Pelli is a former dean of the School of Architecture at YaleUniversity. His credits include number of buildings in California,including San Bernardino City Hall, and the Pacific Design Centerin Los Angeles. He also designed the United States Embassy inTokyo. In the Bay Area, he was responsible for the first twobuildings of Oakland City Center in downtown Oakland.

Chase's 655,000-square-foot headquarters building is beingdeveloped by Houston-based Hines, financed by the California PublicEmployees' Retirement System, and built by Turner Construction. Itwill be constructed of glass and dark green aluminum. The projectincorporates a 15,000-square-foot park and a kinetic sculpture byGeorge Rickey called Annular Eclipse.

The Chase H&Q lease for the entire building is the largestsingle lease transaction ever consummated in San Francisco.Completion is slated for 2002. An office broker who asked to remainanonymous said that Chase is planning to sublease 100,000 squarefeet of space in the building.