It was only a few months ago that some polling company called me and asked how I, a San Francisco voter, felt about the Giants’ plans for new construction in Mission Bay. I replied with my usual cynicism, and ultimately, I have not been disappointed. Someone on the neighborhood forum* Nextdoor Dogpatch mentioned that the new construction proposed by the Giants for the former garbage dump** is going to have ten towers taller*** than 120 feet. Whoa. Three of those will be 240 feet!

That’s hard to picture, so I did a bit of rendering in Google Earth.

Really, though, those buildings aren’t that much taller than the two towers at Madrone: sixteen stories or about 160 feet. Sure, all the buildings in Mission Bay look and act like vertical suburbs: devoid of street life and better to drive past than walk to — but we can hardly revolt against more units being built that can only be afforded by absentee investor-owners, right?

And when you compare it to The new Warriors Arena and Land Grab, it all looks pretty much in line.

I am deeply saddened that the arena has been redesigned. I was looking forward to making toilet jokes for the rest of the facility’s life.

Just for funsies, I artist-rendered a bunch of Dogpatch construction:

…and if you haven’t seen renderings of Pier 70, it might be surprising.

You can look at all of this yourself if you have Google Earth:
KMZ File in Google Earth

What’s included in the kmz file:
– Giants at Mission Rock
– Pier 70 / (Curbed Coverage)
– 2290 Third / DM Development / (Coverage on Curbed / 2)
– 777 Tennessee
– 901 Tennessee / (Coverage on Curbed)
– 950 Tennessee
– 1201 Tennessee
– 650 Indiana
– 800 Indiana

* neighborhood forum and anti-levity polizei

** Technically, Dogpatch was also a dump.

***