Remember those childhood building blocks? Oceanwide Center was meant to be San Francisco’s ultimate architectural construction. Sadly, this ambitious project remains unfinished.
Oceanwide Center is located in the South of Market neighborhood. It was designed as a mixed-use skyscraper complex. The plan included two towers. However, construction is currently on hold.
The taller tower at 50 First Street was planned to reach 910 feet. It would have featured 34 stories of office space. Above that, 19 floors would house around 111 residential units. The tower’s base was to include a six-story public space called an “urban room”. Exterior bracing and a tapering design would echo Chicago’s John Hancock Center. Upon completion, it would have been San Francisco’s second-tallest building after Salesforce Tower. It would surpass the Transamerica Pyramid.
The shorter tower at 512 Mission Street was planned to reach 605 feet. It would feature a 169-room Waldorf Astoria San Francisco hotel. The hotel would occupy the first 21 floors. Above, 33 floors would hold about 154 residential units.
The land beneath Oceanwide Center was rezoned in 2012. This was part of the Transit Center District Plan. Developer David Choo initially assembled the parcels. In 2007, he proposed towers reaching 1,200 feet. Renzo Piano was to design them. However, Choo sold the property during the 2008 financial crisis.
TMG Partners and Northwood Investors acquired the property in 2013. They purchased it out of bankruptcy court for $122 million. They hired Foster + Partners and Heller Manus Architects to redesign the project. In 2015, Oceanwide Holdings, based in Beijing, bought the property for $296 million. A groundbreaking ceremony occurred on December 8, 2016.
Construction on the shorter tower stopped in 2019. Economic conditions were to blame. The taller tower’s construction halted in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the delay. Legal disputes blocked the sale of the stalled project in 2024.
Walter P Moore was the structural engineer for the tower. They designed the multi-story exterior diagonal braces. They also worked on the buckling-restrained braces in the building core. The exterior braces span up to seven stories. These braces use both structural steel and buckling-restrained brace segments. They provide seismic resistance and an iconic exterior design.
Originally envisioned as a $1.6 billion project, Oceanwide Center was intended to revitalize downtown. However, owners have failed to pay property taxes since 2020, with debts of nearly $13 million.
Darlene Chiu Bryant of GlobalSF described the fallow site as a symbol of lost potential. The abandoned construction site serves as a stark reminder of unfulfilled promises in San Francisco’s evolving skyline. What could have been a gleaming testament to architectural innovation now stands as a silent question mark.