[Photo by Bhautik Joshi for Curbed SF]
The Moscone Center wants to add a 500,000-square-foot addition to its site, and decided to look down...as in underground. Architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Mark Cavagnero Associates were hired a few months ago to come up with expansion options, and the project team has chosen to go under Howard Street. The underbelly of the center is now mostly kitchens and meeting rooms, which would be moved to other locations to make room for large-scale meeting spaces. Most of the money for the project would come from an additional half-percent surcharge that would be added to hotel bills for the next 32 years.
Other additions are also planned for over the entrances to the Moscone North and South buildings for more meeting rooms and ballrooms. Currently the entrances are set back with huge loading docks along Howard Street, so additions would bring the building to the sidewalk and add retail and restaurants for a better connection with the street and make it more pedestrian-oriented. There's also talk of a mixed-use development at the Moscone parking garage, which could add a hotel in addition to more convention spaces. The overarching goal is to make the whole thing feel more like a campus complex, with all the components tied together. If all goes well, construction would start by the end of 2014 and the building would open by 2017 or 2018.
· $550M Moscone project takes shape [SF Business Times]
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