to be approved today. i would only suggest some of these changes as of things the architect with -- can work with staff on. are really like the -- i really like the expression in the architecture. the only part i would think that is up towards the capital of the building, a stronger divider that separates the windows from the area where it stands -- ends. perhaps the possibility of going back to the coloration of the base. i do see it it looks like there is a lot of relief in the windows now. i am not sure what the reveal is, but it looks like that is important because it makes these windows standout.

it is respectful of the architecture in the area. i like the suggestion of an homage to the older building by using the entry. i do not know if that is functional or not. i think it is a nice idea. it would have to be worked out. without compromising the importance of having a gracious entry into the building. i think that is a nice idea. it looks like it is a limestone -- i am not sure what the stucco is on the outside. i think that is really well done. those are some of my thoughts as far as architectural things. i am very much in favor of it. i think we are ready to go. we have to get this done. commissioner miguel: i

appreciated very much the comments in reminding us this is the last of san francisco's community hospitals. davies at cpmc was the german hospital, part of that immigrant community. even though slightly different, we have the old sutter pacific hospital that is now a senior facility. these have all gone past -- this is the last one standing. there is no question that the considerations of hospitals have changed drastically and are continuing to change. hospitals not only have to

accommodate and change, but have to look to the future. i believe this is what the particular project in front of us dies. -- us does. i find the architecture -- and i am not talking about the interior -- as it presents itself to the community to be greatly improved from the original iterations. i think the concepts of preservation -- i have seen interest to ancient buildings -- entries to ancient buildings used as a focal points in plazas of their modern replacements. that could possibly be a concept. in general, at as much as it has been improved, i find it to be some much universally bland.

it could be put anywhere. the chinatown community is not just anywhere. i would absolutely support the project today, but emphasize the continuing work with the department so that the building really appears to be part of the community that it serves. commissioner sugaya: yes, going on that note. i think the issue is that we have an historic district, as we have been reminded, and a part of that historic district has the kind of chinese motifs and what knots and other parts to

not. i am not saying there is a uniform kind of architecture. the district is not just architecture. it is also the history of the area and other aspects, events that took place, etc., that make up the district. what the other commissioners, -- like the other commissioners, at this building does not speak to me as being sympathetic to that district. i wrote a letter to wayne during the week in which i said the old building -- i really liked the old building. i am sorry it is going to be demolished. it has a certain way of holding together. the injury itself -- the entry itself -- i can provide you some

photographs from salt lake city, were that was done, sort of successfully. the existing building has an entry. it is symmetrical. it goes up the building but different treatments, a different details. it is topped by a pavilion of some kind. i do not know if that couple level -- that upper level has any use. i do not know what is up there, but there is a pavilion-like structure which culminates that entry in the building. what happens on this structure is that we are trying to -- it appears to me, use a

photovoltaic excuse to have a similar kind of culmination to the building. it does not seem to work for me. you have this kind of wrapped around a fact by the stairway integrating itself with that rooftop feature. i think the problem also is that the existing newer building is not good either. [laughter] it compounds the problem right here in this area. i do not have a problem with the program or any of that stuff, and i would like to go ahead and vote for this, but with the urging that there be continued design conversations with the staff and to try to make it a little bit more -- i do not know the right words. it will come to me at some

point. a little bit more compatible with the district, a little bit more friendly, you might say. i will leave it at that. i do have one issue with the overriding considerations, like i always do. in the statement, the number 5, the project sponsor would create a variety of features that would pay tribute to the historical relevance of the medical administration building, such as photographs, explanations of the history of the project site. that is a mitigation measure. i cannot see how we can mitigate an overriding consideration statement that is a required mitigation measure to offset the destruction of the historic building.

it is only one out of nine. missing one is not going to make any difference to the project. if we're going to adopt overriding considerations, i would like to entertain reading that statement out. -- leaving that statement out. commissioner moore: i want to try to hidadd. i am in general agreement with what the commissioners are observing. there are two things. this is a difficult project to speak about. the health care delivery issue in san francisco is more uncertain than ever before. i did not have to go into detail about why that is. this project, as an independent hospital, taking care of a large segment of our downtown population. it is extremely important. i live five blocks away from

this building. i have lived in this neighborhood for the last 32 years. by walking by just the building, you also experienced the incredible richness and variety of this particular neighborhood and this historic neighborhood offers to the city. if you walk, every building has something to offer. i appreciate the comments about trying to capture some of it in one form or another. i do support the expansion of the new hospital, just as a matter of principle. using new health care standards is not even an option we can discuss. the difficulty is to -- there is

an historic district and then there is the context of the neighborhood. what we have is an historic building which maximizes all the way to the property line, which none of the adjoining buildings in dallas. they all respectively -- adjoining buildings does. even the existing hospital, it is a playful response to what is otherwise an institutional building. this particular building does not do that. it could be anywhere. i think it has improved, but it

has not captured the essence of what is unique about the neighborhood. that is difficult to capture, i admit that. for example, i am very enamored by the work on the existing hospital. normally, for institutions, it does not work because they are too hard to wash. they have to do a little bit more work. i suggest that we look at that. bringing in something different from the suburban institutional hospitals to this site is extremely important. i do not have the answers. i am not here to tell you what to do. tasteful -- picking up on the

other architecturally sensitive details of other buildings is what we need to do. we need to attempt to break down the mass, even if we just visually do it. i think i can only support approval of this project if it comes architecturally quite a few milrsonally feel i owe thato the future of chinatown. in order for chinatown not to just be a relict, which struggled because of attractiveness, that is one thing. but to lead chinatown find its own voice and contemporary architecture is another one. given that it is a lively community, that is what we need to develop. vice president wu: thank you.

