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Salesforce's literal view from the top

Looking out from the tallest building in San Francisco, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff emphasizes the importance of community, inclusion and philanthropy.

James Martin
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
James Martin
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1 of 15 James Martin/CNET

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Thursday presided over an official "topping off" ceremony for the Salesforce Tower, now San Francisco's tallest building at 1,070 feet.

At the ceremony, Benioff quipped, "My grandfather used to tell me that the future of San Francisco is rising up."

Here, Benioff signs the final symbolic steel beam.

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2 of 15 James Martin/CNET

The final steel beam, signed by hundreds at a ceremony including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and California Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom, is hoisted into the air along 1st Street.

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3 of 15 James Martin/CNET

A long, slow ride in a rattling exterior construction elevator took the media up to the 61st floor. The building will include more than 1.4 million square feet.

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4 of 15 James Martin/CNET

"Building tall buildings is fundamentally an aspirational act, and an act of optimism," said the senior principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli during the ceremony. The architectural firm designed Salesforce Tower as well as the under-construction Transbay Terminal seen here below.

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Even the high rise apartment buildings and construction projects of San Francisco's booming South Beach neighborhood look tiny from up here.

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Looking down and out into the outer reaches of San Francisco's Potrero Hill.

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Downtown San Francisco standards like traffic and construction are seen from the 60th floor of the new Salesforce Tower at the corner of 1st and Mission Street.

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Looking west to the Golden Gate Bridge with the Palace of Fine Arts dome in the foreground.

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9 of 15 James Martin/CNET

Benioff said the top floor, the 61st, will become a community gathering space called the Ohana Floor after the Hawaiian word for family. The space, with sweeping views of the city, will be a Salesforce conference and event space during business hours. At night and during the weekends, the space will be available to a wider community of partners and nonprofits for use free of charge.

Looking out over the San Francisco Bay, the taller of the buildings in the distance is the residential One Rincon Hill South Tower, which was completed in 2008 and stands 60 stories and 641 feet tall.

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10 of 15 James Martin/CNET

Looking out towards another burgeoning San Francisco neighborhood, Mission Bay, is the site of the under-construction Golden State Warriors home arena at 3rd and Mission Streets. In the lower left is AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team.

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11 of 15 James Martin/CNET

Looking down and out into the outer reaches of San Francisco's Potrero Hill.

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Another sweeping view of San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

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Highway 101 twists through the SoMA neighborhood and into Potrero Hill.

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14 of 15 James Martin/CNET

From up here, we're looking down on San Francisco's Financial District, dense with many of the city's tallest buildings. The famed Transamerica Pyramid was the former tallest building in San Francisco at 853 feet tall.

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CBS Interactive's 6 story headquarters at 235 Second Street in San Francisco looks tiny from up here.

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