RIPPLE
a tall tower by the bay
collaboration with SOM San Francisco on structural integration in skyscraper design and SOM Chicago on skyscraper vortex shedding analysis.
Potrero Hill, San Francisco, CA, USA
In plan, floors imitate water rippling as if a rock was tossed into the ocean.
My project teammates and I pulled themes of ripples in directly from San Francisco’s Central Waterfront, just steps away from the site. The connectivity of the building extends past its footprint, creating lasting ripples in the Dopatch neighborhood.The lobby’s form naturally pulls passerbys into the podium, where they are then swept up by the interactive core. People are encouraged to move fluidly through both the building and the site as a whole. The water inspired structure looks to the ocean, just a block away from the tower. We experimented with the interactions between circles-- studying what exact rhythm of overlap and separation would create a beautiful balance of unique voids and ideal forms. A rock dropping in water creates the center of a ripple, which translates into columns in the building, with floor plates mimicking the ripple itself.