commissioner borden: i will not reiterate what all of my other colleagues have said. i think they have enumerated the concerns with the actual building, not with the project itself. but not at the expense of stopping the project in any sort of way. everyone realizes the vital part of our medical system and provides medical service for a very important community. we also want to maintain the beautiful fabric of what chinatown is, and i think that some of the things commissioner moore and others have identified with the actual building is really critical. i mean, we recognize from looking at other projects there's not a great lot of renovation and doesn't seem to be in hospital design but this particular hospital, this location, does need to be treated a little more sensitively. >> if i may jump in, i want to address some different aspects of i think what is in front of

us today which is the chinatown area plan. i think that there's been a lot of discussion about preservation. i think one of the strongest preservation tools, both physically and as of use and of community has been the chinatown area plan. and i think there are many people in this room that were a part of that legacy and it was this department that shepherded this through. i think it really protected the residential base of the neighborhood, really protected the commercial and mixed use of the neighborhood and it's those residents every day that bring the bustle to the nabled and think that's really important and think that's different from other chinatowns throughout the nation. and i think that d.c. with a new conference center coming in that doesn't have the connection to the neighborhood, we see that happening through some other chinatowns across the country. i also want to talk about the importance of institutions in that institutions i think create a history, people coming

to chinese hospital years and years. we heard of a number of speakers who were born in that president and i think that creates a living and breathing history, i guess, in the neighborhood. vice president wu: i take very seriously the neighborhood plan. i think there should be very few exceptions to the plan itself. there is an s.u.d. in fron of us today, changes to the general plan itself, reclassification. i think there are only certain projects that really warrant that kind of change, and i think that this project has done so carefully, looked at it very carefully to the sort of carve-out that's been created here. i think that one might worry about setting a path for other projects to come in and sort of, i guess, destroy the fabric, really. and i don't think that that's been done. i do think there's been a very careful, very deliberate eye to this, and i appreciate that.

with respect to some things that were talked about today, the front facade. you know, i think that is the idea of the front facade being preserved. i do think it's likely more appropriate for some other location. commissioner miguel commenced maybe a plaza. i know there's not necessarily a plaza that's available right now. but i think that it may -- in my opinion i don't think it's best for incorporation in this building instead but maybe some other homage within chinatown at another location. and i also wanted to speak to the landscape architecture. i think that what's really great about the existing chinese hospital is that front area where there's seating, where there's an openness and people walk in and out of the area. it's almost like an extension of the sidewalk. and i really like the move that has been made towards

replicating that. i think it would be a great loss if that were lost. i think it's street life that really defines the neighborhood. and i would encourage the architects to continue to look at it and continue to refine it. it's at a detailed level but i found there's some notes for moveable planters or moveable benches. i always think that's a dangerous proposition in a very dense area where you have so many people walking through. i just encourage, as there's been him speech of looking to the architecture as a whole but the landscape architecture. commissioner moore. commissioner moore: you're taking the words out of my mouth. i'd like to attract your attention to image number two. that is what you'd normally call a flat land. and what's unclear to me is the continuity of the sidewalk as you come down jackson street because i see the slight awaking of the curve line that would make a narrow sidewalk in

that area even narrower. however, in the continuity of the entire block, i like to see how that works. if i understand it correctly, we will -- we are taking more of the sidewalk away by putting intense street furniture on it. and while i support the idea of people gathering in front of the building being very important, i do not quite understand what it means to those people who are just walking by and still have to have an unobstructed sidewalk. and i might not understand this point correctly, but that i would like to see some additional explanation on that. vice president wu: commissioner antonini. commissioner antonini: i think we have a comment from the sponsor. commissioner moore: perhaps i misunderstood your drawing.

