by three critical components. the first seismic engineering. second, ct. third is to be sure that this can withstand any kind of event we can imagine in the future. -- second, safetyl. in addition we have a park on top of the building. -- second, safety. one good thing about having the park on top of the building is it causes us to reinforce the structure and a very robust way. what you are seeing, which is the heart and core of the structural engineering is very large tresses. each is 4 feet in diameter. this is good to be the safest building in san francisco, and practically any place else i imagine because of the very robust structure. that structure is in clad in a class caglass skin, which we can

awning. that has a substructure, and the cglass is applied panel by a panel. i will go into more detail in the future. both of these aspects are really the key to the support and expression of the building. here you see it from the streets. again another view on first street. the transbay transit center tower is on your left. you are looking south on first street. on beale street, which will be an extraordinary view of the building, you will be an entrance, the park above, activities of the buses at the street level and the best bet. -- the bus deck. there will be own access to their floor, a tenant space, and critical identity and future of the building. this is looking back towards the

building looking at the building from mission street. this is mission plaza which is the main entrance, and a little bit in the distance to see the future transbay transit center tower. inside the grand hall itself is a structural element called the like column. that is bringing light, they light from the park all the way down to the train platform level. it is being designed also as one of the key identities of the building. if any of you are familiar with grand central station, you know there is a large clock at the center of the main hall. it is the place to meet your friends in new york. it is the place that one always refers to as the point at the center of the activity of the city and the grand light column will serve exactly the same purpose. another view of the light column that shows from the street level you have a view all the way up to the park above.

you're always aware the park is above you, the weather conditions. it is very transparent and open, and the very welcoming space. as you go up the escalators and look back toward the ground floor of the grand hall, you have a view of the park, a view of the outside, as well as a view of all the activity in the building. looking back toward the set of escalators, if you are standing next to the light column. once again, you're always oriented to the sky and park above. at the bus on deck level there will be a very comfortable protected leading space. the buses are circulating around you. we are bringing natural daylight from the park down to the level, as well as used to and from the city in all sides of the building.

at the park itself, and i will go into some detail in a few more minutes, you will be surrounded not only by greenery but public sculpture, amenities such as restaurants and cafes, and a very wonderful relaxed environment for the city to use whether you are using transit or not, you're welcome to be in the park. the lower concourse level is primarily the waiting call for trains. just below this as well as a very important concentration of retail, and the train platform level itself is one level below that connected by elevators and escalators. a good bit of work has been done on a critical aspect of the program, which is retail. it is right in the center. retail is going to be critical to the support and livelihood of this new community.

two floors, ground floor and second floor, comprise 65,000 square feet of retail in the future, primarily food-based retail, service with two loading docks, highly permeable, accessible from all aspects of the surrounding neighborhood. it is a bit small, but you can see retail store fronts are also being developed to the highly visible. accessible and part of the neighborhood quality of this part of town. now you are standing on natoma street, looking back toward second. you can see the bus ramp coming in from the bay bridge. to your right is a wonderful concentration primarily a food- based retail. a bit closer, you will see the building is a very welcoming, transparent. storefronts are being designed to emphasize that tenant inside.

as you can imagine, with a structure this impressive and imposing, there is a concern tenants will be visible with the primary design is you. this is a very interesting view to me. if any of you remember minna if you years ago, it did not look like this. to see an image like this sum of 150 years later, really speaks an enormous amount of civilization and progress, in a relatively brief span of time. minna will be full of retail and activity, full, open, and accessible.

this is a few of the thunder pass through the transit center. this is an important underpass, one of the primary ways north and south through the transit center, also a site for public art and retail activity. i will go into a little bit more detail on the architecture of the exterior. this is such a critical aspect of what we are doing. the glass awnings i described earlier is made of laminated glass. very safe. it has then been patterned with a ceramic pattern, baked-on pattern, in a mdot configuration. there are two scales, a large and small are not in the intermediate. it is intended to be a kind of half in gauze. you can see through them but you are not exposed entirely to all the activity on the inside, so the building has presence and

solidity, but transparency as well. holding these glass panels is the diamond-shaped gusset plates. this is being designed, as you can imagine, very carefully, to withstand earthquakes low, any security considerations that might impact outside. just behind that is the very robust structure. this is of view of one of the note points where the structure is now branching to support the park, bused back level behind this node, a critical but -- design feature. the next two slides get to one of the more critical current issues, what happens when one of the connections comes undone in a catenary? of course, the bus plaza will be full of catenary activity.

