building their along howard st. just off the corner, and we want to bring the base of the building along so that it carries that line across and relates to that part of the neighborhood. intentionally sits back there, what it reveals, and along the base of the building, we really wanted to make that march use of glass and big, movable doors, so when those doors part, that lobby and that place -- cafe tables really become part of the light of the city, really becomes part of the life of the neighborhood along with the articulation. here it is with the street trees, so that becomes kind of an arcade with the trees, clear glass buildings and movable doors, really becomes very lively, and a part of the city

would be kind of a blank for sought that is more of a fortress -- blind -- blank facade that is more of a fortress. they are looking along second street. the reveal their -- there that reveals that four-story base. the street trees that i think are important to give the building scale between it and our building. here are the materials which we can examine the clear glass, the stainless steel large portals, the clear glass as the building rises up, so very simple, very, i think, aesthetically pleasing materials. the main corridor there at

second avenue of howard street, as it moves along, as it relates to the life of the city, the big doors, the four story baseman reveal, the carry along that character height -- basement real comedy carry along that character hike. certainly open to any questions. >> i just want to say we have worked very hard to pull this together. we have our team here who would be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. >[inaudible] and public comments. >> good afternoon,

commissioners. fortunate enough yesterday to attend the transbay terminal ground-breaking, and a couple of buzz words that were said over and over again were "grand central station of the west" and building for the future. i think this is a gray example of how we can complement this new terminal. 11 separate methods of transit terminating in one central location, and this project is a stone's throw away, just adjacent wall past on the walk back to the office, after using my new clipper card, by the way, and saw once again in the parking lot -- or a full parking lot, but flat, underutilized piece of land. the project will be utilizing clear glass, which will be better for life conservation and energy management, and i look forward to going on the bay view

project for san francisco. thanks. commercial miguel: thank you. >> it is half a miracle to seek a proposal for an office project. we thought a minor one not too long ago, but this one really is substantial, and it is exactly where office is supposed to go -- san francisco. for the most part, it is exactly the height at which is supposed to be, and is tied exactly into the transit corridor we have in that part of san francisco. provides further customers for the businesses in that part of san francisco. it is pretty much everything we want in that part of san francisco. the minor exemption for the height of one part of project, that is a slob they seem to of explained very well by their respect for the sale of the

adjacent historic structure, so i ask you to approve this project and let us get on with it. thank you. commissioner miguel: thank you. >> [inaudible] commissioner miguel: i go on cards. if you do not put a card in, you have to go at the end. i realize that, but most people who need a block of time put in a card, so after the cards, i will. then a good afternoon. i am representing turner construction. we're at 34 3 cents in st., downtown san francisco. the accident involving construction over 40 years ago,

and we are happy to say we have been working with teh a &e team for about three years. it will be in excess of $100 million and employ 300 union workers on an average of 150 labors over the course of the two-year project, so i would like to encourage you to approve the project. we are very supportive. a lot of our sub-contractors are looking forward to putting the tool belts back on and being part of a very successful project. having been personally involved in the trans bay terminal project, i believe this project will be very complementary to the skyline in and around the neighborhood. thank you very much. commissioner miguel: thank you. professor. >> [inaudible]

so many electronic gadgets here. there will be a series of bus speaking. i want to go back to an issue i talked about when we had the comments on the eir, which is that the intention of the planning department, the intention of the city for this area was to really balance out a whole lot of issues, and the issues were the historic district, building design heights to protect sunlight -- in this particular block, the only areas that are protected in

the south of market are montgomery and second street. the others are on the north of market, but this was the area that the cities he wrote in on as very important to protect it. they are seeking an office allocation, which gives another layer of evaluation of -- is this the best project? i would point out how many office allocations have been granted that have not been used. you have renewed them. you have about seven to eight projects that have gotten allocation that have not been built, and that is a reflection of the need for office space and the demand for office space. this project is coming to you on a site that the planning code and the downtown plan, the -- designates as a highly sensitive site foreshadows.

what they are doing is they are balking out the building. they are asking for as much as you can possibly get -- you cannot get more square feet than they are asking for. it is an impossibility. you cannot get more height because they already have to change the height. you cannot get -- unless you totally through the code out -- more square feet. with the limited amount of space that they can get, they are still stretching the floor plate. they are going maximum floor plate and then some, and not only for the individual floor, but for the average in the lower power. when you add this all up and you have not gone through the shadow plan, you are having shadows. i would point out that these are the shadows in the eir. this is 12 noon on march 21.

