and we are expanding upon that remarkable step that the museum took in 1995. we moved here to third street from the vaness location and from the city hall location. and we were immediately pioneers in this neighborhood. obviously the south of market neighborhood was not what it is today. and very quickly pioneers became anchors. and that is quickly became a gathering place for anyone interested in the visual arts and who was a residents of san francisco or lived in the bay area or came here. over the course of 18 years since 1995, it has grown, i can only say exponentially in term of our programs, family visits everything has doubled and tripled in size. and our exhibitions reflect the diversity and range of this community and regularly travel around the world literally. so today, here we are in 2013,

and we are on the cusp of another remarkable change, when our expansion is complete, it will begin become, not that it was not been, it will become fundamental as a component of the cultural life of san francisco. our building will more than double our current gallery space and we will offer many art filled and also free to the public spaces and galleries for art, many versatile spaces and a building that will feel open and integrated into the urban fabric into the south of market and south of mission neighborhood as it possibly can, and also offer dramatically expanding programs for cool children and i want to pause for a second on that because this is an important point, earlier this month the board announced that we will create a $10 million endowment

to create preadmission for anyone under of the age of 18 to come to the museum. and now if there is one question that i received, pretty much on a daily basis and a question that i received more than any other question that i am asked, is this, two years of construction, sf 1 was going to be closed at third street, where will sf moment go? how will the community continue to experience the contemptary art. we mean it seriously that it will be figuratively and literally on the go. if you have noticed on the paper the remarkable exhibition will be able to mount on the field sculpture and just a few weeks we will be opening the first of many partnership exhibitions with the partnership exhibitions around the corner from sf moment.

i dare say, i dare say that the period of time that we are entering dao into here, the next couple of years, to culminate will be the most exhilarating and exciting into the entire history of this museum. and i could not be more exciting about this and i think that the board and the staff and the community shares that great excitement. at the forefront of all of this work and we could not have asked for a better leader at this time is chunk shwabb the chair and i would like to pass it now to john. >> good afternoon, good morning, everybody. what an incredible pleasure for me to be see this modern art building over here, we are going to surround that with a little bit of a veil and that will be a permanent structure right there. so we always want to take the new ideas in.

don't we? and it is really a thrill to be here for this ground breaking, and it was a twinkle in our eyes a few years ago and i think to have this moment come and now we got to build something that is for sure. we can't leave this hall here or we would be embarrassed to say the least. it always seems to be and we all, i think, love living here in san francisco. in the bay area. and because, we always seem to be way ahead in so many ways and things whether it is business, art, or technology or progressive social movements for sure that originate in san francisco. it is a great place to have leadership about where we are going as a civilization in the future, this museum in many ways expresss that and offer

its to all of our members and our public. that stuff is always been at the forefront. i think of so many different movements. and ahead of its time. the new works that we have done. and new idea and different ways of looking and seeing things. that is what this whole institution is about, and we will be doubling that capability and so it will be more and more fun for families and kids and so forth to come here and to be a part of that. and really thrilled to have that happen. but i want to also thank the leadership of the museum. getting that twinkle in their eyes that something in 2009, and it just took a lot of asking people to help out with this, but there was a certain person in my life, don fisher who we were very close, don and he sort of put the challenge up to me and if we could really do

something fantastic for this city. we all sort of got together and i said, don? and in his final hours, i said don, you got the guy here who is going to make this challenge a reality. and that is really what we have got going on here and so thanks to don, you guys really made this challenge. [ applause ] and we have to say, also, the community itself, our council people, supervisors, our mayor, our chief of police, the chief of the fire department, just like the fire department now, there say brand new one just a couple of blocks over there and so he is really happy and the whole team is really happy. so he is with us today also, but our trustees thank you for all of your participation and fantastic and i just can't thank enough of the people who have been here working hard with me, side by side, and i

have another fellow that i would like to introduce, our mayor ed lee is a fantastic guy and what this city always needs to have, just a guy that is going to make things happen. not all of the fan fair and you just see how this whole city is sort of coming to life. it is going to be probably in 20 and whatever, 16 we, have museums coming and it is unbelievable. mayor ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, chuck, and i was just about to rec meant chuck that you and i and charlotte schultz buy the shoe polish and in a couple of years put that on and pose as 18 years and we can look a little bit like supervisor kim and get in for free, how about that? >> this is an incredible chuck, thank you for that enter did

yousing, and i will be very brief because what i really feel today and in this particular ground breaking is a lot of sweat, a lot of good, hard, work, from chuck, from the board of directors and from robert and randy fisher. i want to thank you for your wonderful leadership and you have to raise an incredible amount of money for this to happen and it was for a great cause and i go back to our first lunch in, chuck that we had where you explained a little bit about our history to me and i did for you and we both talked about the old friendships that we had and you expressed your friendship with don back and that this what ises partly in honor of that. well i want to also express the city's official thank you to doris and don and fisher, collection and the fisher family for your wonderful contribution for our city.

