LEGO Group
LEGO's San Francisco model features a number of iconic fixtures.
- LEGO just released a model of the San Francisco skyline that includes the recently-completed Salesforce Tower, now the tallest building in San Francisco.
- While the skyscraper has been favorably received, it's located next door to two controversial buildings: the sinking Millennium Tower and the now-closed Salesforce Transit Center.
- Some adult LEGO fans were concerned that the new model didn't represent old-school San Francisco.
The Salesforce Tower is a relatively new addition to the San Francisco skyline, but it's already being memorialized by a famous toy company.
In December, LEGO released a model that situates the $1 billion tower alongside legendary monuments like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Read more: Inside LEGO's biggest factory - where they make 19 billion pieces each year
Other notable fixtures include the "painted lady" homes that were popularized by the 1990s sitcom "Full House" and two additional skyscrapers: the 850-foot-tall Transamerica Pyramid and 555 California Street, formerly known as the Bank of America Center.
At more than 1,000 feet tall, the Salesforce Tower exceeds the height of both these buildings. It is now the tallest building in San Francisco - a title that belonged to the Transamerica Pyramid for 43 years.
LEGO Group
The set retails for $49.99.
Though the Salesforce Tower has been praised for its "slender, tapering silhouette" and "homey" offices, the building has had a front-row seat to one of the biggest controversies in San Francisco's recent history.
Its neighbor, a 58-story luxury condo skyscraper known as Millennium Tower, has been tilting and sinking for almost a decade. Residents have also complained of mysterious odors, bubbling floors, cracked walls, and a giant window fissure on the 36th floor.
The Millennium Tower blames the sinking on the nearby Salesforce Transit Center, claiming that construction workers pumped too much water out of the ground while digging a massive hole in the shared land.
The Salesforce Transit Center has been plagued by similar set of issues. A month after the center opened in August 2018, a walkway along its rooftop garden started to crumble. Two weeks later, workers discovered a cracked beam on the third floor deck.
The center is now closed indefinitely, with officials admitting that there are still "a lot of unanswered questions."
LEGO Group
It takes more than 629 pieces to put the skyline together.
Despite being adjacent to the transit center, the Salesforce Tower hasn't shown any signs of instability. Its employees enjoy luxury amenities like a media center, coffee nooks, and meditation rooms on every floor.
On Halloween, the tower lit up to form an image of the Eye of Sauron, an iconic symbol from "The Lord of the Rings." The following month, it commemorated the midterm elections with an LED display that read, "Vote for Tomorrow."
In a few short months, the tower has become an emblem of San Francisco, but the decision to include it in the LEGO set stirred controversy among adult consumers.
"Some preferred to have the skyline built without it, saying that it would be more representative of the 'classic' San Francisco," one reviewer wrote on Brickset, a LEGO set guide and database. "I like that it's been included, and it certainly provides a great focal point next to the bridge."
Earlier this week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff gave his seal of approval as well.