Huge project’s tiny details
Little things matter to architects on $2.2 billion transit center
Randy Volenec and Mona Marbach peered through a glass wall into what will be the Grand Hall of the Transbay Transit Center, a threestory complex that spans two city blocks and has a $2.2 billion budget.
Forget the big stuff. They were scrutinizing small triangles of white caulking, and they did not like what they saw.
“It’s a bit funky — unsightly,” Marbach said, pointing to the adhesive splashes where huge panes of glass meet atop round columns.
“The mullion caps should have been installed better,” Volenec nodded. Then he turned to a visitor and laughed. “Not that people are likely to be up here staring at the mul-
lions.”
Maybe not, but that’s why the two architects make the rounds at the construction site every other week. They’re on the lookout for what’s not right, trying to ensure that the complicated project, when it opens next spring, will live up to more than a decade of hype.
Volenec is a senior associate at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the Connecticut firm selected in 2007 by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority to design the immense station for buses and trains that extends from Beale Street almost to Second Street. Its main entrance will be a plaza at Mission and Fremont Streets. Marbach is with Adamson Associates, the executive architect for the project.
Marbach and another architect from Adamson are based in San Francisco, spending each day at the construction site to keep an eye on how things are going with a project where roughly 700 workers from 35 contractors are at work. Volenec flies west twice a month to help resolve any problems and sign off on full-size mockups of what’s coming next.
“Our job is to make sure that the product lives up to what the client paid for, and that it meets the expected standards,” Volenec said.
Straightforward as this might sound, there’s a limit to how finicky architects can be with a project the scale of the transit center.
“We always have to pick our battles — what’s important,” Volenec said. “It’s a judgment call all the time.”
With the clumsy caulking — which should have been a thin, even line — architects aren’t likely to convince the Joint Powers Authority that the aluminum mullions for the 32-squarefoot panels of glass should be taken out and reinstalled, this time lined up more crisply. Instead, the request was that caulking be reapplied at the clumsily done junction points.
By contrast, this was Volenec’s fourth visit where the to-do list included the rounded metal casings for the columns on the third-floor platforms where commuters will wait for their buses.
The thin aluminum panels that wrap the steel to form a circle are supposed to meet with clean lines. They don’t, though there’s been progress. Worse, an exit sign designed to be attached to the ceiling had been installed on a column. The ceiling is straight, the columns are round and even a casual visitor could see the mistake.
“Some contractors learn fast,” Volenec said. “Some of them we worry about daily.”
Unlike Volenec, Marbach has an office on Mission Street and is a constant presence on the job site. No two visits are alike; after flat glass was installed as paving in one stretch of the rooftop park — an opaque surface strong enough for people to walk across — she stood underneath while water was poured across the surface, making sure there were no leaks. Three times. “Every time work on something is starting, there’s a pre-construction meeting and a test,” Marbach said. “We make sure the first section is right; then they do the next 100,000.”
Anything remotely technical has written specifications spelling out what’s expected of a contractor. Even the visual quality of plastering is keyed to preset standards, with explanations of how it should look from 2 or 10 or 40 feet.
“We can only reject what’s not in the specifications,” Marbach said. “It’s not us deciding what we like while we’re standing there.”
Volenec agreed: “You can’t have an epiphany on site.”
Though sometimes, you can.
Two huge cross-beams span the escalators that lead to the third floor, adding structural support. Each comes with a bird-deterrent strip across the top, visible only if you peer down to the Grand Hall.
Since Volenec’s last visit, the beams had been painted a vivid white, and, as specified, the gray strips had been applied. The color contrast caused Volenec to wince.
“Something like this, we’ll talk with the contractor,” he said, and ask if they can move the pair of gray strips to out-ofsight spots where they’re needed, and replace them with white ones, easily obtained.
“We’ll be honest with them, and tell them ‘we messed up,’ ” Volenec said. “That’s why we try to stay on good terms with everyone, and not piss them all off.”