and it is with that recognition that we do this ground breaking, plus a big huge thanks for the new fire station as well. but, as i will look forward to speaking to the graduating class at lowell high school this afternoon, i am going to talk about this because it is part of what we do in san francisco. it is for our youth, but it is also future looking, and it is about what we all do for our great city and that is what i feel about the fisher family, that you have contributed to our city. and you know, culturally, based tourism is now at about 2 billion dollars of income for the city. and it employs almost 20,000 people and this is what our city does, it celebrates culture and that is what draws so many people to this, and now i think, supervisor kim was so proud of these institutions that are coming into our

district and that she and i have joined in so many ground breakings and we celebrate this with a very serious recognition of a people that have done this for us. and so, on behalf of the city and county, and with all of our hearts and gratitude, i want to thank robert and randy, i want to thank, doris and don fisher, the whole fisher family for the great, great contributions to our city. this is a gift that will keep on giving, and with this announcement for the youth to come in for free when the 10 million dollar endowment, i love anonymous gifts. one of these days i will try to do that myself. but, this is incredible time for our city, but it is one that i think that this is another example why we ke the opportunity to celebrate and to thank the people who have led this effort to do so and to just have everyone appreciate life in san francisco is very special. and this is one of the reasons

why. thank you very much. maus plause [ applause ] >> thank you, mayor lee, i would just like to second chuck's remarks earlier that the support that we received from the city, from the mayor on down, has been nothing short of extraordinary, i have to say that it is probably unprecedented in the history of san francisco that we have had, universal unanimous support from staoet and to all of our processes and everything that we asked for it has all happened and it is credit to you and your amazing team. >> you know, about three years ago, we formed chuck and i together formed a committee of our board and staff. to search for an architect for this ex-sxantion what we were looking for was an architectural firm through the work and the attitude through the work through the resume of

experience, would express the values that this museum holds and that we want to address going forward, values of openness and generosity and sharing and welcome and transparency. and we also want to have a great building and obviously that would show all of our collections off to the best possible advantage and great public spaces and we have a really exciting search and on the last day, of our last tour of duty, traveling around we were in oslow and we met with craig and his partner and at the end of that day, we knew and there was... we knew in no uncertain terms that this was the firm that we wanted to work with and i can only say that as i welcome craig up to the podium the last three

thought and it actually does, this is followed by a creative phase, and the creative phase is really the fun part, and then there is the pass that will move along. somehow this is a case of

construction. and we will deliver this child. happily, at the end of this, there is the miracle of birth, when the doors open and there is hopefully plenty of hugs and smiles when our guests enter the new sf moment and as of this great day, the building will mature slowly at first and will experience many challenges in its life alongside the days of joy and celebration >> while this metaphor was pretty good there is a difference that i would like to point out. unlike many marriages and births, the making of the building is not a monogomous relationship, it is a poly amorous relationship because there is a great deal of partners in this effort and we know how sticky that can be. >> there are a number of

partner to consider along the way and each of these has a wedding ring so to speak and i have the privilege of representing this group of lovers here at the podium and the architects often receive a great deal of attention and that is important but it is also tremendously large team that we represent, so i wanted to share with you rather quickly the names of our partners in this relationship and it is a wonderfully rich list representing groups from california and the united states and the interests abroad and here it goes in alphabetical order, we are going to start with afp and they are going to install the sprinklers and arab engineers are working with the av and the lighting. there is csi, group, and our friends, don and terry young were the managers who keep this ball around and rolling as the consulting group and the partners, and the architects and some of them are here in the audience today and the

great partner to work with and closed and the hoert culture and we work with the green wall and jw, and the local projects and mka engineers and san anderson architects you are here too so some of us are here today and my great friends and team members, some of you may have met. graphic design, tailor engineering and i suppose that the winner of the most apt name in this group is the fire consultants can anybody guess what job they have? and there is technology and finally the friends at web core are building this project and this is just a partial list, to give you some idea of the complexity that this project represents and the enormous amount of teamwork that goes into making it, all of these people are working together to create a museum for modern art that will be without equal. its collection is exceptional and the mission is generous and it is a gift for the youth of

