Proposed San Francisco Towers (Image source: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP)

All of a sudden the Rincon Hill towers (400/350 feet) just don’t seem quite so tall (or towering). “A 1,000-foot tower, as well as two 800-foot towers, were proposed Thursday for the area around the Transbay Terminal, as The City moves forward with the rebuilding of the aging bus station at First and Mission streets and the development of the surrounding neighborhood.” At one thousand feet, that’s 147 feet taller than the Transamerica Pyramid (853 feet) and 221 feet taller than the Bank of America building (779 feet).

Champions of the proposal cite both the financial (an additional $250 million in revenue to help subsidize the $3.35 billion Transbay Terminal project) and the aesthetic (“The City’s flat undulating skyline would be significantly enhanced by a higher crown to emphasize its core, at the heart of The City’s activity”) impact on the city. (Opponents have yet to rally.)

Which really only leaves one question: will we be getting more comments from pissed off San Franciscans about that “significantly enhanced” line or from indignant New Yorkers who can’t believe “City” was capitalized?

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