Transbay designer will be Pelli

Architect Cesar Pelli and his firm have landed a $105-million contract to design the Transbay Transit Center, a $1.2-billion bus and rail terminal in downtown San Francisco.

In the 81-year-old Pelli’s concept, trains arrive underground, buses carrying commuters to and from the East Bay board and debark four stories above street level to avoid clogging local traffic, and the glassed-in structure, being touted by the public authority that’s building it as the “Grand Central of the West,” is capped by a 5.4-acre rooftop park.

The New Haven-based Pelli, known for his Pacific Design Center in L.A. and Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, also is designing a 1,200-foot office tower next to the Transbay terminal, to be built with separate private funding from the Hines development company.

-- Mike Boehm