San Francisco – Placemaking Tour – Transamerica Pyramid and Redwood Park
Redwood Park Precinct
The Transamerica Pyramid, still the second-tallest building in San Francisco and it hits different when you’re standing right below it.
I first fell in love with this building back in 1991, when I was a backpacker in San Fran on my way to Carmel Valley, two hours south, to be a counsellor at a ranch summer camp. Each city I went to would get to a high place and look back across it and Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Memorial Tower stood out, along with the Golden Gate Bridge of course. The Pyramid still made an impact last year and again this year when I was over there.
It’s sharp, geometric, almost futuristic even though it was completed back in 1972. And that date mattered more than usual on the day I visited, because the ground-floor gallery was hosting an Eames exhibition showcasing their final decade of work, covering the period 1968 to 1978.
It was a great alignment of modern and edgy architecture pushing the boundaries; and inside, Eames furniture exploring new ideas about how people work, sit, move and collaborate. Two different disciplines, shaped during the same era, both imagining a more thoughtful workplace. That period planted the seed for the modern workplace furniture we know now, lighter, more human, more intentional.
I loved that connection. It made the whole experience feel integrated, it made sense, like the precinct wasn’t just hosting an exhibition, it was having a conversation sharing its own history and it was a reminder for me that well considered design endures no matter what the subject.
The ground plane that makes it all work
What surprised me most, though, was the ground plane. It did not expect to come across a redwood grove, of this scale in the middle of the Financial District. Redwood Park is still one of the most unexpected urban groves anywhere, 50 or so mature redwoods creating shade, a calm and softness. The space felt calm but activated: people grabbing coffee, a couple of tables already set up for ping-pong, clusters of outdoor seating, a nearby bar getting ready for the lunch crowd. It resembles the feeling of the Redwood forest further down the Californian coast.
Fun fact: Redwood trees absorb a very high percentage of their water intake via their leaves from sea fog that rolls in and out, up to 30-40%, higher in summer.
It’s the kind of environment designers talk about all the time, but rarely get right. The precinct doesn’t overpower you; it quietly invites you in, I felt welcomed. The new links to surrounding blocks make it feel porous, not private allowing you to wander through. You move from bookshops to boutique stores to architectural studios to the redwoods without ever feeling like you’re crossing a boundary.
That’s what good place-making looks like: cities that feel stitched together, not segmented.
Why this precinct stuck with me
What stayed with me wasn’t just the architecture, it was the layers. The redwoods, the Eames chairs, the activated public space, the boutique shopfronts in original period building, the big tapering tower that somehow doesn’t feel intimidating, more so inspiring.
It all felt like a reminder that cities thrive when design brings people in, not pushes them away. And for me, standing there in the morning sun, coffee in hand, exhibition on one side and a forest on the other, it was one of the clearest examples of place-making done right.
San Francisco delivered. Again. Salesforce Tower tomorrow. Check out its story in the next article.
Article written by Stuart Keith, Business Director
Articles
04.11.2025
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