balance sheets? And is that funding 100% secure even if the State of CA needs a federal bailout due to its dire budget situation. (in other words, when the Feds extract their pound of flesh they can’t touch these funds?)
    and the non-Federal funds are secured and in some coffer somewhere, not in some sort of “general fund”. They are untouchable if the city or state should have a budget crisis and needs to choose between laying off teachers/cops/firemen or axing a transit center?
    and the project doesn’t rely (much) on revenue streams from surrounding structures (taxes, fees, etc)
    if all that is the case, then I agree this temporary terminal really is temporary. but in general I’ve found that a done deal isn’t done until it’s… well… done.

  10. ex-SF-er – we’ll know if the TTC has full funding soon. It is close already, and the remainder has been asked for from the stimulus bill, of which a decision will be made by September.

  11. @ex-SF-er:
    nothing is ever done until it’s done as you say. But the funds TJPA is tapping in to are not local or state General Fund monies that could be otherwise used to pay teachers or cops or what have you. They are earmarks or dedicated transportation funds or loans. Many of these dedicated transportation funds come from transportation-specific taxes and from things like bridge tolls. To the extent that fewer people are driving across the bridges and buying things, yes, the overall pot is smaller. I suppose those regional and local agencies which committed those funds would have to decide which prior committments they’re going to honor and which they won’t if the pot drops small enough that they have to make those choices.
    there’s also a pending $400 million request for stimulus funds pending.

  12. thanks for the reply.
    a long time back I looked into the dollars and sense (intentional pun) of this project, but then really lost track of it.
    It sounds like it has a good footing… with a few potential snaggles.

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