In this Sept. 14, 2011, photo provided Sept. 19, 2011 by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Jeanne Gang, 47, an architect focusing on the geographic, social and environmental factors of residential, educational and commercial buildings, poses for a photo in Chicago. Gang is one of 22 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grants." (AP Photo/John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Jean-Marc Giboux) MANDATORY CREDIT Photo: Jean-Marc Giboux, AP

Even as development crews work on more than half a dozen towers downtown, more are in the works - and one may be designed by America's best-known female architect.

The local office of developer Tishman Speyerconfirmed Thursday that it has hired Chicago'sJeanne Gang to design a tower on one of the city-owned lots near the future home of theTransbay Transit Center. Beyond that, details are sketchy as can be.

Still, it's provocative news for a skyline where much of what is going up seems interchangeable. Gang's best-known work is Aqua, 82 stories near Millennium Park in Chicago draped in undulating concrete balconies that reach out as far as 12 feet - an effect likened to "vertical topography" on the website of her firm, Studio Gang.

"We have engaged Jeanne Gang and think she's fantastic," Carl Shannon, managing director of Tishman Speyer's San Francisco office, said in a phone message left in response to an inquiry from The Chronicle. "We're very excited about this."

In a 2006 lecture in San Francisco, Gang said that Aqua's curvaceous rippling facade is a way for a private residential building to engage the public at large. "We want to give something to the person who's a pedestrian, acknowledge that their viewpoint is different," Gang said before adding dryly, "that's not something you talk about with the developer."

Since then she's been the recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, the first architect to win the grant. Studio Gang was presented a 2013 National Design Award from theSmithsonian Institute's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Shannon cautioned that the project is at a very early stage, with no designs for public consumption. That's assuming it ever gets far enough along for us to see - development proposals come and go during economic booms.

Still, New York's Tishman isn't just passing through town. The firm is building a pair of residential towers dubbed Lumina on Folsom Street. Also under construction is 222 Second St., a 26-story office tower that Tishman broke ground on last fall.

As for Gang, she has a local tie that's unique.

In December, when Julia Morgan was awarded a posthumous Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects, a full 56 years after her death, it was Gang who made the presentation in Washington, D.C., on Morgan's behalf.

> via sfgate.com