Reimagining the city’s largest venue

The expansion of Moscone Center transforms San Francisco’s premier convention venue from a dark and disconnected complex of buildings into a series of light-filled spaces, seamlessly integrated with the public realm. Located in the downtown cultural district surrounding Yerba Buena Gardens, the Moscone Center spans almost 20 acres across two blocks on either side of Howard Street. The expansion project, designed by SOM with Mark Cavagnero Associates (MCA), is part of a 25-year master plan led by the same team. With its new pedestrian-friendly design that connects Yerba Buena’s new and existing open spaces, parks, and cultural facilities, the expansion vastly improves the Moscone Center and allows it to meet the evolving needs of a modern city.

Reconfiguring the campus

To remain competitive with other U.S. convention and exhibition venues, the Moscone Center needed more contiguous exhibition space—a challenging design task, given most available square footage was below grade and bounded by city streets and adjacent properties. To increase the usable area, the design team essentially turned the classic convention facility model inside-out. By reconfiguring relationships between existing spaces and building new access to existing spaces, a relatively small amount of new gross area completely reinvigorates the entire complex.

Above-grade additions and improvements include the renovation of the original Moscone North building and the construction of a new, three-story structural steel building, Moscone South, which adds 220,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom spaces. The new building’s horizontal profile meets the skyline in an elegant expression of the building’s environmental commitment. The existing below grade exhibition halls that were once disconnected from each other can now function as a single contiguous space, or can be separated to allow simultaneous use of the building by multiple smaller events.

Making connections

Throughout the renovated complex, transparent and translucent materials bring natural light to interior public spaces. The design reveals the activity within while enlivening the streetscape and the surrounding public realm.

Pedestrian-friendly space replaces 25,000 square feet of surface parking and vehicular circulation, exit ways, and ramps. The project adds more than 8,000 square feet of new public open space, including a play area for younger children. Multiple outdoor terraces provide dramatic city views and can be used for receptions and other events.

A pair of pedestrian bridges link the newly constructed and renovated Moscone facilities across Howard Street, while also enhancing connections to the surrounding public spaces. A new viaduct below Howard Street connects the exhibition hall in the existing Moscone North building with the new Moscone South building. The expansion under a working roadway was a key part of the plan to create over 500,000 square feet of contiguous underground exhibition space.

Phased delivery

The design team was tasked with completing the project in phases, to allow conferences to continue and for surrounding streets to remain open throughout construction. The team created a plan of four phases; the two largest phases each involved the construction of half of the new Moscone South Building. After each phase, new construction was certified for occupancy, allowing use of the new spaces while the next set of spaces was built.

Adaptive reuse and resiliency

To meet ambitious sustainability goals, the design team implemented architecture and engineering solutions to conserve existing elements of the building—an approach that dramatically reduced the carbon impact of construction. In its operations, Moscone Center creates less carbon emissions per visitor than any major convention center in North America. The project has achieved LEED Platinum Certification through energy efficient systems and onsite renewable energy, generated from the largest rooftop solar installation in San Francisco. It is also designed for net-positive water use, with innovative stormwater and groundwater capture and reuse strategies that result in a savings of more than five million gallons of water each year.