>> what was your concern? commissioner moore: the width of the sidewalk for just people passing by on the jackson street side. >> actually, the width of the sidewalk has not changed itself along jackson street. and the open space is really set back a little bit so it's even a little wider than the existing building. >> my name is wayne -- the project cuggetant of the chinese hospital. we maintain the sidewalks. what you see in some of those little square there is are the location of the underground pg&e controllers and the sidewalk width and use is

maintained except for the potential placing trees there. potted trees. one of the reasons, in response to commissioner wu's comment about the moveable, we have to place three pg&e transformer vaults in the sidewalk to service the hospital. pg&e have these requirements that when the transformer vault doors open, they have to be cleared, and so we're trying to work out the distance and also to comply with pg&e requirements. so the other part of it is that beneath that sidewalk, there's a whole slew of utilities that we cannot dig planter wells into that sidewalk. so i guess, commissioner moore, in your question, is that in the sidewalk we haven't placed any furniture, any street furniture, on james alley which is on the east side, it is a narrow alley about 12 1/2 feet

wide of which chinese hospital owns half of that alley. the balance of the alley is still owned by the city. in our meetings with the community groups, they wanted us to look at extending places for people to sit, to gather. and so we've added the furniture along that alley so that they can use it. again, it would have to be more moveable because there are certain underground tanks that are underneath that alley and also other activities that may go on. but the seats will be more permanent but still be able to be moved when we need to. commissioner moore: i appreciate your explanation. i think it's in the nature of the drawing which is confusing. the drawing is rendered out and those are let out for other activities. it's hard to understand since there are no labels on it, but i appreciate you explaining it. vice president wu: thank you. commissioner antonini.

commissioner antonini: thank you. yeah, a couple of things i agree with commissioner sugaya when he talked about the design and that's something to look at because it's nothing that will be as intricate with the case of the historic building but certainly that is a nice feature. and the other thing is around the windows themselves, all the older buildings in the area have moldings but they're very subtle. if you look at that, they're the same color usuallyly but set the windows off in a subtle way and that's another architectural touch that might be possible on the facade. i'm prepared to move this but i see there are a couple of commissioners who have comments, so i will wait until after the other commissioners have made their comments. >> thank you. vice president wu: commissioner miguel. commissioner miguel: i wanted to put it in the simplest way i could. if i were to take this building out of its present context on the street and just look at a

picture of the building itself, i could probably place it without any problem in my mind in some of the new construction going on at ucsf or in stanford hospitals. what i'd like to see here is something that would look out of place in those locations. [laughter] vice president wu: commissioner sugaya. commissioner sugaya: just a little detail. there's been some's mention, julie mentioned it, and perhaps incorporating it and commissioner wu said maybe we don't want to incorporate it in this building but the entrance might be, you know, able to be whatever in another location. but to the project staff, what is the construction material of this building? of the present building?

vice president wu: please come to the podium. commissioner sugaya: is it stucco? >> the other mike. >> it's stucco. commissioner sugaya: it's going to be difficult to do anything with that. i don't know there are salvageable materials. i know the city has requirements for larger materials and whatnot. if there are any architectural details, that might be able to be salvaged. i don't want you to incorporate them in the new building, but there might be somebody interested in hauling that stuff away, so i'd make that suggestion. vice president wu: thank you. commissioner antonini. commissioner antonini: i'd like to move approval and maybe we should do it with each item, certainly the overriding -- let me just move for now the adoption of ceqa findings with overriding considerations.

>> second. >> i'd like to amend it by asking the commission to remove item 5. in the overriding consideration. >> second. >> yes. >> that's acceptable. >> i don't think it makes any change or if that's fine with the maker. >> ok, commissioners on the motion for the adopting ceqa findings you move approval with the removal of item 5? on that motion commissioner antonini? >> aye. >> commissioner borden? >> aye. >> commissioner miguel? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> aye. commissioner sugaya? >> aye. >> commissioner wu: >> aye. >> thank you, commissioners, the motion passed unanimously. >> we may be able to do these together. we'll start with general plan amendment, policy 1.2, and chinatown streets number -- map number one, second part of the motion is the zoning reclassification, new zoning map from 6510 to 110-g and

finally conditional authorization for the replacement hospital. >> second. >> are we suggesting that the project sponsor continue to work with department staff? >> absolutely. >> that is part of the motion. >> ok. >> weighing upon the comments that have within made by commissioners today. commissioner moore: i'd like the public to take another peek at it. it's not necessarily for approval for informal update. i think this requires some show-and-tell for others to participate. >> but i don't interpret that as having to have any -- i mean, if it's just informative, that's fine but the project goes forward. ok. if it's an informative presentation, sometime in the future, that would obviously -- commissioner moore: it needs to be requested. >> i don't see that holds

anything up so we can go ahead. all right. that's fine with me. >> yes. >> commissioners, the motion before you for approval of the general plan amendment, the zoning map, the zoning reclassification and conditional use authorization with the stipulation that the project sponsor will continue to work with department staff on building design -- or project design and that there will be an informational presentation on that design in the future. on that motion, commissioner antonini? >> aye. >> commissioner borden? >> aye. >> commissioner miguel? >> aye. >> commissioner moore? >> aye. >> commissioner sugaya? >> aye. >> commissioner wu? >> aye. >> thank you, commissioners. that motion passed unanimously. commissioners, you are now in general public comment. vice president wu: is there any general public comment? seeing none. >> thank you. commissioners, if there's no

further business, the meeting is adjourned in memory of cheryl arnold. thank you. >> good morning. welcome to of the opening ceremony of san francisco general hospital! [applause]