over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of mediums. conceptual artists, at installation, photographers, videographers. >> that has really expanded the program out. it is becoming so dynamic right now with your vision of interesting artists in gauging here. why would an artist when to come here? >> mainly, access to the materials. we also give them a lot of support. when they start, it is an empty studio. they go out to the public area and -- we call it the big store. they go out shopping, take the materials that, and get to work.

it is kind of like a reprieve, so they can really focus on their body of work. >> when you are talking about recology, do you have the only sculpture garden at the top? >> it is based on work that was done many years ago in new york. it is the only kind of structured, artist program. weit is beautiful. a lot of the plants you see were pulled out of the garbage, and we use our compost to transplant them. the pathway is lined with rubble from the earthquake from the freeways we tour about 5000 people a year to our facility, adults and children. we talk about recycling and conservation. they can meet the artists. >> fantastic.

let's go meet some of your current artists. here we are with lauren. can you tell us how long have been here so far and what you're working on? >> we started our residency on june 1, so we came into the studio then and spent most of the first couple weeks just digging around in the trash. i am continuing my body of work, kind of making these hand- embroidered objects from our day-to-day life. >> can you describe some of the things you have been making here? this is amazing. >> i think i started a lot of my work about the qualities of light is in the weight. i have been thinking a lot about things floating through the air. it is also very windy down here. there is a piece of sheet music up there that i have embroidered third. there is a pamphlet about hearing dea -- nearing death.

this is a dead rabbit. this is what i am working on now. this is a greeting card that i found, making it embroidered. it is for a very special friend. >> while we were looking at this, i glanced down and this is amazing, and it is on top of a book, it is ridiculous and amazing. >> i am interested in the serendipity of these still life compositions. when he got to the garbage and to see the arrangement of objects that is completely spontaneous. it is probably one of the least thought of compositions. people are getting rid of this stuff. it holds no real value to them, because they're disposing of it. >> we're here in another recology studio with abel. what attracted you to apply for this special program? >> who would not want to come to

the dump? but is the first question. for me, being in a situation that you're not comfortable in has always been the best. >> what materials were you immediately attracted to when you started and so what was available here? >> there are a lot of books. that is one of the thing that hits me the most. books are good for understanding, language, and art in general. also being a graphic designer, going straight to the magazines and seeing all this printed material being discarded has also been part of my work. of course, always wood or any kind of plastic form or anything like that. >> job mr. some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. -- taught me through some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. >> the first thing that attracted me to this was the printed surface. it was actually a poster. it was a silk screen watercolor, about 8 feet long. in terms of the flatwork, i work

with a lot of cloddish. so being able to cut into it come at into it, removed parts, it is part of the process of negotiating the final form. >> how do you jump from the two dimensional work that you create to the three-dimensional? maybe going back from the 3f to 2d. >> everything is in the process of becoming. things are never said or settled. the sculptures are being made while i am doing the collages, and vice versa. it becomes a part of something else. there's always this figuring out of where things belong or where they could parapets something else. at the end goal is to possibly see one of these collage plans be built out and create a structure that reflects back into the flat work. >> thank you so much for

allowing "culturewire" to visit this amazing facility and to learn more about the artists in residence program. is there anything you like our viewers to know? >> we have art exhibitions every four months, and a win by the public to come out. everybody is welcome to come out. we have food. sometimes we have gains and bands. it is great time. from june to september, we accept applications from bay area artists. we encouraged artists from all mediums to apply. we want as many artists from the bay area out here so they can have the same experience. >> how many artists to do your host here? >> 6 artist a year, and we receive about 108 applications. very competitive. >> but everyone should be encouraged to apply. thank you again for hosting us. >> thank you for including us in "culturewire." ♪

