Cranespotting

Every crane on every corner tells a story, and the two dozen-plus steel jibs currently soaring overhead have this to say about San Francisco: We’re not messing around. With the economy booming and the cork finally popped on mega-projects that have been bottled up in the pipeline since the Newsom era, there are nearly 150 major real estate developments under construction in the city, and another 145 or so are through the approval process. 

What follows is not a comprehensive list of San Francisco’s biggest and costliest developments, though some certainly fit that bill. Rather, it’s a selective panorama of the 50 buildings that best tell the story of where San Francisco is headed, whether we’re ready or not. Of the many projects underway, four of them were designed by SOM.