Four Seasons Tower transformed a long unused site on Market Street into San Francisco's premier hotel destination and brought permanent residents into the business district, which fulfilled the city's goal to transform the neighborhood into a 24-hour destination. The building's design combined high-end residential condominiums with a 5-star hotel, fitness facilities, and retail space. The vertical stacking of functions resolves the diverse programmatic requirements efficiently, while allowing different kinds of users to interact.
The tower's "L" shaped design takes full advantage of the majestic city views, forming a broad face to Market Street as onto Yerba Buena Gardens. Its metallic skin is composed of clear glass and silvery aluminum. The glass window wall adopts a subtle, bluish hue that filters through to the interior space.
The juxtaposition of horizontal mullions against a plane of deep vertical fins breaks down the tower's volume and responds to the diversity of scales and geometric complexity in its context. The subtle cant of the curtain wall further directs the eye into the new pedestrian passageway, which leads to the city's cultural center.
The program includes a 260-room, five-star Four Seasons hotel with ballroom functions; 50,000 square feet of retail space; 142 condominiums; and a 70,000 square foot Sports Club / LA. A 300-car below-grade parking garage and service dock were connected to existing loading docks of a neighboring hotel.