Koolhaas, OMA selected to design San Francisco high-rise residential tower

Rem Koolhaas and his architecture firm, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), have been named lead architect for a 550-foot residential tower on Folsom Street in San Francisco.

OMA is teaming with developers Related California and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. on the project.

The team offered $72 million for the property, according the San Francisco Chronicle, outbidding two other groups for the rights to the property.

Led by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, the design features a tower on one end of the block with two podium buildings and a row of townhouses filling the remainder of the block, according to OMA.

The firm's New York office will serve as lead architect and master planner, in collaboration with Fougeron Architecture (low-rise/podium architect) and CMG Landscape (landscape architect). 

The property, called Transbay Block 8, is one of 11 parcels the city is selling to help fund the $4.5 billion Transbay Transit Center currently under construction, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.