It's an open question whether Sun Microsystems, Inc. made the right choice in its reported but officially unconfirmed commitment for two buildings in William Wilson/Equity Office's Foundry Square project in San Francisco. The two-structure combo at First and Howard streets is among six projects chosen to compete for the 875,000 square feet of new downtown office space the city allows annually.

Since Catellus Development Corp. is already guaranteed 170,000 square feet for its Mission Bay project, there's really only 705,000 square feet free to allocate (plus about 70,000 square feet left over from the 2000 allocation). Foundry Square totals 525,000 square feet. The other contestants are 185 Berry, 235 Second, 601 King and 555 Mission (the largest of the projects at 650,000 square feet).