billovits -- he is not here. he had to go out of town for a family emergency. i will put that back on calendar when he is back in town. >> thank you. i also want to welcome sandy to the commission. çshe will be joining us next wk at the commission. my only other announcement is both for the commission and the public, it is to announce the kicko connections program. i believe the commission received invitations to this. this will happen on february 15 çat 1800 market street.

this is a program we are working on in conjunction with the parks department which was the results of the road identified in thexd recreation and workspae as the item with a thousand dollar grant from the state to work on this. it is intended to betterç connt the city -- there will be a focus on the first year of establishing broad connections and on the second year on the design of particular streets to reinforce these connections. itç is a program staff is very excited about and we were lucky to grants and other place on this to work. that concludes my announcement unless there are any questions.

commissioner moore: would you mind resending that announcement? i don't think i got that. >> with that, we can afford to item number 12, 201 folsom st., also known as 314 main street. >> good afternoon. this is an informational presentation for the revised design street whi sister project of theç affinit it received an extension from the commission until september of this year. the original approvalç recognized the ability of thisok to change before construction and recommend approval of design t(after that time.

the original design included multiple levels of parking to accommodate to hundred 72 parking places for the post office. those spaces are no longer included. as proposed, the design is within the threshold of the approval and i will let the architect outline the changes. çspecifically, the number of units decreased and the number of parking spaces decrease from 1000 -- the rate of 121 units remain. w3the amount of residential open space increased significantly as well. that additional project review

and design review -- significant items that a review would include ground level townhome design, streetscape improvements and passageway design. at this point, i will turn it over to project sponsor for their presentation. >> good afternoon, commissioners. weç are front of you, the revised design for 201 in conformance with the original approvals. i will turn it over to bernardo. >> a good afternoon. i would like to take you through the plans and elevations.

the volumetric presentation. in the process of doing that, i'm going to showç you the differences that were just point out and how they affect the design in a positive way. i wouldçó like to start with the site and you will know where the infinity is located. this was intended to be a sister çproject to the infinity and it remains as such. it is not identical. t is a companion project in the way buildings are cited, but there are differences in terms of the architectural expression in the form of the building. even though we do try to keep it as originally intended,ç it --

you can see where the buildings occur. you can see the infinity, you can see the two proposed towers and you see how they rotate about each other. they are notñr symmetrical orient in the upper floors into the building and views of the bay. they are staggered diagonally by virtueç of the curvature, they maintain the maximum possible distance between towers and give an appearance of beingç freestanding and separated. you can see them here as well with respect to the anthony towers. you can see what begins as a more squareç building and endig

into elliptical shapes rotating in different directions and in giving directionality to the two buildings. we have put the proposed projects in a transmitting it neighborhood so you can see how the neighborhood is shaping around the trans bay terminal. you can see where the project was and where it is today. the towers remain in the same location in the envelope described in the original approval. there are two podium buildings which in the original design, they were not exactly pulliam buildings because it was a six

level brushed -- it wasç a six- level garage. right now, we have a podium at elevation closer to the ground and the buildings on either side are overlooking the green spaces that occur in between. it's an importantjutá because the lowering introduce it -- reduces the number of parking spaces and the whole expression of the garage that was rather balky -- rather bulky. you can see the podiums and the original design to some extent -- theç site plan does not totally reflect the fact the green space was on level 7

instead of happening much closer to the ground. q articulate a between each other. even then, the roof of those podiums, we also have green spaces that areç accessible by the elevators and stairs that reach them so that in fact all of the low buildings, whether it's the 20-foot high podium or the actual presidential podium, you will see aç green roof that is alive has and instead of looking at what would have been a plane roof, you can see the envelopes and we have moved away from the organization which you can see has opened up the distances and the profile of the building against the sky. we taper significantly more and

half for tapirs that narrow down toward the sky and separate them in a much stronger waves and as originally approved. you can see how they are reducing quite a bit as we move up throughç the top floors. here is the ground floor and the air original intent of the approval is to line the street edges with live activity with the townhouses or retail or public functions. çthe previousç ground floor ws greatly invaded by the access ramps and parking garage areas. çççyou can see activity in te

fitness center most of the time instead of temporarily. we still have some townhouses but the retail is much more viableç. with proper servicing and that, replacing a significantly the ground floor. the lobby's remain where they were and most importantly, if you look at this diagram, our access points remain identical to the parking aunt to the loading. çthat is simply a balancing, bt where the improvement really occurs this to the right where you can see the previous case was a lowering area for the

previous building and the sponsor has been in discussions with that neighbor so that nowxd the entire space will be a freeway that will connect the streets and they occupy 40 feet and we have an additional 50 feet that had originally been dedicated in the original approval that will be incorporated into one consolidated landscape plan between the two which will result in a very broad, green space between the two buildings. the beijing area next to the trees is the portion our sponsor controls. hopefully that will be integrated into one single public space. this is the section before and after. it speaks for itself. you can see the magnitude of the

previous podium and now it is for buildings in a block like a real city. the towers feel more slender because they are articulated from the podium buildings and come freely to the ground and don't feel as chunky and steady as they were when they rose from the podium. these are some of the important aspects of the statistics that have changed on this project. we have gone fromç 725 units to 671. how is it we change and still have the same area in the project? how can we reduce 54 units? the composition breakdown of unit times have changed significantly. we have reduced the number of çóstudios and one bedrooms -- there's a significant reduction and we have increased the family

units. it is essentially changing the demographics of the building to a more family-oriented building, encouraging families to move into san francisco. there were no three-bedroom apartments before and now there are more. but that still result in a reduction because there were a originally so many studios and we went from 161 to 12. the commercial space is practically the same because we have incorporated some of the public functions of the building to the ground floor. the podium reduction reduces the parking at significantly. also important in this is the fact that we have a significant

increase in resident open spaces. the green space has increased by 68% as a : changes. lastly, i show you the building and how it tapers through a series of letters. eventually, the building transforms itñr self to this elliptical shape at the tip. pulling back to the final one, this ist( important because the mechanical equipment is integrated into the building. it is not an add-on to the building. also note what happens to the

podium building. you can see -- you can see the podium and designed with a very different vocabulary. çyou can see the balcony's and more solid expression until the building openst( up and forms a diagonal. the balcony's project so they allowed down the street toward downtown. you can see the arcade with its overhang and of theç retail space at 20 feet up where -- from which the residential building rises. you can seeñr the towers and the

podium together. there is an actual air space betweenw3 the two of them that takes your eyes deep into the center of the block. t(president miguel: is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner moore: iç think 's a very exciting story to listen to. given that was a special use district, it becomes a scary to lock in an old idea at a time when this area was completely undeveloped. today, everything has changed to new dynamics and a new value of this particular building and i

am delighted to see it going as it does. i think the elliptical form of the building and elliptical spaces this is all very exciting. >> i agree. i think it's a very, very good project and shows and evolution over eight years since the original entitlements and there has been criticism about projects not moving forward, but this is moving forward when the time is right and it is a reaction to what has been found with theç earlier in affinity project which i