“ on a dark winter day the light reflecting off the awning will light up the bus deck,” Turchon says, noting that the qualities of the light change distinctly with each season. To avoid making transit spaces feel claustrophobic, the design incorporates as much natural light as possible, including the dramatic centerpiece light column.Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the firm behind Salesforce Tower, is the architect of record.

But those rail-related plans are part of a planned second phase of construction, which hasn’t been budgeted or fully planned yet.A planned BART pedestrian tunnel “will connect the east end of the Transit Center’s Lower Concourse with the BART/Muni Embarcadero Station” via a block-long passage under Beale Street.The 1.3-mile Caltrain extension, bringing peninsula trains downtown instead of to their present Fourth Street terminus, will cost more than the entire first phase of the transit center ($2.6 billion), and has only just begun preliminary study.Agencies include AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit, Greyhound, Muni, SamTrans, WestCAT Lynx, Amtrak, Paratransit, and (fingers crossed) High Speed Rail.In fact, some-those related to the state’s high-speed rail plans-don’t themselves even exist yet. Note, however, that 100,000 a day is a long-term goal, as some of the relevant agencies won’t connect to the station right away.

All of those people are going to come in via a dozen transit agencies that will connect with the building.

TJPA calculates that the new Transit Center will service more than 45 million passengers per year, or about 100,000 on an average weekday.

The erection of the Bay Bridge combined with gas rationing during the war made the terminal extremely popular in the 1940s, serving 26 million people annually. The original Transbay Terminal dated to 1939.

Salesforce transit center & park