Thread by @SFGate

Salesforce tower was built to stand for centuries.

But just a few years after the skyscraper at 415 Mission was completed, Salesforce announced that the majority of its workforce will no longer be working there, or in any S.F. offices, ever again.
sfgate.com/local/article/…

When the Eye of Sauron beamed out over SF from Salesforce Tower, it struck @AndrewChamings as too close to the bone.

"When you’ve built a corporate monolith that forever changes how the city looks and feels, are you allowed to be in on the joke?"
sfgate.com/local/article/…

"Building the tallest building in a city was a common 20th century pissing match.

It was considered gauche when newspaper and sugar magnates tried to outbuild each other in SF in the 1890s, and it took an earthquake to end that ego-off."
sfgate.com/local/article/…

"These days it's more normal to donate money to get your name on a hospital, but the Salesforce Tower isn't normal.

The tower lacked any risk or ambition in design and so made up for it in sheer size, somehow managing to be obnoxious without any swagger."
sfgate.com/local/article/…

"One of the weirdest pitches in building the tower was that it would help civic neighborhood life on the block, in the same way that a freeway helps a deer.

As anyone who has strolled around Mission and First knows, that didn’t happen."
sfgate.com/local/article/…

"Buildings are not built to be enjoyed by architects, like movies aren’t made to be watched by directors.

It only matters what those living under its shadow think, so I texted a bunch of San Franciscans to sum up their opinion in one sentence:"
sfgate.com/local/article/…

Responses included:

“Yeah, I hate it,” “It’s dumb and stupid and takes up too much space,” “It should be in Dubai,” “dildo-esque,” “Why do they play movies on it, no one is watching a movie on a tower” and “I think the roof is broken.”
sfgate.com/local/article/…