DISRUPTED TOWER
Location: 595 Market Street, San Francisco, California, USA
Year: 2017
Type: Academic research
Status: Completed study
Institution: California College of the Arts
Role: Sole student designer
Outputs: Research, concepts, models, drawings, details, diagrams, renderings, and prototypes
Image credits: JJ Tan
Professional involvement: Not applicable to this academic project
Disrupted Tower examines how an existing generic office tower in San Francisco might be adapted rather than replaced. Generic office towers form much of the city’s downtown skyline, creating repetitive columns of space shaped by the commercial demands of an earlier era. Despite their scale, many recede into the urban fabric and offer limited engagement with the streets and public spaces around them.
The proposal uses 595 Market Street as its subject, retaining recognizable characteristics of the existing building while introducing large cuts that disrupt its repetitive form. The positions and geometries of these openings respond to the path of the sun at selected times of day. They are intended to bring light into privately owned public open spaces within and around the tower while creating a stronger visual relationship between the building and the city.
Rather than presenting the tower as an entirely new object, the proposal treats its existing visual and structural language as a system that can be adapted. Drawings, models, façade studies, and component details explore how targeted interventions can renew a familiar building type and create a more active urban presence.