No, it’s not an optical illusion (and it didn’t fall off). Yes, the crane has been lowered at One Rincon Hill. And no, they have not topped off (another 20 or so floors to go). According to a “plugged in” tipster, a mechanical problem with the crane has necessitated its disassembly. Estimated impact: two week delay. It happens.
One Rincon Hill: Hovering Around 90% Sold [SocketSite]

27 thoughts on “A Reader Asks: What Happened To The Crane At One Rincon Hill?”
  1. I was at the gas station across from 1Rincon and counted ~37 stories. I remember an article a while back saying the main lobby is located on the 6th floor and the 1st floor on the lower end of the complex. Does that mean the tower is really 43 stories high now with 12 stories to go?

  2. The “37” is based on the lobby is on the “6”th floor, all the “old” article you might find the building was “54” stories but not sure since when it started saying it’s “60” stories.
    so based on the new number 60, it should have 60-37=23 floors to go.

  3. I heard that, with the mortgage industry meltdown heading to Alt-A, the developer is having trouble and the crane got repossessed.
    Kidding!

  4. Where can we get official info on the actual floors? I heard anywhere from 54 to 60. Someone must know…
    And I wonder if the buyers who bought on say the 10th floor know they are only 4 floors above the lobby entrance instead of 10. Now that would be a surprise!

  5. Can anyone think of another large city where a 60 story condo tower would create such a stir as 1Rincon in San Francisco? There is something almost provincial about this city and how it is finally getting tall modern residential highrise construction more than 30 years after everywhere else. The article at SFGate regarding the man operating a high rise crane is almost embarrassing. “Wow, look!, a crane in the sky!” When the author made the claim that you could see the curvature of the earth from the crane, I was about ready to pack my bags and move to a real city like Chicago where they would care less about a “small” structure like 1rincon.

  6. I just looked at Paul Hwang’s ad on Real Estate Times, his clients bought #5402, #5405 and #5405, not sure if #5402 now becomes #6002?

  7. “Where can we get official info on the actual floors? I heard anywhere from 54 to 60. Someone must know…”
    It’s 55 stories tall with 55 floors of living space over 5 floors of garage hence “60” total floors.

  8. Yeah, I actually bought the 10th floor and no, at the time, I didn’t know 10th floor really mean 5th floor. The unit is in fact 10XX, but 1-7 is not living space.
    They did tell buyers that they “start selling” from the 8th floor on, but they didn’t tell us, what 1-7 was. Then again, I bought on day 1, and day 1 was just crazy. No one knows anything, but everyone just want to rush in and put down a deposit.

  9. Hi, Anon at 1:26PM, if there were only 5 floor garage, then why they started selling unit from 8th floor on the first day? and I only saw price list from 8th floor all the way to 54th floor, I did not see price list from 55th to 60th on the first day either.

  10. Thanks SocketSite and the tipster for answering my original question. Not sure what the “mechanical problem” is, but if I was the crane opertator when this “problem” happened, I’m sure I would have passed out.
    Are ther such things as “quick opening” parachutes?

  11. Anan at 11:52am – Oh, please spare us the holier-than-thou, “I’m so cosmoplolitan” B.S.. I’ll help you pack your bags. California (and San Francisco, specifically) have never been at the forefront of highrise living, and that’s always been one of the key attractions for many people. So, forgive us if we take a moment to actually appreciate such an amazing and unprecedented view in our beautiful, historically low-rise city.

  12. Below F6 is garage. F6 is the lobby. F7 is the amenties room. F8-F50 are mainly 1 or 2 bedroom condo with the exception of F29/30. F51-F60 are 2 or 3 bedroom condo. Then there is about 3 stories of water tank on top of the building.

  13. anon at 2:16
    I don’t think you bought on the first day, you probably made a reservation. If you didn’t know exactly what you were reserving at that time, you had several months before you signed a contract to figure it out. I reserved on the first day, and it was made clear to me how the floor numbering system was being done – not that complicated.
    There was plently of time to figure out what you bought, and if its not what you expected, then you cancel. My guess is you didn’t cancel.
    anon at 3:49
    I saw the price list from 54-60 on the first day! I wish i had bought a few of those.

  14. rincon buyer: I am anon at 3:49, I’m not sure why I got the same information as anon at 2:16 while you saw the price list from 54-60 on the first day.
    However I only could speak for myself about my own experience on the first day, it’s true maybe it’s not that complicated about the numbering system, do you believe all the sale staffs had the same udnerstanding about it the first day too? and I did find out the sale staffs gave me different answers within the same week about the definition of “optional valet parking”, it’s true you could easily say that I could cancel out if I don’t like optional valet parking after I reserved, but they raised the price right after the first night and considering it’s still good investement for me since I got in early, but it’s just a BAD feeling and expericence when you found out you got different information than you were told the first day.
    I believe it could be the same situation as anon at 2:16, he probably could reserve higher unit under his budget if he knew the numbering system better, however the price already went up after day 1 and most of the units have been reserved in few weeks, considering you had to make immediate decision which floor/unit you wanted to reserve after long hours of waiting that night and only based on the information(could be very misleading) you were told…. although he might still signed the contract as I did, it’s just a BAD feeling and experience….
    I just simply hope people could do business more honestly while they want to be successful the same time… and where are the other buildings whose lobby is also on F6 besides 1rincon in the San Francisco?
    And I really hope they won’t get sued by doing business in this way which might put this building in deep trouble.

  15. Sorry, I’m not getting this.
    If your unit is on the tenth floor, what does it matter what is on the floors below? So what if it is five floors of parking? You are still on the tenth floor. Would you be complaining if it were five floors of office space?
    Floors are typically numbered based on how far they are from ground level, not how high they are above a lobby.