if one of those comes undone, we had developed a bumper system on the glass wall so that the captain barry will not affect or touch the wall, in any way. as simple an idea as this might seem, it has taken a great deal of technical and architectural development to make it functional and handsome as well. the good thing is you can barely see the bumper. again, this is beale street. the building is an uninterrupted by this extra detail. the park has also undergone a great deal of development in the past several months. one of the things we have been looking at, because it is critical not only to look and feel of the park, but also the cost and functionality, is what will it be like on day one, 20 years into the future? here you can see the opening day of the park. the size of the trees are

carefully chosen so that they are a reasonable beginning size. this has to do both with their cultivation as plant species, as well as the cost and density of the park. at year 2025, those years -- at your 25, they create a large open space but still very conducive to weigh-finding. from first street, this is day one. this is your 25. as the part develops in the future, you can see that the park becomes more and more will come. we are also quite fortunate to be working with a number of good artists in the transit center. julie chang, a local san francisco artist in doing this multicolored floor for the grand palazzo. she has been so good, we are still finding places in the building for her to work.

her work tells a story of san francisco, both its cultural and ecological environment. her carpet in the grand hall is also creating a relationship with the park above. here you can see her work depicted. another important artist, jenny holzer is doing an electronic piece that is surrounding the glass on the bus deck level. jenny works primarily in led's. she plans to do text based on the history of san francisco's literary community, a very exciting program and one that brings all of these -- all of these move throughout the day, so it will bring a great deal of animation to the building. james carpenter, another

established international artist, is working with us on the shot alley underpass, designing the ceiling and seating elements. here you can see some details of his benches and flooring material. it is intended to be a light source as well as a place of comfort. here you can see in the ceiling of shaw alley, just behind those words are the benches. a san francisco artist, ned khan, is designing a fountain that will run 1,400 feet in length, but is triggered by the activity of buses. there are sensors in the ceiling of the bus deck that see where the buses are. when they move, it triggers a fountain at the bottom level, so that the shape of the bus and water will move from one end of the park. you can imagine, kids are absolutely going to love this. it is accessible fountain that

one can play in, if you choose to. obviously, safety considerations are being woven into the design. we think this will be one of the most interesting and talked about aspects of the design. ned has done several full-scale mockups to make sure it works. he has tested it with vehicles. it will be enormous and totally unique to san francisco and the transit center project. finally, we are working with the los angeles artist born in the bay area, tim hawkinson, one of the most important contemporary artists today. his idea was to create a giant welcoming sculpture made of the rubble and debris of the demolished former transit center. we have very carefully called 40 pieces of concrete with our

contractors so that they can be reassembled as a 40-foot high structure welcoming people to the transit center. finally, of view of the transit center from the air and from neighboring buildings in the evening. >> thank you. are there any questions? director sartipi? director sartipi: i do hope bus operations were considered in the design, as well as the consideration of future changes if they take place in operations. >> bus operations have been a critical factor at the bus deck level and on the ground floor. they continue to be a subject of much discussion, as you can imagine, a very complex undertaking, but that has been one of the driving considerations throughout the entire design process. director metcalf: this is going to be an incredible building.

the expressiveness of it will be a wonderful contrast with the buttoned-up, downtown architecture we have. that is, in fact, an important principle in san francisco, urban design. private buildings are supposed to be stayed, and we reserve public buildings for that expressiveness. i think the biggest risk in this design, in my opinion, remains the park. we want it to be like the high line, but what if it ends up like being like freeway part in seattle, like so many failed public spaces in america? we have learned a lot in the past 40 years about elevated parks, but there are many more

failures than successes and american cities, and many failures by the greatest designers of landscape architecture. it may be handled by good policing, to keep it safe, but it is so lacking in ways to get theire, especially from outside the building. i love the idea of bridges to the building, as a way to meet open space requirements. if there ends up being a lot of those, that will be a neat design feature, sort of breaking the rule that we do not do bridges over public streets in san francisco, but in this case, we will. i know you are in construction

drawings and it is too late to change anything, but that is the thing that i hope you continue to develop more. >> as you can imagine, the success of the park is as important to us, as it is to san francisco. it has been the proposal since the day the competition. we have spent a lot of time working toward its success, and it has several aspects. one is accessibility. it needs to be readily accessible, in many ways as possible. there are some-20 ways to get to the park. that is important to us. secondly, your development is perfectly timed, in the sense that you're able to influence a member of the adjacent buildings. already, we are being asked by adjacent property owners -- one is in the room today -- how can i bridge over, how can i get to the park?

we have some designs for bridges that make it very easy to access the park at the upper level. the transit center tower will cover an entire restaurant floor at the park level, with a very large bridge connection. so already, adjacent property owners are seeing that as a tremendous advantage. third, safety is critical to us. it is a very visible, sir available park, one where we have multiple levels of security considerations. finally, we are packing it with activities. several restaurant and cafe locations, and and the media that can seat as many as 1500 people, availability for weekend film festivals, conventions that spill over from mosconi to the park itself. what is being created is a perfect instrument, when programmed well, to be a

phenomenal addition to the life of the city. it is fortunate, we have the high line currently being so successful in new york, we are well beyond the program abilities. the high line has two activities at most. we are going to have some-15 possible activities. so everything we are doing it will be bent toward the success of the park. director sartipi: good answer it have any other questions or comments? i always thought that the -- director kim: i always thought that the design was great, especially how you articulated it. i was thinking the same thing about the park. it is beautiful and you want to make sure that we allow maximum utilization. we do not want to see an empty park in the middle of downtown. some of the issue that you had

brought up would be helpful. i have been to the high line part, and i think it is amazing, and i think that it helps that it is connected to some of the buildings in the area. i agree, as much accessibility and activity as possible would help activate that upper level space. i am not sure how the wind is in that area, and whether that has influenced the design. >> win, availability of sunlight, changing weather conditions, are all part of the design brief. i will say, i think director metcalf has put his finger on, by using examples of the ones in seattle, allow me to make another distinction. i could talk about this for another 45 minutes. what is happening here is you are inserting a public space 70 feet in the air in the middle of a city.

