The design-builder team of Hensel Phelps and Fentress Architects recently joined U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, acting Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael P. Huerta, Mayor Edwin M. Lee and airport director John L. Martin in officially breaking ground for San Francisco International Airport’s new air traffic control tower.
The new control tower will be located between Terminals 1 and 2, east of the existing tower. It will be 228 ft tall and will feature a 650-sq-ft controller work area. The tower will sit atop a three-story, 44,000-sq-ft base building, which will house administrative offices, computer equipment, a backup generator and secure corridors through which passengers can transit between terminals. The current tower, which the FAA commissioned in 1984, is about 180 ft tall and has a 520-sq-ft controller work area.