>> so good morning, folks, thank you so much for being out here. i'm ed harrington, from the general facilities commission and we are out here for the ground breaking of the reservoir, there are a lot of reservoirs to make sure that we have a clean source of water, for firefightering and all of these things. we have been working on these retrofits since 2004 and this is the last one. we have completed work on every other reservoir and pump station in san francisco. sister reservoir is the last one and we are celebrating that today and also celebrating the finish of the whole city park, and the water improvement program. >> you know the whole program is a $4.5 billion and there are still projects happening in the bay area and the rest, but this is it for san francisco and we want to celebrate that. and when we finish this, this reservoir, actually handles about 15 percent of the water of san francisco. and so we will just be that

much more secure in terms of our water supply for san francisco. we have a lot of people that are with us today and i will be introducing them as we bring them up here to speak. i do want to make sure that we without a lot of people involved. we have the supervisor and the people from labor here and it comes together to makes the projects work, and the sj amoroso and this is the project that they are working on and thank them for being here also. what i would like to do now is introduce mayor lee, he has been involved with the program since day one and head of dpw and as the city administrator and as the mayor and so he has been with us all along as we work through this and he is here to help celebrate here today. mayor lee. >> thank you, ed. >> well, if you notice, supervisor elsburn, and ed harrington and you notice the

blue, i'm wearing blue, we are not dodgers fans, we only do this when we have a water system that we want to talk about. and i wanted to thank the supervisor for being here and you know, the commissioners, as well, for being here and all of the parties that ed has mentioned. five years ago, when ed harrington took up this mantle of being the general manager for the puc, it was also around the same time that then the mayor asked me to go down to new orleans and take a look at what they did not do to safe themselves from all of the years of recovery that they have had to engage in. that they are still doing as of today. one of the big lessons that i found out at that time is that they did not invest properly in the infrastructure knowing that disaster was in front of them, having experienced a flooding and the gates of their water barriers having melted down a

couple of times, even before then. so when ed harrington obviously knew that history as well and he took up this leadership, five years ago. he had a very focused determination of getting this water system improvement program, not only up and running, but the education of the rate payers has to go along with tthe people, along, not only in san francisco, but all the way up to hefp ety has to be a part of this because it is a whole system and then five years later have completed all of the six other reservoirs and this being the last one in the city, to know that we have done 16 miles of water main, or restoration and reinforcement of the valves and everything that goes along with it. some 21 pump stations, and infrastructure that have been part of the system have already been completed. we have honored what i saw was not properly invested in new orleans. we have honored our public, we

have honored the 2.6 million users of our water system. and we have honored our rate payers and our city and the history of the marvel of engineering fete up at hedge hety which i will never stop talking about as something that we need to protect and will not allow it to be drained. this is that honor, that i think that ed is proud of leaving our city and all of the residents and all of the rate payers with, we have done correctly what we are supposed to do. and it is a great fete. it is one that i thank ed for his many years of leadership here, but his experience and his fortitude in keeping focused and keeping all of the public utilities commission, and working marv lously. we have something to kick off in this wonderful seismic rehab

project that we have that amarosa, has been happy about. >> they know how to layout 2400 tons of steel. they will be laying out 37,000 tons of cement. and they know where to put it. you know? and they know how to reinforce the system so that water continues to be not only saved, but used responsibly, and making sure that we plug all of the leaks and have this reservoir there for us on a daily basis, but also, should there be any seismic event it will be here for us as well. we are taking care of infrastructure and that is something that i will cherish and i want to say as the mayor of this city, that take care of business and we do it with the contractors and we do it the right way. and there is also thanks to be recognized because we are doing it with labor and honor of the labor men and women who are here to provide the decent

wages that we do, to give them a good, living salary. we have also worked with our office of economic and workforce development and our city bill project to make sure that our residents have a good shot at these jobs and so the training and the local hiring that is being done and the effort by labor and their procedures to be flexible and work with us on training our own residents to have that shot at these jobs. it is incredibly important to getting everybody involved in our infrastructure and involved in our work that we have to offer. and again, i need to thank the puc commission for their leadership and accommodating that to happen because that is another one of those very nice parts of way that we do business in the city and of course, our labor leaders are figured in very big on that. well, i am here to make sure, that's why i will be out in front talking about our hedge hetchy and making sure that i

willfully will, fully be against draining that. we will honor the rate payers and those who depend on it for generation to come. we are in sean elsburn district and i want to thank him for his years of leadership and making sure that we are fiscal responsible he has added a great mound of focus for us to keep doing what we do in the right way. but i want to end by thanking ed harrington for his wonderful years. and i know that he is trying to complete as many things as possible for his last month on the job here. and i know that he feels comfortable in having left, leaving the city in good hands and in the good processes that we have had. he has got a wonderful foundation for having completed all of these projects. and then, we are off with mr.