you can see this entire area. when it is black, it means there is no shadow there at all. you have all been doing shadow diagrams for a long time. you knew the drill as well as i do. then, you have the shadows on september 21. again, these are totally new. this is new, when people are going through. december, we kind of thing that december is december, but all of this right now is sunny. look at this long area that currently is sunny in december at 10:00. andy eir -- and the eir tells you is going to be in shadow. you are being asked to grant exception after exception after exception and a rezoning, and what you do not have is an alternative that honestly deals with this. you do not have something in the eir that is maximum sunlight

protection. you have bits and pieces. it is fairly cynical. i could use this exception. i will give you another this -- another exception in other alternate. you stretch out all of the various ways that they could improve the project, but you only analyze this little thing, and they loaded up. kill of the ground floor open space if you make us do this alternative. it is fairly cynical. the neighbors are going to talk about other issues, but i want you to focus on the intention of the code. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. thank you for taking the time to hear us today. i am a resident of 246 second

st., and my roots are not in san francisco for very long period has been 10 years. i do have a passion for thinking about preserving the historical integrity, and a look in the field and the fabric and context of our neighborhoods, it is essentially a fortress. if you live near the historic district, no fortresses are to be found, and i find it disappointing that that type of action would be used. while my roots here are short, my commitment to san francisco neighborhoods has been demonstrated, i think, in a number of ways. i'm an employee and employer of a biotech in mission bay. i am an appointee to the citizens advisory committee where i have worked very hard with the redevelopment agency to honor what is happening in the mission bay district. citing page 61 of the comment, it talks here about -- that the

conservation district is nevertheless one of the few architecturally significant areas remaining -- largely intact in the south of market area. so i struggled with this. i support progress. i support change, but i think it needs to be done in the context of the existing neighborhoods, businesses, residents, and what really makes and needs the fabric of the south of market, neighborhoods. the eir also on page 61, talks about masonry, terracotta, many things based in stucco. the color palettes tend toward flight or medium birth pallets. i see nothing of this flavor whatsoever in the plan for what is called a tri-patriot glass panel steel curtain structure. it just does not fit. while i appreciate the comments that they have done their best to keep the height of the first tower consistent with the historical building, that is great, but i do not think it goes far enough to address the

historical part of the neighborhood. i would like to remind the commissioners that there is a key area there for the conservation, and i think it is important that we continue to on that. i am all for change. i am all for growth, but why is it that this building is given so many considerations for variances for the zoning. i do not understand why there would be so much given to one particular office space. i know the commission has the effort is not necessarily focused on economic growth, but there is 7 million square feet of vacant office right now in san francisco, and i think the developer is disingenuous and will probably flit this, and we will have no sense of what will happen in the future with the neighborhood. they are asking us to turn away from our history, the fabric, and the context within the neighborhood and the immediate environment, so what i would like to conclude with is that while the plan is one which i think is a field full billing, i

will say, being in architecture and construction myself, i think it is a beautiful building, but ask the commissioners to please consider to not let this project be the first one to go down in your history is granting three variances on one project. we asked for a building that honors the zoning. we ask for a building that is compliant. the developers have left the resources to go back and design something beautiful that has been in the architectural and history context for the neighborhoods. thank you for your time. >> i would like to speak to the -- what i would consider the bait and switch nature of the alternatives that were presented where it seems like all of the alternatives had some very good suggestions in them, that they address some of the shortfalls and weaknesses of the

proposed projects, but we got the switch, and every time, we went back to what the sponsor one it as their base project. typically, i work with some of these projects in terms of the eir's their alternatives, and they were always used in a collaborative process to make a better product, taking some of the best things from the alternatives to make a better project. specifically, alternative b, which is the compliance with planning code. it is approximately the same density and square footage of the project sponsor, but it is a less bulky building and the residential neighbor's perspective. there is setbacks and steps into the buildings on all four sides , and you would not need an extension of the boat limitation, but for some reason, the sponsor chose to put in a punitive poison pill and to take away the open space on the ground floor when they have no

reason to. they are building the same amount of square footage. they put in a punitive -- something to take away from the residence, and it put in an open space on floors 9 and 18, which really is not public open space by any practical measure. same thing with alternatives. reduce project alternatives, to identify the draft eir is the environmental superlative, and it is 152% for 115,000 more square feet than what was previously approved for this exact project site. again, they reduced the corner area ratio from 18.1 to 13.6 to 1. they reduce the traffic impact and significantly reduces the shadow impact on the -- at yerba buena and it takes away all the proposed shadow at the transit center city parks and reduces

wind impact. there is still some unmitigatable traffic impact, but they say the return on investment is not acceptable to the project sponsor. and that is not supportive of purely a subjective statement -- that is a purely subjective statement that is not supported by documentation as to why that return on investment is not there. this alternative by staff is not promoting the city's in final policy. it is completely unsubstantiated because this alternative has been identified as the environmental superior alternative. the project would still be legal, and the project would be 52% more square footage than has previously been approved for this site. the preservation alternative, again, was rejected. it has no impact on the square footage and has no impact on how many hours union construction workers are going to be set able to spend working on this project, and we discussed the

aesthetic impacts from the neighbor's perspective. new rezoning alternatives, switches the bulk of the structure shifting away from existing structures and residences. and the staff comments the lack of flexibility on design without providing any examples to support this objection. same thing going back to alternative c. they took the parking component out of alternative c and then said that it is not competitive with the office buildings because it does not have parking. well, who told them to take the parking lot? again, they just put a poison pill in the alternatives and make it less appealing to incorporate some of the aspect of that alternative. again, the alternatives reflecting planning code compliance are frequently

