Transamerica Pyramid enters new era with massive transformation | KTVU

The Transamerica Pyramid has long been one of the most distinctive and recognizable office buildings in the city. It was first completed in 1972. After undergoing a top-to-bottom renovation, it is set for a highly-anticipated grand re-opening Thursday. KTVU's Betty Yu spoke with owner and developer Michael Shvo.
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[@jaycho6747]

Bring the observation deck back

[@isaacliu896]

The guy who's renovating it was convicted for tax fraud. He doesn't care about the public

[@ZetaReticuli_]

I agree with you. It's been closed for almost 30 years now. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be brought back.

[@ashwilliams999]

Agree. Not sure a nice open space and a few eateries are what’s going to bring the public back in their droves….

[@atroyz]

Is the observation deck open again? The whole point of going there is to get the panorama view. The Redwood Park is nice…but come on.

[@kalima3683]

The rumors that downtown SF is closing down isn’t happening. The attention and focus is just moving. Betty is looking as bright and vibrant as ever.

[@smallstudiodesign]

Norman Foster Architects are world renowned/award winning - their design input will be game changing. I love San Francisco and adore this iconic building. Can’t wait to visit again and see the revitalization of this.

[@Itwillgrowback]

I love San Francisco, always will. The energy this guy has reminds me of a lot of people in Downtown Fresno who are hyped at our own revitalization as the densest place in Central Valley.

[@arthurmonay3156]

Totally support this man. Bring life back to SF. Thank You !

[@managepay]

I’d love to see a tourist area on the higher floors like empire building. Bravo to Shvo!

[@dcjime]

I love this building. Always have.

[@1A86L]

There's a lot of great restaurants and shops across the street in Jackson Square, and North Beach and Chinatown are blocks away. Good location and hope the activity picks up

[@JustRaiHere01]

I love seeing this building revitalized. My father worked on the building during its construction so it has always been a special place to me.

[@cjstanley1]

Love that building! And SF. one of the most beautiful cities on Earth.

[@Dnn411]

Very ❤👍, love this building.

[@snowwhite5382]

Best wishes ❤

[@cornucopiaofcool2144]

Cities need to adapt. Good luck SF.

[@tellintoll]

I whish them total success! I love SF this time of the year especially the first weekend of October!

[@lostpony4885]

I worked acrosd the street in the mid 90s and it was a crummy place at the street. Narrow sidewalks, took up its space right up to that and was imposing and blank. This sounds like a huge improvement to its area.

[@dizmix]

The redwood park smells amazing. 🌲🌲🌲

[@gillynova]

BEAUTIFUL OMG

[@nbaoldgirl]

I love you SF

[@JackieMontes-qn1wz]

I'm 32, $75,000 biweekly and I'm retired. I'm not boasting but something about this video reminded me of my past!!!💔

[@beverlyj.newman2480]

I'm inspired. Please spill some sugar about the bi-weekly stuff you mentioned.

[@CityBoy-ug6yj]

It's Christina Ann Tucker doing she changed my life. A BROKER- like her is what you need.

[@erichenry6683]

I raised 75k and Christina Ann Tucker is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Christina A. Tucker is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!!

[@lilianchase9045]

I started with a miserly $1500. The results have been mind blowing I must say TBH

[@PAAlexandos]

I know that woman (Christina Ann Tucker) If you were born and raised in new York you'd know too, No doubt she is the one that helped you get where you are!!!!

[@abelincoln9026]

I love S.F.

[@ThatGuy-p5z]

My dad was an electrical engineerHo worked on the Trans American Pyramid when I was a kid back in the 70s

[@SFDOM415]

i remember watching them build it

[@troygaspard6732]

A light show won't make people go back into offices.

[@SFDOM415]

yeh they just said it's 70 percent full already upon re opening.

[@pdmacguire]

Perhaps they should have done a residential conversion, and then nobody would live there, either! 😂

[@SFDOM415]

@@pdmacguire they just said it's 70 percent full already

[@craigxfleming8806]

I love SF just got back from Las vegas wich is one of my favorite cities but San Francisco is still the best city in the world bar none they have some problems but that's because everyone actually wants to live here

[@asteverino8569]

I liked the pyramid very much. Herb Caen and others were critical of it but that was to be expected. I miss reading Herb Caen every day.

