the exploratorium went ahead and put their reinforcing piers not all the way into bed rock, but they put them into some of the soil above the bed rock and separated the pier from the main land. and it was a seismic feature. i mean, i'm not sure -- is this going to be something similar or is it going to be more of a traditional pier reinforcement? >> joy navarrete from planning staff. as of right now i don't have the details of the engineering that's going to be happening right now. they are upgrading it just for the america's cup event and the team bases that are going to be there this summer. there is going to be extensive engineering, and the port is here and they could clarify a little bit more. >> yeah, okay. so, that's some of the things that are being done anyway. and then we can get a clarification on, you know, which way this is being done in

terms of addressing seismic concerns. >> yes. >> and my other question is irrespective of the pier reinforcement which is an ongoing process and takes quite a while, what would you say the actual construction time would be once you're ready to roll on construction of the arena, the retail space, and the other features on the pier? >> right now i don't know exactly what the phasing is. i know the arena wants to open 2017, around september for opening day. and then after that i don't know what the phasing is as far as the seawall lot and the retail. >> yeah, i guess the arena construction i'm hearing is two years -- [multiple voices] >> yes, beginning summer of 2015. >> yeah, okay, thank you. >> so, just over two years. >> thank you. >> okay. well, i really can't hide this.

i'm really excited about san francisco's waterfront. you know, my background is being part of a 50 year old business at fisherman's wharf on the waterfront. have seen the waterfront at its worst point, its best point and just frankly so excited to see this project come around. the very first slide that was presented of the icon i can points of the san francisco's waterfront and how this fills a gap, and i was sort of describe it an elbow joint that connects one spot to another. having spent six years on the port commission prior to coming to the planning commission, followed a lot of these piers intimately, know that it requires public-private partnership for many of these projects to happen. they're terribly expensive and most of the work as you know is going to be under water or under the pier which we won't be able to appreciate. but this particular project is one where we will be able to appreciate it. there will be public space. there will be private space. it brings great benefits to the city from a convention point of

view and a jobs point of view, from other events. the two [speaker not understood] reactive to concerns, i think i want it gloss over, i think the concerns being raised in particular about traffic are legitimate ones. i think you've given it some very men tremendous thought. correct me if i'm wrong. the attendance of the seats at this particular arena are 18, 20 thoughcompared to at&t park 40,000. again, talking about perspective. i don't think you're going to see the same amount of people pulling out into this parted venue as you will at at&t park. i'm hoping that the america's cup and the people's plan ~ which mta spent a lot of time, the city spent a lot of time, will really this summer collect some data and see how the embarcadaro reacts to america's cup and the baseball game at the same time and a cruise ship at the same time. and study that. maybe it might be

uncomfortable, but i hope we can learn some lessons from it and this design will take that into account. so, i encourage the project to keep going, to keep meeting with neighborhoods, trying to address their concerns yet further, and keeping traffic in mind and try and treat that as best we can. director ram. >> thank you. just to answer commissioner hillis' question on our work with the team and the project. of course, staff has been very heavily involved in this. we are in the middle of the e-i-r process, we are evaluating impacts. we put guidelines when we first rendered the project and given those to the team and the architects. we feel that the project is certainly going in the direction that is consistent with those guidelines, in terms of the arena being set on the eastern end of the site to minimize impacts and views and maxv mile access to the water. in terms of the location of the retail and open space. ~ maximize and in terms of the seawall is going. we have to evaluate the

additional height that's being requested. the eastern neighborhoods plan did put a 10 r foot ~ 105 foot limit there. we'll be evaluating that. [speaker not understood] i will say that just from a pier design stand point, one of the -- there has been a big concern about the height and the team has justifiably lowered the building and one of the design concerns that we had going into that process was, was a concern that that lowering the height didn't create a kind of pancake on the waterfront. and one of the things that we appreciated is the attention that's now being paid to the facade and making the facade much more interesting, making it as transparent as possible which is unusual for an arena. most arenas don't have a lot of glass looking into the building. so, this is being proposed to have a number of cases where there is places to look into the building and out from the building. and because we do have the concern that commissioner moore mentioned, which is when there is not an event, what happens, how do you activate it, how do

you keep it active. the two levels of retail that are proposed along the edge of embarcadaro will help to do that, we think, as well as the way the building is being designed as well as the various types of open spaces that are being proposed. one of the things that we have been concerned about was making sure that those open spaces have a certain amount of intimacy that the neighborhood can use so that it's not just one vast open space, but smaller spaces that can be used on a neighborhood skivcale. those are the kinds of things we've been talking about. we think the general direction is consistent with our concerns, but still obviously a lot of work to do. ~ scale >> commissioner moore >> i have a question for the director. i am assuming the east side of the embarcadaro is also being worked on by port planning staff. i have great admiration for them as having really done an incredible job to consistently improve the east side of the embarcadaro, and i assume then they are overlapping

jurisdictions and working together as a team. >> there's no question. all departments, the port is obviously heavily involved at the table as is our mta and the other departments as well. and it's both side of the embarcadaro that we are involved in, all agencies. >> i'm talking about the specific planning part because port has spent a tremendous amount of time creating continuity and language of open space and kind of flood themselves from where you are all the way out up to pier 70. >> okay. any additional comments? okay, thank you. the commission is going to take a short break and reconvene in about 15, 20 minutes. >>please stand by; meeting in recess