referenced in the documents as being in feasible due to economic reasons, but this is solely the presentation of the project sponsor. thank you. commissioner miguel: is there additional public comment on this item? >> i would like to expand on the safety aspects. i would like to expand on the safety aspect of this building. after our last hearing, one of the commission is mentioned that she had concerns about the safety of children in this neighborhood, the families that live within 1,600 feet of this proposed project, and she even mention that she sees kids going

on field trips, holding each other by the hand, and the reason for that is that we are blessed, we are between two great parks -- yerba buena an dsouth park. that explains the children, in strollers, field trips, etc. it is the fact that traffic volume causes injuries, and district 6, as i mentioned before, has the highest incidence of pedestrian injury in san francisco. traffic is already a nightmare. this project will bring 1640 new workers into the neighborhood. given the fact that the number of children under the age of nine that go to the various preschools i mentioned earlier, that 15% of the 10 buildings have children -- i'm sorry, that 15% of each building has

children, each is irresponsible to allow this project to go on. imagine the case that impact on traffic cannot be mitigated -- we disagree. the smaller building, the same height involved as the immediate surroundings buildings will mitigate the impact of traffic. we have said from the beginning we have nothing against anyone building on this side. all we are asking and what we want you to ask is a code- compliant building. -compliant building, the same size as the adjacent structures, would be a much better neighbor for all of us. thank you. >> good morning -- good afternoon, commissioners. i think this project shows how difficult it is for transitional

neighborhoods to determine what should be the overriding consideration. i will tell you that san francisco invited my family and myself and my neighbors to move downtown and spend the money and raise our families and used car share and transit and work and live in the same place, contribute back with property taxes, sales tax, supporting local businesses, and we were happy to take that invitation based on the rule book that was presented to us. here are the rules for zoning. here are the rules for wind, shadows. we said ok, we will take this invitation and move in. he did not say we will stop when a project sponsored does not want to follow those rules anymore. it is an important and difficult

decision for you to make. i agree with the previous speaker that a new office building, a new building of any kind is a miracle in san francisco right now. i'm going to suggest to you that it would be just as much of a miracle if it followed the code. i would welcome a building on this side, especially one that followed the rules. if there were a grocery store included, i would probably come down here and cheerlead for it. it is an important consideration to have a building on that lot. we just want one that works for our neighborhood and our community. commissioner miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i want to talk a little bit to you this afternoon from the perspective of the corporate occupier and the users of these buildings. i am part of a practice that represents large corporate users

in san francisco. i work with other users in san francisco, who you probably know are a rare commodity for this city, users who are building and adding jobs and who need space and contribute to the tax base. from someone who has been involved with san francisco since 1987, how special that group of corporate citizens are, maybe a little counterintuitive to think about a building being -- coming forth and being asked for approval in a market cycle that is down where the nadir of the cycle, and we have a lot of economic challenges in front of us. i can tell you that the users that are growing in san francisco, like sales force, are looking for opportunities to expand their footprint, and when

you are talking about users like sales force or xanga that are in the social media, cloud- computing space, they are growing rapidly. they are looking for space years in advance, so they can see rates that are high. i noticed people mentioned how much space there is or space that has been approved and have not been built. when you are looking for two, -- 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 square feet, you are looking two five years out and thinking about what side is entitled that i could execute on with minimal risk, and squeezing out the risk is so important to a corporate occupier. they do not want to have to wait and wonder if the project is going to be completed. when you think about how many projects are actually ready to be built in san francisco, it is very few that are of scale. i would encourage you to

approve this project because it adds another opportunity to retain your existing growing tenants and to recruit those tenants that are outside san francisco that are looking for homes. this is an outstanding project that can deliver on that score, so that is my suggestion and recommendation. thank you. >> commissioners, i am president of the mark company in residential real-estate market sales, and i speak as a presidential expert. i have the marketing and selling condominiums in san francisco for 20 years. in 20 years, every single project i have worked on if either adjacent to or across the street from a commercial building. it is the urban fabric. i think it is what draws people to soma. i find that when someone comes

in, often, it brings life to the streets. not until foundry square was built did we finally have a decent cup of coffee. this is right now a vacant lot, as you know. i think it is a question of safety. we have people in our office to keep their cars at sunset in the wintertime because of the open lot. the public space that will be added is also vital to people in the area. for our office alone, we used marathon plaza, and other public spaces for meetings, for places to eat. with 2000 people added to the building, we have a lot of buyers. right now, we are marketing 1 hawthorne, a short walk away. many of our buyers come from within walking distance. they like to not use their cars

all week, so i do think this would change the neighborhood for the better, and it also really does help values in the neighborhood. really, that is what i would like to say, including that i strongly support this building as it is. thank you. commissioner miguel: thank you. >> my name is greg patterson. i am a fifth generation san franciscan, and i have young kids. i thank the commissioners for this opportunity to speak. as a fifth generation san franciscan, in talking with my grandparents and other people who grew up in the city and have been disappointed at the way some things have developed and delighted at the way other things have developed, i would encourage you to take a very close look ato