[@7415_Gamer]

Iconic

[@kevincarpenter616]

The Pyramid is a sentimental favorite. I worked across the street (601 Montgomery, the end point of the Pony Express) way back in the 1980s. I was an office boy at a law firm there and one of the partners used to treat me to an end-of-day martini at the bar there from time to time. I saw the USS Missouri steam into the bay from the observation deck. I saw Clark Gable's 1935 Duesenberg on display in the lobby. Passed Melvin Belli and Charles Schwab on the street a few times. Those are fond memories, and I wouldn't mind seeing what the new owners have done but, I won't. San Francisco has lost all its charm for me. Degraded and debased by the ruling class.

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

Wonder if anyone remembers Melvin Belle’s name here. I lived in north beach and Russian hill from 89-96.

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

I used to go to Tommy Toys right across the street!

[@jakecfn]

honeslty SF should lean into the shenzen crazy futuristic design IMO cool lights and clean streets and all would really transform the bay imo

[@jlr_]

I used to eat my lunch at their park and within the last few months started eating at their benches. Glad to see its now reopening.

[@GeekFilter]

As far as I can tell, the Transamerica building is not the most photographed building on the West Coast it’s not even the most photograph building in California (that goes to the buildings in Balboa Park in San Diego).

[@norcaldeemichaels]

"Above the ground floor, the building is 70% leased" Sounds like a flex until you realize the building is pyramid shaped.

[@AlextheHistorian]

It is a flex. That's 70% of occupancy not 70% of a rectangular building of equal height.

[@DemPilafian]

The ground floor is *NOT* office space.

[@powlowful]

I don't think you know how percentages work 😝

[@PalmBeachDog]

Finished just in time for the Big One !

[@Fishbite9]

I applaud the guy trying to breath life back into downtown and SF in general but it just doesn’t address the WHY SF has all but died. Ive lived and worked in the city fir 40 years and have witnessed the steady decline in the overall quality of life due to crime and a disregard for authority, out of control shop lifting, chronic homelessness and in-your-face crazy zoned out street people asking for money, and disgusting human and dog waste on the streets. First, you are encouraged to “dress down” and blend in while on the streets, then not to wear your nice watch or jewelry, then to worry about your nice car being broken into in a parking lot or you in a parking lot laden with groceries. No facelift to a building will bring people back on mass or permanently until they not only feel safe but actually ARE safe on the streets of San Francisco. No brainer.

[@lostpony4885]

It seems to me getting rid of all affordable housing guarantees the streets wont be occupied by regular folks with jobs and goals. Thats what you saw happen over the last 40 years.

[@AGP510]

Back in my dads day you didn’t need to work there to go to the sky deck, only the rich will see that view with there own eyes, I recommend the de young museum observation deck instead if it’s still available

[@Kitty8791]

Yes, it's still free to go to the DeYoung Observation Tower.

[@pdmacguire]

What does it have to do with Transamerica? They don't even have a corporate presence in San Francisco. What sensible corporation would?

[@tys1646]

Yes

[@ginjjiigok364]

My aunt has worked at this building for over 30 years.

[@joseolvera5091]

He’s kicking himself that he bought that in 2019 because if he waited till 2024, he could’ve bought it in a fraction of what it’s worth

[@johnnytran800]

Whoever sold it on 2019 knows…

[@terenceada9140]

Betty's 👠 are 🔥@2:19

[@celebrityrog]

Holy wow those are nice

[@anotheryoutubechannel4809]

💯🙏

[@dana-pw3us]

I didn't belive the city's getting wiped off the planet... - or what was it at 3:04?

[@alpark3024]

better have security guards at parking garage to prevent car breakins.

[@beatsbyjiro8291]

They bought those LED lights on Amazon or what?

[@AlextheHistorian]

It's laser projection.

[@jonathanlandau-litewski7405]

Temu 😂

[@tys1646]

🙏

[@supremewhip]

SF will do everything but fix its problems 😂

[@marinamidori2113]

I'd like to know the brand of the reporter's sparkly fuchsia heels! Wow!

[@Philippe.C.A-R]

Hopefully the redwood park won’t be only visited and lived in by homeless between shoots

[@tylertyler82]

❤

[@NerdNest83]

How about they reopen the observation deck? That's what people want.

