Salesforce Transit Center Collaborator Receives Nobel Prize

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects is pleased to hear that our friend and design collaborator Roger Penrose recently received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Considered one of the most prestigious awards in the world, the Nobel Prize is given each year for achievements that have greatly benefited humankind. Roger Penrose was recognized for his transformative work in the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.

The eminent British mathematical physicist served as a consultant for the façade design of Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco. The gentle, undulating wall of the transit center incorporates the Penrose Rhombus Tiling, a groundbreaking geometrical pattern that can be extended infinitely without repeating itself. Penrose’s pattern is heralded by mathematicians and physicists for ultimately giving birth to the new field of quasicrystals, which spawned discoveries in material science and biology. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects chose the pattern for the exterior of Salesforce Transit Center to symbolize the interconnections among mathematics, science and art, which is deeply engrained in the technologically advanced culture of the Bay Area.