SAN FRANCISCO - Architects unveiled three competing plans for a new downtown skyscraper and transit hub that would be the West Coast's tallest building.

"Today is an historic day," Mayor Gavin Newsom said as he pulled away a black cloth covering the three elaborate models at a City Hall ceremony Monday.

The three designs range in height from 1,200 feet to 1,375 feet — each much taller than the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid, currently San Francisco's tallest building. At 1,018 feet, the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles is now the West Coast's tallest building.

Each tower design tops a transit terminal that would become the Bay Area's regional transportation hub, with plans calling for bus service, commuter rail, and eventually high-speed rail.

The designs also emphasize environmental sustainability, with such design elements as rooftop wind turbines that would generate power for the complex.

A jury that includes architects, engineers and a transportation expert will recommend a winning design later this month to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a regional agency created in 2001 to oversee the construction of the new transit terminal.

The authority is expected to name a winner in September and the transit station is slated to open by 2014.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle