commissioner brandon: meeting called to order. >> roll call] item two, off limits for the march 8, 2011 meeting. -- approval of minutes for the march 8, 2011, meeting. item three, public comment on executive session. item four, executive session. >> so move. commissiioner crowley: second. commissioner brandon: any opposed? >> ok,>> move that we reconvenen open session. commissioner brandon: all in

favor? >> aye. >> move that we've not disclose any of the items discussed in closed session. commissioner brandon: all in favor? >> aye. >> please be advised that the ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers, and similar sound footing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any persons responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other such similar sound- producing electronic device. please be advised that a member of the public has up to three minutes to make her and in public, on each agenda item unless the commission adopts a shorter period on any item. item seven, executive director's report. >> good afternoon. welcome to the meeting today. this is a short meeting by an exciting meeting nevertheless. i do not have anything written, but i do have one piece of news

-- sad news for the port, which is that yesterday, joseph alioto, co-proprietor of alioto's, passed away. he was a young man. i am guessing in this 50's. there will be a funeral mass for him next wednesday, march 30, at 10:15 at st. peter's in north beach, and we extend our condolences to his wife, his kids, and all of the alioto family, so a sad day for the port. i hope one of you will adjourn in his honor -- well, you will all adjourn in his honor. that is my full report. sorry it is so sad. >> item 8a, informational

presentation on schematics designed for the james r. herman cruise terminal and ne were flaws a project at pier 27 -- and northeast wharf plaza pr oject. >> i would like to present a project that was presented last year. the option degree and 96,000 square foot two-story terminal. next, the design team will present the schematic design of the cruise terminal on the northeast were flaws appeared finally, dan of planning staff will discuss a public outreach process that is undertaking to inform the public. concurrently with the port commission's approval to commence schematic design of the new terminal, the board of supervisors approved the city's

bid to host the 34th america's cup in san francisco. this presented a win-win situation for the project. under the host and the new agreement, america's cup event authority will be responsible for the demolition of pier 27, 29, and relocation of the shore power system. the city would then construct the court and shell of the cruise terminal. subject to completion of environmental review under ceqa, certification of the final environmental impact report, and approval of the america's cup 34 project by the end of 2011, the first phase of the site work would commence in early 2012 and consist of demolition of pier 27, the north part of pier 29, and finally, construction of the core and shell of the terminal building. the ac 34 event would be the

first of several special events to help fund the project. after a conclusion, the port would begin the second phase to build up the remaining building, which includes the border patrol, the security room, the security systems, like you have in the airport, the screening and baggage security detection systems. we would install the specialized marine equipment, which includes a mobile gang way system, new special wallets that the larger size ships will be seeing, and in addition, the plaza would be completed as well as the ground transportation area. i would like to introduce ryan stevens and peter falk, the design team, who will present the schematic design of the

plaza. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. pleasure to be back before you again. i know commissioner katz was not here for the last presentation, so we are going to cover a little more ground for you. i apologize for that and we will chided go as quickly as possible. an overview of the site to familiarize you with it, pier 27, you can see on the image here, is the long shed, which is a non-historic structure, which will be demolished. in the center of the triangle is what we refer to as the valley, which will become the ground transportation area. adjacent to that is pier 27, which will be partially demolished -- no, pier 29, sorry, which will be partially demolished by the america's cup

a story. that results in this site plan here, which you can see for the schematic design. the front of the site is removed and dedicated to the northeast whorf plaza -- wharf plaza. in the center of this site, the ground transportation area, which we will talk more about before we proceed. the terminal, you can see, locates itself on this side in relation to the ships, so there has been a great deal of analysis of the different vessels that call at port and careful positioning of the terminal and the gang plank in relation to the fleet of ships that will call here. so to understand the working of the building, there are basically two mos. this one is demarcation mode, where people are arrive by vessel.

you can see the second floor on the lower part of the screen has a screening area to come off the gangplanks into the customs and border patrol area, where they are screened very much like you experienced at the airport. they go down an escalator and arrive in the orange area you see at the top of the page, which is the baggage handling area. baggage handling is done manually. there are no conveyer belts like your experience at the airport. they lay it down and direct you to wear your baggage is. so it is quite a large area. as per our direction at the end of the concept phase, which shows a larger laydown area that addresses the 4000-passenger vessels we are likely to be seen here. so then people proceed -- actually, go back one second. people proceed out into the ground transportation area very much like in the airport.

the engage private vehicles, calves, and buses to connect with the city. then in arrival mode, embarcation mode, you will arrive from the neck at the embarcadero, and you can see that the transportation neck is quite slim, the product of an effort to minimize impact of traffic on the embarcadero, and a great deal of traffic study has been done so the as you pull in, private vehicles can drop off directly in front of the building. the lobby is directly forward on the site next to the ne dwarf plaza -- the northeast wharf plaza. baggage would be taken to the back of the building, and people would go directly up to the second level. you can see at the lower level of your screen, there is the orange area where security

screening takes place, and then they go into the waiting area before boarding the vessel. both of these spaces -- upstairs and downstairs -- also have been optimized for a been used, said there is a consideration of how these spaces can also be used for all the number of days where the cruise drown in operations. these offer large open spaces that are beneficial for rental use. so developing the design, we really start from thinking about the base in the building as a working port building as part of the working waterfront, so it has forklifts bloating stuff in and out of it. it is a high use area. that is a kind of starting point for the design, a working days for the building, and we see that as connecting in language to some of the working tears,

which you see at the top of your screen, which had a pattern of doors and a regular pattern. we have a horizontal setting that relates to the horizontal setting up some of the wood buildings in the area -- horizontal siding. on top of that, we transform the building to receive passengers. it is really about people riding in the city and people leaving the city. for us, is really about creating -- maximizing the use towards the bay, which are exciting views towards the vessel that has arrived. and also maximizing views back toward the city, which are quite exceptional. that means that above our working days, we have a kind of "where the people are" zone, which is very classy and is all about the transportation experience and connecting the waterfront to the city. on top of that, we have a roof. you see the concept design that you saw last time, which is a

simple flat roof, and one of the things that is extremely important to this building is that not only does it have offices that relate to the -- four facades that relate to the environment around, but it also has what we call the fifth aside -- facade where the hills of san francisco look down on it, so it is important that it be beautiful from up above as well as street level. it is very important to us. we are creating minimum needs of our building. we hope to achieve better than that. but daylighting is extremely important. we want to minimize the heat of our electrical and lighting systems. we are also looking at bringing water harvesting on the site. it is possible that the roof could be shaped in a way that would allow us to harvest stream water and showcase that as part

of the building so people can see we are harvesting water and using that to what the park, so to speak -- water the park, so to speak. last but not least, one of the great opportunities we have is for on-site generation. we -- on-site power generation. so how does that inform the roof? we began to think about it as something that has some movement to it, much like the ocean near by, or that has a flowing form, and that could actually help us with drainage that we need for rainwater harvesting that makes cost-effective roof, and there are actually two pieces to do with that move slightly differently, and that mimics the motion of the water in the day -- in the day -- in the bay. you can see there are two forms that split apart, allowing light in the upper area, which is both

the waiting area and the view area for an event space. you can get a sense of that looking from the valley towards the building. it creates a kind of fly for the ground transportation area, allowing people to get in and out of view on a rainy day. >> the next component of this is related to the overall site development. at the end of the concept design phase, we talk about a number of different alternatives we have been looking at to develop the overall site. in addition to the ground transportation area, we have the large public open space that peter referred to, and at the close of the concept design phase, many of you saw these illustrations. we had considered several different ways of thinking about

public open space, and essentially, here they are. each of them tries to create a front for the building as well as really a face, public amenities along the embarcadero. in our current thinking, we have chosen the second scheme, which previously was called the triangle scheme. it essentially provides the state-mandated public open space on a large green area along the embarcadero, labored here as the -- labeled here as the northeast wharf plaza, and organizes the building around those elements. here, as we see it in three dimensions, you can see facing the embarcadero the large grain area. this is ample enough to have a variety of different activities in the -- in it.

possibility of pickup games of various sources and so on. centered around the building itself is a major plaza, and i think part of the overall plan here is to try to connect the building back to the embarcadero and create a true front door for the building. so at the same time, we recognize that the building needs to have -- has multiple sites. while it has a front portion of the building that faces directly out towards the green, the gta area and the arrival sequence is very much also part of the experience. as you can see, there is a notion that the public plaza would extend back through along the face of the building in the

area, which is during cruise days used as a drop-off area, but in situations where the building is not being used as a cruise terminal, it has the potential of also being used for other kinds of functions. also serves to connect the front portion of the site back to the water's edge in the upper portion of the screen. we also have considered the outlying building and its role in the overall composition of the face along the embarcadero. previously, we have talked about this area and the zone around the building. we called it the beltway plaza area. we think there is an opportunity to create a sense of activity, a little bit more intimacy. there are a number of structures

indicated here adjacent to it. the notion is that possibly there is an opportunity to house other kinds of functions as time goes on, ranging from areas that might be nothing more than gathering places and shelter as well as possibly other venues in the future. also a big component of this is the gta area, the valley. we have envisioned ways of trying to create a sense of place there. this will take on many different uses during the moments when it is in operation. as a cruise ship terminal, this is the area where the buses will be located, and yet, it is a very important element of the site. in summary, we have very large open space green area facing the embarcadero.

we have a series of plaza areas that are connected to the building and back to the embarcadero. and the entire composition extends its way back to the water's edge in the back and hopefully ties the entire site together. we started out -- kim showed these images, and it is a bit of a closer view. the rocket ship here is the notion that somewhere along the line, there might be some component of public art that plays a role in overall composition. >> you also get a sense that you see adjacent to the ship a fence that will be secure, providing a secure perimeter that customs and border patrol requires. then, on non-prophase, that could be open and public access will be provided along the

apron. >> and then here is just a series of images that show the building in that context. this is the major lobby area that peter referred to. this is the area where people enter the building and proceed up to the upper floor for the disembark process. along the waterfront, this is looking back at the building. the gates, the operable gates that peter mentioned a moment ago, will be closed during cruise operations. they can pull back and provide a good connection between the waterfront and the plaza itself. >> also, you will note that the baggage handling area in its life as an event space, has the potential on the ground floor to open up and engage the public parks space, so there is a whole

notion about the building being able to connect to that news. -- to that used -- to that use. >> lastly, the building and its relationship to the ship on the plaza. >> should be noted that the object that you see sitting in front of the lobby is in fact a series of barrels that contain the rainwater we have harvested from the roof. when you are in the lobby, you will be able to see one of the sustainable features of the building. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, brian and peter. good afternoon, commissioners. for planning and development commission. i would like to provide you an update on where we are in a presentation to the public on the cruise terminal and the northeast wharf plaza project.

as you may recall or not, the port and consultant design team presented concept designs to the commission in july of last year, and then we followed up with a public workshop. i think we sent out 3700 invites and had good attendance as well. we had the steering committee meeting, and we also spoke to some of our citizens advisory committee meetings about the project. we listened to the public, learned a lot of things, and the presentation you saw reflects the changes and developments that have been made since that time. in december, the port commission approved the design team proceeding with the schematic design phase, which you have just reviewed, and in the next couple of months, our plans are to publicly present the project to first of all, the cruise terminal steering committee that the commission has relied on for some input in the past. we will be doing an architectural design review with port's architectural design review committee, and a joint

meeting tentatively scheduled for may 9. we will be holding a public workshop again, tentatively scheduled for early june, and we will be keeping our system advisory committees up to date with information on the process, informing them of the best places to give public comments on this. we anticipate returning to the commission in april to request approval to proceed with the next phase of design and to review the budget. the completion of the design development phase, we will again present the project to the commission to see where we have come and how we are proceeding as we move along. that concludes my comments, and the entire presentation team is available for your questions at this time. thank you. commissioner brandon: thank you. is there any public comment on this item? please. >> i have a question about the roof.

given, as you referred earlier, that there are these amazing views down there, was there any thought given or was there any ability to make it accessible, or does a largely serve the purpose of the rainwater collection and that sort of thing? >> actually, we had a fair amount of discussion on this subject. one of our constraints, which is in the category of things we worry about, is that we are working with an existing pier structure, and we only have a certain capacity we can transfer, so we start thinking about creating the loading of walking and park service up there, which was something we talked about. it is really not something that is practical. >> i would like the opportunity just to present another slightly different view of that. it is a two-level terminal, and

there is one section where it is only a one-level building. we do not have that image here. there is a space on the northern and, further out on the terminal, where it is one level, with the second level space walk outdoors or has the ability -- it is not in the plans right now because of the budget we are working with, but is being designed so that if the commission, if the team decides that is a good thing to proceed with, it could have an outdoor deck on that second level. that access is the waiting area, which also gets used for special events. so there is a possibility to do that in a private. it is not included in the project budget we're working with right at the moment, but it is being set up to accommodate. >> it is actually in a great location with a view out towards the bay. >> what is the square footage for the size of the waiting

area -- square footage for the size of the waiting area -- square footage or the size of the waiting area? does not have to be exact. >> about 20,000 square feet on the second floor. good-sized bass, actually. -- good-sized space, actually. >> going back to commissioner lazarus' point and having that second deck, the capacity is there, but just in having a smaller version, correct? >> yes, that is a case where we only have a single floor, so we are not loading two floors. >> great, got it. thank you. >> in terms of the -- you pointed out the narrow egress for cars. is that the only location where that could take place? the reason i ask is it looks like there is a traffic signal at the other side of myriad --

at the other side. >> correct. the vehicle entrance and exit is located along the embarcadero at one location, and it is not located at an intersection. it is something we have learned for the review of other projects along the waterfront. we have had a lot of very good public input on this project about maintaining safety for pedestrians, cyclist, and not stopping traffic to the maximum extent. this particular entry and exit is designed to be right turn in, right turn out. it is controlled by a person standing there with an orange vest on. there is no high-tech crosswalk. it does not interrupt the embarcadero promenade. it is not a driveway cut through it. it is a condition where vehicles

mounted over the promenade with someone standing there whenever a ship is in or whenever a significant event is going on. after looking at many different options for how to control traffic, this is what it came back to. it was partly in response to if we did the entrance at a signal was intersection, when the light turns green for vehicles that sitting the terminal, they do not see pedestrians. they just go. we were concerned that we are setting up for an accident in that case. >> thank you. commissioner brandon: any other questions? >> i have a question regarding the budget, and i know you are going to submit a budget later on, but as far as the expenses go now, are we still in line