kelley's leadership as we start talking about the waste water system and what we need to do with red pairs, and i know that mike and todd are eager to work as a team. i'm with them on that. and to then, reeducate our public, our rate payers about what is next on the agenda. what do we have to take care of to make sure that our future is safe and our infrastructure is safe as well. so i am glad to be here and i am glad to celebrate this with our puc and all of the friends that they have. i am glad to be creating more jobs with our contractors and then putting everybody together and making sure that they know that our infrastructure is safe and we will continue to make it safe and make it workable and improving it along the way. thank you very much for being here. [ applause ] >> thank you, very much. mr. mayor. and with us, today, also is sean eldburn, it is fitting that the first very project

that we did in 2004 was in district seven and the last one that we are doing is in district 7, and in fact of the 35 projects, 15 have been done in district 7. we have torn up your streets and rearranged your businesses. but we appreciate your support as we did that. >> thank you. >> the last time that i stood on this reservoir was about 20 years ago when i was playing basketball right over there when we had the basketball courts on top of the reservoir. about ten years ago, i got my introduction to the wisp, by helicopter. do you remember that? >> harlin' and ed predecessor took me and a couple of other people on a tour of the hedge hetchy and to think that ten years here we are. i would like to thank the puc specifically. you mentioned 15 projects, it did seem like maybe it was 30. but we got through them all and

you were tremendous to the residents of the district. and you worked fantastickly with the neighborhoods in the district. anybody that i communicated with were responsive and much more importantly the residents who were right nearby any of the projects could always work with the staff on site and were always cooperative and you you really worked seamlessly with everybody here and we appreciate it and are very grateful. thank you. >> thank you very much, sean. >> we have the pleasure of having three of our five commissioners here today, also. we have our commission president ram and we have our commissioner cain and speaking next is franceska detor. >> thank you. ed and you have heard a lot about what a major milestone this project is, the 35th

project in the we sub program and it is the last and final city of san francisco project here in san francisco. so we are so excited to be celebrating that. but it is also another major milestone, but it is our general manager's last week here at the san francisco public utility commission. and i want to thank him publicly here as part of this major milestone for all of the work that he has done to serve as commission and the city, not only as general manager but as city controller for the last 27 years. thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this city and to this system. >> i want to thank everybody else who has worked on this project. not only the commissioners that are here, but our incoming general manager and all of the staff. i know that there is a lot of staff here. the engineers, the planners, the operators, everybody that has been involved. you can't take on a project like this or a system rebuild without a lot of effort and

help. and i want to give a heart-felt thank you to everybody who is here and everybody who is not here who has worked to make this project a success. so thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you, very much. commissioner. and as you can see, it is not just about this reservoir, today. it really is about all of the things that we have accomplished together and we appreciate that so much. one of the groups that we obviously couldn't do without is labor. who builds these things, we just announce them. who actually does all of the work? and we are pleased today to have michael terio and the puc have worked together for so long on all of these things it is a pleasure to have you here, he is the secretary treasurer of the labor trade council. [ applause ] >> this has been a wonderful program. it has brought in project after project, after project on time, under budget. it is a complex system and yet you don't hear any complaints about service interruptions out there. maybe you have streets torn up

but not about service interruptions because we have managed to bring in project after project on time and under budget. it is a great partnership between the labor unions and the city. i want to call out the labor folks, charlie, would you raise your hand? >> tony, with the sheet metal worker, and david. with the laborers. and that partnership has been formalized in an agreement that has functioned beautifully, attention all the way back to washington, d.c.. and if you want to talk about stimulus in washington, we like to talk about stimulus more than 1.7 hours of work have gone to residents of the service territory of the public utilities commission in the course of this project. 1.7 million hours of work. i don't have a total of how many homes that has saved, i don't have a total of how many braces that has put on kids. i don't have a total of how many meals that has put on tables. but it has got to be huge. and it has got to be critical,

