Up, up, and away

With the opening of the Salesforce Tower looming in the next few weeks, there's a flurry of media attention.

Here are two very interesting articles, with lots of links to chase:

• Transbay Transformed

  As the blocks around the transit center fill up with towers, San Francisco is getting a crash course in what high-density urban living is all about.

• San Francisco’s Skyline, Now Inescapably Transformed by Tech

  While few were looking, tech ate San Francisco, a development encouraged by Mayor Ed Lee, who unexpectedly died this month. There are now 79,129 high-tech jobs in the city, about triple the number a decade ago, according to a new research report from the real estate firm CBRE.

  If you work in an office in the city, there is a 28 percent chance you work in tech. That level is exceeded only by Seattle, where the sharp growth of Amazon pushed the percentage of tech workers up to 38 percent, and by Silicon Valley itself, where it is 42 percent.

  “San Francisco has gone from being driven by multitudes of industries in 2007 to being now focused largely on tech,” said Colin Yasukochi, a CBRE analyst. “The growth feeds on itself. Tech workers are attracted to the great opportunities in the city, and the supply of workers means more tech companies come here.”

And no, I'm not moving into the new building.

And yes, it really does look like all the new office floors will be the dreadfully mistaken awfully horrible open seating arrangement.

Sigh.