We've made no secret here at SFist of our support for actual tall buildings in our fair city, where some dumb ordinance from the 80s created by people scared of shadows has kept all our office buildings as uniform boxes all the exact same height. Well, thankfully, the Planning Commission yesterday approved the environmental-impact report for the Transbay Tower and the adjacent buildings that will go with it, clearing the way for San Francisco to get a new tallest building.

As reported earlier, the revised design for the tower now clocks in at 1,070 feet, which itself was a compromise with the shadow-phobic. (The original design proposed by architects Pelli Clarke Pelli was 1,200 feet tall, but the revised design will still be the tallest building west of the Mississippi.) The top 150 feet of that is a sculptural, semi-transparent lattice thing that also decreases shadows cast by the tower, which some complain will reach as far as parks in Chinatown.

But whatever! Suck it, shadow activists! The buildings, which include as many as six other towers around the SoMa environs of up to 850 feet, will be allowed, and the future of San Francisco architecture is looking up.

[Chron]

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Jury's Transbay Terminal Pick: Pelli Clarke Pelli