our future and its walls will signal a new direction for now we as the audience interacts with great works of art and with each other and how artists interact with museums and 2016, standing where we are right now we would have to look up 200 feet above us, twice the height of that parking garage, before we could see the top of the new sf mona, there will be over 160,000 square feet of space that is dedicated to experiences connected to art. that is more than triple just this area between mina and tona that we are standing in. all of these places are designed with the standard of lighting and environmental control coupled with a bold sense of planning to protect the environment and signaled by a 50-foot high and 150-foot long green wall that we planted on the side of this parking garage adjacent to us. the museum will be, which was

once intraverted will be open f helps us appreciate the sublime and the meaningful moments of our existence. we have been driven by the vision of so many here in san francisco, to make this happen. and we look forward to the next stage of our work together with you. a sincere thank you to neo, and

ruth and the board and the members of the planning committee that are here today and the city officials that have brought us altogether to make this possible. thank you from the design and construction planning team. [ applause ] >> the board and the staff leadership and team and the key community leaders and actually have the ground breaking. so i would like to begin with brooks walker and we are going to make our way down to like hollywood down the red carpet, brooks was the ground breaking, 20 years ago and brooks was our chair at that time and led the effort to get us to the third street. >> bob fisher who is our board president and the partner in this project and dennis wo ng and the trustee of the oversight committee. and january kim, the district

six supervisor who has been such a great supporter and partner in this project and then i also would like to introduce special members that we like to serve into the enhanced education programs. the class of third graders from carmichael school here in the neighborhood. >> as a member of the board

since 2003 and the board president for the last three years, i am incredibly excited to be able to kick off this ground breaking. on a personal note, kie not be more pleased that our families, art collection has found a home at sfmoma. and i would now like to introduce... thank you. >> i would now like to introduce a partner who has been with us every step of the way in leading this transformation, district six supervisor jane kim.

>> thank you, bob. >> i just asked craig if he was looking forward to working on his next non-controversial project here in the city and county of san francisco? >> i always like to say this, that i do represent one of the oldest parts of the city. but in many ways it feels like the newest neighborhood and the newest kid on the block here in the city, but i think that we take for granted the neighborhood that exists now and what it was like over 20 years ago and actually one of the first tenants that helped to transform the city wassan francisco mona and we are so glad that you took the chance to invest in the neighborhood and you helped with so many of our partners that are here today to transform it into what it is. >> it is particularly important for us to be here today to

celebrate the moma for what it is and will continue to be in the future. i was dedicated to public education and i am warmed that sf mona has made an incredible announcement that it is going to be opening the museum to those that are 18 and under for free. having grown up in a different city that had so many cultural and arts institution, new york, i actually grew up going to museums as part of my life as a school child and how important that cultural experience was to my development and as we continue to cut arts in particular, in our public schools, this will be such an important part of their curriculum in their lives, so i am excited that we can welcome another tenant of the south of market here as well and that is our betsy car michael k-8

elementary school that is here today. [ applause ] >> so i believe that it is a principal here today? >> lauren? well have a first grade class that will be representing the south of market community. so are you guys ready? >> are you ready for the count down? >> all right, so we are going to get our shovels and then we are going to begin. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

>> plause [ applause ] >> i have 2 job titles. i'm manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. this building is multifaceted to say the very least it's a municipal building that operates

the city and county of san francisco. this building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of san francisco in 1912. he didn't have a city hall because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906. construction began in april of 1913. in december 1915, the building was complete. it opened it's doors in january 1916. >> it's a wonderful experience to come to a building built like this. the building is built as a palace. not for a king or queen. it's built for all people. this building is beautiful art.

those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, san francisco had an enormous french population. therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual. >> jimmie was an incredible individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands 307 feet 6 inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the united states capital. >> you could spend days going around the building and finding something new. the embellishment, the carvings,

it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that san francisco is famous for. >> the wood you see in the board of supervisor's chambers is oak and all hand carved on site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the

only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened was the person working next to the other person respected a skill a skill that was so wonderful that we have this masterpiece to show the world today.

>> hello well concealed need your district supervisor. -- welcome to meet your district supervisor. we are here with supervisor kim. welcome. thank you for joining supervisor kim: thank you for having me. >> tell us where he grew up. supervisor kim: i grew up on the new york city.