Salesforce Tower in the context of South of Market, San Francisco

César Pelli (October 12, 1926 – July 19, 2019) was an Argentine-American architect who designed some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Three of his most notable buildings are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the World Financial Center in New York City, and the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. The American Institute of Architects named him one of the ten most influential living American architects in 1991 and awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1995. In 2008, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presented him with The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wilshire Grand Center is a 1,100-foot (335.3 m) skyscraper in the financial district of downtown Los Angeles, California, occupying the entire city block between Wilshire Boulevard and 7th, Figueroa, and Francisco streets. Completed in 2017, it is the tallest building (if including the spire) in the United States west of Chicago. Though the structural top (in this case, the 300-ft spire) of the Wilshire Grand surpasses L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower by 82 ft (25 m) and the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco by 30 ft (9.1 m), the roofs of both the U.S. Bank Tower and the Salesforce Tower are higher than the roof of the Wilshire Grand. The Skyscraper Center lists the Wilshire Grand Center as the 15th-tallest building in the U.S. and the 95th-tallest in the world. It won the Structural Engineering Award 2019 Award of Excellence from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The building is part of a mixed-use hotel, retail, observation decks, shopping mall, and office complex. The Wilshire Grand Center includes 67,000 square feet (6,225 m) of retail, 677,000 square feet (62,895 m) of Class A office space, and the 889-room InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. The hotel features the tallest open-air bar in the Western Hemisphere. The development of the complex is estimated to cost $1.2 billion.

The Transamerica Pyramid is a pyramid-shaped 48-story modernist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the city's Financial District, it was the tallest building in San Francisco from its completion in 1972 until 2017 when the newly constructed Salesforce Tower surpassed its height. The building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, which moved its U.S. headquarters to Baltimore, Maryland. The building is still associated with the company by being depicted on the company's logo. Designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, the building stands at 853 feet (260 m). On completion in 1972 it was the eighth-tallest building in the world. It is also a popular tourist site. In 2020, the building was sold to NYC investor Michael Shvo, who in 2022 hired Norman Foster to redesign the interiors and renovate the building.

The San Francisco Transbay development is a completed redevelopment plan for the neighborhood surrounding the Salesforce Transit Center site, South of Market near the Financial District in San Francisco, California. The new transit center replaced the since-demolished San Francisco Transbay Terminal, and new skyscrapers, such as Salesforce Tower, took advantage of the height increases allowed through the San Francisco Transit Center District Plan. The sale of several land parcels formerly owned by the state and given to the managing Transbay Joint Powers Authority helped finance the construction of the transit center.