larry halpern did not have that opportunity. seattle's park is actually a covering over a freeway. we are in the middle of one of the most dynamic and beautiful cities in the world, with a view to the bay bridge. that, alone, will attract people, make this a unique destination. i think we are on the verge of something really extraordinary here. and i think it will be a success. director metcalf: is it possible to add the bridges that are not designed, in advance? that is how you have designed it? >> absolutely. fortunately, with san francisco's blog configuration, you can kind of predict, within a range of five, 10 feet, where a bridge might go. we are highlighting those places right now, inviting people to make that bridge connection.

even an existing building could make a connection, if they wanted to. it is not a difficult problem. you just need to be prepared for it. director kim: we also appreciate the diversity of artists, local, national, as well as women. thank you for the report. at this time, i want to move up items 10, 11, 12, acknowledging we have directors who need to leave. 10, 12, 13. >> downtown extension redevelopment project. final environmental statement. environmental impact report for the proposed bus grant component of the transbay program. >> if you have any questions, bob can answer. director kim: could reduce its

summer for the public? >> two primary elements to this modification for the bus ramps. at the point at which the bus ramps connect to the fremont street off ramp, we are widening the points of connection so that the buses have a wider aisle in which to exit. that is requiring us to modify the existing caltrans structure. that is the impact being reviewed. the second issue, as the ramps approached the transit center, when we worked with high-speed rail, in the fall of last year, on the radii for the throw structure coming into the bus ran, that increased offset between the last column structure and the transit center itself. so we will be -- it became a

distance of almost 200 feet, which was a distance we could no longer cantilever the bus structure into the transit center. that last segment is going to be a cable-supported structure entering the bus ramp. those are the two changes that are evaluated in this eir. director kim: any questions regarding this item? roll call police. -- please. >> [roll call] item 10 is approved. item 11, authorizing an amendment to contract no. 00804. construction manager general fund services for construction of the transbay transit center building and related structures with webcor/obayashi to increase

the time for services to 160,000 hours and adjust the contract sum to justify the cost of services under amendment 2. >> bob will also brief you on the item, briefly. >> our time and materials-based service with webcor/obayashi, we originally had a top-down construction and moved to the bottom-up construction we are now using incorporating the train box. at that time, we made an amendment to the contract and have developed a work plan going all the way out through the sale of the properties, advertising and award of construction trade packages. this is based on work plan for webcor/obayashi services through the completion of preconstruction. director kim: director ortiz.

director ortiz: that is a 300% increase in the hours from the original? >> the original contract, it is 300%, but the figure based in the original contract was a preliminary evaluation for the basis of comparing the fee proposals, not based on a specific board plant, a basis for comparing the three components in the original contract. the markup on construction services, hourly wage for construction services, and the bonding cost. as it turned out, webcor/obayashi submitted the lowest cost on each of the three components of the proposal. the work plan was subsequently developed after the switch to the bottom-up construction.

director kim: any other questions? seeing nothing, roll call on the item. >> first and second. [roll call] no members of the public wanted to comment. item 11 is approved. director kim: item 12 please. >> approving revolution -- resolutions to remove local government services as an intermediary for benefits and payroll between the tjpa and tjpa staff. >> directors, this item includes five revolution irresolutions and is a continuance of the item we -- resolutions and is a continuance of the items we discussed last week.

public employees retirement system. these are the second steps you approved two resolutions in november. this is the approval of the final contract with calpers. two of the resolutions are for calpers health benefits. one is agreeing to join their system and make a contribution toward employee health and retiree health care. the second one is a resolution that allows survivors of deceased employees, if they were to pass away before eligible for retirement, would allow their survivors to purchase health benefits through the calpers health system. the fifth resolution is simply replacing lgs with tjpa in everyones employment agreement. i want to emphasize there are no additional fiscal impacts to the tjpa. the overall result of this

change will actually be significant savings to tjpa, over $90,000 a year is but we anticipate we will save in human resources management. i also want to point out salary and benefits are just 2% of our overall program budget and we have never utilize powerful saturday -- salary and benefits budget. >> i know the staff report is like the. having to answer any questions you have. director kim: you will not have to increase any of your own capacity for human resources once we eliminate lgs as an intermediary? >> that is correct. we are working with adp as a peril provider and part of their services include human resources in. significantly less cost than we are paying lgs now.