  16. ” saw the price list from 54-60 on the first day! I wish i had bought a few of those”
    rincon buyer, what are those prices? I bought a couple days later and would like to know what they went for the first night.

  17. “Floors are typically numbered based on how far they are from ground level, not how high they are above a lobby.”
    That might be the problem. Floors 1-5 are below grade parking. The lobby (floor 6) is effectively the ground level. The building only measures 55 stories above ground but has 60 “floors”.

  18. Salarywoman: I am anon at 3:49, from my own experience was I could not figure out what floor I wanted at the time and I was not sure what view I might got from the floor, so I compared the height of BridgeView and 1Rincon, I found the shorter building of BV is about 14 floor which aprox. the same height as lobby of 1Rincon, so let’s say if I wanted the similar view of 30th floor of BV, I probably only need to live approx. on the 30-16=14th floor(if the lobby is on F1). what I cared was about the view I could see from my unit instead of what under my unit.
    I did not realize till recent the lobby now becomes F6, so even I reserved the 14th floor for example, I probably only expected to see the similar view of 25th in BridgeView instead.
    So should I care about the difference of view between of 30th and 25th? Yep, I do care though and that’s why how the building numbering the floor really make difference!

  19. “Floors are typically numbered based on how far they are from ground level, not how high they are above a lobby.”
    That might be the problem. Floors 1-5 are below grade parking. The lobby (floor 6) is effectively the ground level. The building only measures 55 stories above ground but has 60 “floors”.
    More sneaky/deceptive marketing from the sales team/developer.
    If the 6th floor is the “GROUND level” floor, then why not say the lobby is the 1st floor with 5 floors of underground parking?? I looked at the construction site earlier this week and the lobby looks like it will sit on top of a mound of dirt, the top of the hill, so doesn’t that mean ground floor?
    The person that bought on the 10th floor, that should be considered the 5th floor. It’s really that simple. Is there another building with such a decrepancy in their flooring concept?

  20. I agree that on the first day is was very busy and people needed to wait to speak to a sales person. However, I can say that there were NO suprises for me…and I was talking to a sales person within the first 30 minutes of the opening! I was given all the information I needed to make a decision. The process was quite simple. I am actually amazed they were able to complete about 70 reservations for each of the 3 first days. First, one of the best things they did was to have the approximate arial views from the different floors for each unit. Aside from Infinity not being ready to sell or having any information about their project, being able to see the approximate view in a real photograph was a Huge factor in One Rincon’s success. Second, as I was looking at the views with my sales person it was Very clear that the first residential floor was floor 8. That is because there were no floorplans or photos lower than floor 8. How could you be confused by that? Worst case, you would ask what is below 8. In addition, the models, drawings, and digital movie showed all the amenities…all on floors 6 & 7! If you made a mistake in making your decision, you clearly did not do proper due diligence. I am quite shocked that with all the information and hundereds of arial photos they had available that you did not know what your were buying. That is Your Bad!

  21. If you made a mistake in making your decision, you clearly did not do proper due diligence. I am quite shocked that with all the information and hundereds of arial photos they had available that you did not know what your were buying. That is Your Bad!
    It’s this kind of thing that makes me think 1 Rincon will be the pets.com of SF real estate. In the frenzy of the opening few days of sales “due diligence” consisted of looking at a few pictures and trying to sort through some floor number shenanigans. Who needs time to think when you’re only spending several hunderd thousand dollars 😉

  22. >> Second, as I was looking at the views with my sales person it was Very clear that the first residential floor was floor 8. That is because there were no floorplans or photos lower than floor 8. How could you be confused by that?
    — I remember all the floor plans I saw the first day from that touch scren only listed from floor 8-54, not 8-60, and if you still keep that big white portfolio you got the first day, you will see they put “55-story tower” in black and white on that page of “Breathtaking by day …dazzling by night…”
    I was told the top floor(55) was maintanance room, and of course when I see the price list form floor 8-54, I will think the top residential unit is on 54th floor and what I got 14th floor is “REAL” on the 14th floor and the sale person of course did not tell me the top floor actually is “60” either.
    I am suspicious that the sales team was happy with the early success of reservation and decided to “create” another 6-story floor plan on the top of floor 54 and tried to sell more units….

  23. I see I may have posted too hastily. If the lobby is truly the ground floor and the developer is calling it the 6th floor that’s truly weird. I had assumed some sort of sky lobby arrangement (well, not quite sky lobby, but elevated). It’s done a lot and it can be way cool. But this is a different matter altogether.

  24. 1) The main tower of 1 Rincon does not share the same foundation as the townhouses along Harrison. It is a completely different building.
    2) The lobby is clearly “at grade”. The townhouses, being a different building per point #1, should not factor into how they number the tower floors.
    3) Who the f%#^% starts numbering floors at 6?!?!
    I for one am 99% certain that this floor numbering scheme was a deliberate attempt to confuse buyers and sell the lower floor units that will barely clear the townhouses in front of them.
    Regardless of any due diligence on a potential buyer’s part, it is QUITE reasonable to assume that your 10th floor unit is somewhere close to being 10 floors above the entrance.

  25. I can’t understand why anyone who reserved on the first day would be complaining? That’s why its a reservation process in the first place, neither side is obligated at this point, and if the buider has to make changes, or clarify discrepencies, this is all done prior to signing a real contract. Anyone who bought on the first day, or in the first week for that matter, has made a terrific investment.
    When you are getting the type of discount that the early buyers received and so many units are being sold in such a short time, it is expected that all the information put out might not be 100% perfect.
    I look forward to the completion of both Rincon and other projects in the area as major steps to the the development of this area.

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