for the survival of construction workers and the construction industry in this area. so i want to thank the city for that in a big way. one of the things that has been very innovative about this project and something that i have supported consistently for years, is a close partnership with regional service providers of preapprentice ship. that is access to apprentice ship for young people in the service territory through the jobs training and opportunity program. so they have partnered with city builds here in san francisco, you see the city build folks back there, gave them a wave. [ applause ] >> mandela and project build and young build. to channel folks into our apprenticeships that is one of the great things that a program like this, a civic program can do, it can leverage the work that we are doing to bring folks into our trades and to start them on careers. and there are some trades that have done especially well in

that regard. i think that we have to call out the plumbers who are at 30 percent of apprentice usage, actually. and the roofers who are at 27 percent at last report. and the iron workers who are 22 percent and the electricians who are 20 percent. and i also think that the laborers right now working with the public utilities commission, on developing a program for buyer regional habitat restoration are also doing something extremely innovative that is important to the future of this area. we have to do over the next few decades a lot of undoing of the damage that was done in the 19th and 20th century to the habitats in our region and that program allows that to be done by skilled workers at good wage and i thank the laborers and the public utilities commission for putting that together. finally, i am with the mayor on this, this system starts at hedge hetchy and comes down to san francisco and should always start there and come down to

san francisco. and that is the most efficient system, that is the cleanest system, that is the system that we need to have for the future and for a long time to come. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much michael for your support and your comments on all of the topics, thank you. >> a few more people to introduce this morning. we have mike antwo no. sorry. joint administrative committee national alliance, thank you for being here. muligan. and we have burskin and chamber and the staff includes michael krelin and todd restrum and david who is in charge of people who work in the area and julie who is the head of the project that we have been talking about the water improvement program and here to say a few more words about that

is the assistant general manager and the incoming new general manager of the puc, harlin kelley. >> well, first of all i wanted to say that it has been an honor working for ed harrington he has demonstrated great leadership and you will be a hard man to follow. also i want to acknowledge that i have been at this for fine years myself and i think that ann cain was on the commission and her and i were talking about how we can make this happen and so we have done it. we are getting real close to completing. but when i tell you when you talk about complex engineering projects, and how difficult it is, the main key is the people behind it. and i really want to give a shout out to julie labonte, the program director with her leadership, it made things go a lot smoother and we were able

to really move and advance this program. also, all of the people for infrastructure, raise your hand, those are the people who worked tirelessly to make sure that these programs and projects are finished ahead of schedule and under budget. also, you know, we talked about labor, labor is our friend. we work with labor, different trades to talk about apprentice ship programs to make sure that the communities are participating in the construction of these programs. so, i just wanted to say that it is just amazing from our helicopter ride nine years ago to see where we are today, this is just really a treat. we are still not finished, we have a couple more years before the completion of this program. but would i like to just say that it has been a great time to work on this program, a great time working for ed harrington and it is my honor to serve the mayor and the

commission. thank you. >> thank you, again. i would like to now, ask two folks howard fung... come up and do the heavy lifting. howard is the regional manager and sied is in charge of the ones in san francisco. and these boards represent kind of the culmination of all of the work. and so, yes, in fact we have spent $360 million on these projects. so if you want to take away the $360. >> the hetcy project for the $360. see if this works, maybe it does. these are the projects that we finished over in that quad drant of san francisco. and these are the projects that we finished on this side of san francisco. it was blown away earlier that is why it is so secure now. there are 35 projects that we have done. from 2004 to 2015 we will be

finishing this one here, so that is the last one there. except this project is the last one and i'm asking the mayor to put in square for this project. >> okay. so that is the ground breaking because we did not want to dig a hole in the reservoir. >> congratulations ed. >> thank you very much. >> finally, i have some things to hand to the mayor and supervisor elsburn, we like to do things like this so people remember what you have come for and we have mementos for everybody here but we have special ones for the mayor and elsburn. these are the highly coveted water meter covers. >> i have been looking for one. >> these are the official water

meter covers to remember that you were here today. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you need a door stop. >> and finally, last up, again is general manager harlin kelley. [ applause ] >> so, i guess i have the honor to actually give you a little send off, president. and this is to recognize your service at the puc and as i said before, you're a hard act to follow. [ applause ]

>> so congratulations to everybody here, thank you for all of your hard work. and keep going. thanks very much for being here. [ applause ] >> i'd like to welcome everyone to san francisco's planning commission regular meeting for thursday, september 13, 2012. i'd like to remind everyone that the commission does not tolerate