[@xetothex]

Okaaay but where is the cisamerica cube?!

[@brandlessheadphones]

KTVU tell your camera operator to CLEAN THE LENS/SENOR dust specs all over this news piece.

[@niosanfrancisco]

Thank GOD himself London breed wasn’t in charge. It would of been a FREAKSHOW

[@Carlos-pc5tz]

Now they can fill it with the homeless since downtown is dead and businesses closed because of crime

[@jasonborne5724]

Homeless and Migrants, since it’s a sanctuary city. C’mon SF, are you gonna leave all that beautiful space empty all night?

[@kh9242]

The Transamerica homeless shelter

[@texomajohn2916]

Who is going to rent this ?

[@tjjones33]

LA has nothing like this

[@kh9242]

San Francisco has a better skid row

[@thejuggler2497]

Finally,.....some,🥺 possible, Slightly, maybe , perhaps... Good News ......Kinda, Sorta

[@Emphasis213]

The skylounge is small.

[@johnklein233]

I wish him all the best, but I do not see how remodeling one building is going to save SF, it is too far gone and the same politicians who ruined it are still in power.

[@SFDOM415]

it's not gone. it's still here. we are still here. eating drinking pArtying having a good time. where are you ?

[@DonHendrickson-xd7jw]

@@SFDOM415 Drinking and partying while your city goes down the toilet. Sounds about right for San Franciscans. I hope you wake up someday.

[@candy9986]

🍀

[@MM-sf3rl]

Norman Foster Architecture - say no more.

[@cruellaindrodeville2478]

The park is Good property for homeless

[@kh9242]

Precisely 😂

[@flutebasket4294]

Is he aware of the fact that SF is now the world's largest open-air toilet??

[@BuckieBoy-l2r]

Is all fake . They didn’t name names . If they had leases they would say who as it would be free advertising for the new tenants paying big rents to rent in a world’s largest sewer

[@twsti5559]

More homeless will ccome

[@artworkbysteve1]

They can view the human feces better

[@JJMADD1]

San Francisco is the worst run city. This means nothing.

[@hyperreal]

Its tied with chicago

[@truman4956]

Yes, it’s right up there with the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, the Presidio….not

[@Truelib99Hobbes]

The building is more than half a century old. It is not in a popular area of the city and people aren't going to work in offices. This is in no way revitalizing the city. Rich Leasees having private spaces doesn't help the community. Almost as lame as the eatery attached to ikea.

[@flutebasket4294]

He's literally a transnational billionaire. People like that leave destruction in their wake.

[@hyperreal]

The envy and hatred in this thread is typical

[@flutebasket4294]

@@hyperreal Happy Hanukah 😁

[@rainierjacobs]

He’s a TRUMPERRRRRRRRRRR

[@Fellowtellurian]

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[@pdmacguire]

No

[@Fellowtellurian]

@@pdmacguire okay, free free Palestine 🇵🇸 ✊🏼🥳 and condemn the religious apartheid ethnostate that is Israel.

[@weekenderfam7965]

a new public space for the homeless to build an encampment

[@digabledoug]

The park is not new just upgraded. It has been there since the 70's for office workers and the public to enjoy. It has always been gated and closed at night to protect the redwood trees.

[@ahan300]

Why would it wiped off the planet? Hamas attack? 😂

[@celebrityrog]

No observation deck open still? Who cares?

[@jasminespencer3992]

Free Palestine, TX

[@sfrentals4769]

Yeah, free them from hamas

[@aubreyaubrey66699]

​@@sfrentals4769More like lack of funding. Free them from that

[@UpUpDnDnLtRtLtRtBAStart]

Yawn

[@davidmichael4002]

Another place for the "unhoused" to ruin.

[@MultiSkyman1]

Guy was convicted on felony tax fraud charges a few years back.

[@hyperreal]

Taxation is theft

[@carolremoaldo4454]

I remember my parents taking us there when it opened. You couldn't catch me dead in san francisco.

[@apollowilliams8046]

Basic af

[@apollowilliams8046]

Where the new “white people”

[@68-And-I-Owe-You-NONE]

Big L

[@ge2623]

TransAmerica Pyramid? Is that like the QueersTower in Chicago?

[@mikej6544]

This guy is an Israeli. Bought it with your tax money.