do this all the time, you need to think about this salient piece of infrastructure or this sorely needed upgrade over there. that is a conversation that is happening at mta. * i'm certainly helping shepherd in this direction. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisors, [speaker not understood] with port. the planning development division there. i want to briefly provide the planning context for the design presentation that you are about to see. as you know, the port owns the -- most of the waterfront property on the bay from fisherman's wharf do you rememberctionv to india basin and the bayview. in 1997 waterfront land use plan was adopted, the first waterfront land use plan for the port after a multi-year process. community planning process to

develop -- to determine what the uses would be for that property, what kinds of uses would be acceptable and unacceptable for that 7-1/2 miles of waterfront property that we own and manage on behalf of the state. the main thrust of that waterfront land use plan was determining what the port priority uses would be, specifically in the maritime uses for the various subareas. there are five subareas within the waterfront land use plan. it also focused on park and open space systems as well as creating mixed use development, opportunity areas for each of the five -- each of the five subareas. i should mention again one of the primary thrust of the waterfront land use plan was reconnecting san francisco with its waterfront. when that plan was adopted,

working with city family, the city's general plan and planning code were amended so that the policies including design review process within the plan were in keeping with the waterfront plan. as you know, the bacon certification development commission has plan districts, basin property as well. their master plan, their bay plan after the waterfront land use plan was amended -- was adopted, their bay plan was also amended so that policies could be aligned. and also to make sure that there was a robust design review process and that design review process is a joint process between the city and dcdc. specifically the south beach

sub area anticipated a number of uses, but more importantly, it anticipated large scale waterfront attractions like sports facilities, like the perez presentation you're about to see. specific to pier 30-32 and seawall 330, the site of this proposal. * piers 30-32, the plan anticipated entertainment and assemble uses, commercial activities, public open space, maritime and water dependent uses, the kinds of elements that you'll see within the presentation that are about to be presented. as it relates to seawall lot 330 on the west side of the embarcadaro, that seawall lot was anticipated within the plan as a transition from waterfront uses to the kinds of uses, residential uses in the south beach community.

so, that site, seawall 330, anticipated residential, hotels, those kinds of uses in addition to commercial activities. i wanted to note as it related to the immediate context. the adjacent facility, [speaker not understood] adjacent to the site are developed with sheds, bulkhead buildings, and the waterfront plan specifically mentions that there is an opportunity in its large vacant site to develop new waterfront architecture that could be complementary to the historic facilities adjacent to it, but could be a departure from these 100-year old buildings that occupy piers 26, 28, 38, and other adjacent piers.

so, with that brief introduction or brief reference to the waterfront plan, wanted to introduce the next speaker, ken rich, who is going to talk specifically about the context for this design. >> good afternoon, supervisors. ken rich, ouwd. this is a brief introduction to the main event, which is craig dikers. first, we want to thank everyone involved,edth warriors, design team, large city staff team, and most importantly the cac and the community at large for working with us to develop and respond to a design concept in what has been a very short period of time given the magnitude and complexity of the project. and second, we want to make it clear that even though as you will see, there is a ton of work and thought, there is obviously put into the design so far, we are very early in the process and there will be a lot more evolution over the next year. so, by way of a brief introduction to the concept itself or the design itself, please keep in mind that this

is a concept, not a finished design ferment however, pretty some of the pictures look, this is a concept. that means it's more about at this stage the function of the sites, use kind of a prosaic word, the shapes, the materials of the building are not proposed yet. basically today we would ask you to focus on whether the proposal succeeds in meeting the basic goals that we have for a development on this site. these were developed early by staff and discussed with the community at early cac meetings. let me suggest a few questions to keep in mind, if i may, as you watch the presentation. so, for the piers, the proposal succeed in offering a variety of different kinds of assets to the water and water-related activities? does the proposal maximize usable public open space? does it [speaker not understood] public or private? does the proposal preserve or even enhance the most important views of the water and of the

bridge? and that is not all views which would be impossible, but the key most important views. so, if the proposal [speaker not understood] mass of the arena building and parking structure, does the proposal set up pedestrian and auto circulation in such a way that they don't conflict with each other or jamb up the streets? all in all, on the piers, can you imagine the proposal for the pier actually adding value and beauty to what is already a pretty spectacular location? and then quickly for the other side of the street, the seawall lot, sort of the set of different criteria, does the proposal feel like a part of the city and the neighborhood? does the proposal help create an appropriate edge to the city as it meets the water? does it come down to the street at a human scale along the embarcadaro? does it offer transparency, in other words, views into the shop or the lobby from the sidewalk? is the edge along the embarcadaro aligned with active uses and does it feel comfortable to walk along the

embarcadaro? in term of the higher buildings proposed on the seawall lot, do they preserve important public view corridors? and lastly i'd like to go ahead and introduce craig dikers, the lead designer of the architecture firm, to take you through the design proposal. tanks. -- thanks. >> thank you very much. thank you, supervisors, and audience. it's an honor and a privilege to present some of our ideas and developments that we've had to date. and as mentioned earlier, we're still in a very preliminary stage of the work. and we hope our design will be seen as providing a clear conceptual development around which variations to the design can develop over time as we have more feedback from the community and from those invested in the project. the first thing to point out to you in this first slide are some of the basic principles that define our way of thinking. as you can see, there is the blue swath that covers both

pier 30, 32 and the seawall side and that is because we understand both of these developments to be integral with one another and to have -- and provide a similar sensibility, although complementary as you move along the embarcadaro. you'll also notice that on each side of the pier site you'll see slightly different colors. that is because we want every edge of the pier to be responding in a unique way to its unique conditions. it is a very, very large pier site. so, one would imagine that each of the edges of it would have a different condition. so, along the north side nearest to pier 28, a more urban quality to that side of the pier. to the east side, the width and breadth of the pier over looks the very broad areas of the bay and of the water and coast lines beyond towards oakland. we want to provide a large views and connected views and movement along the east side of the pier. then to the south adjacent to the new street wharf project,

we want to create a more recreational low rise atmosphere, the best response to these new developments by the city and to the west. alongside the seawall sites, we want to have a scale that's intimate with the embarcadaro and that is responsive to the cultural traditions that most people recognize along the embarcadaro. you'll also see squares, there is a little square up there that's red. that is the location of reds which is one of the structures on the site. and there's been another blue square off to the left that is the water mark residences that are part of the adjoining sites here and we're trying to take care of their interests as we develop the project further. you maybe have seen some images of this site in the past. this is one of the views taken from a newspaper article showing a earlier understanding of what might be built here and essentially the arena was placed in the center of the site. maximizing large areas of open space towards the east side. the challenge with such a design is that it blocks views

rather tremendously from many of the surrounding areas and certainly changes the context of the waterfront that people have become accustomed to here. our project has been focused on looking at not only the private views, but also the public views in and around the site. these are some of the view corridors that we studied from the existing buildings. and you can see here pushing them all together sort of basic understanding of what impacts the arena and the largest mass of the arena would have on these surroundings. there is an area that is more or less open out towards the edge. and we found that by placing a building there, it would also diminish the impact of views and experience along the embarcadaro. so, this is where the pier is based centrally as you might have seen it in the past. this is moving it out and rotating it slightly so it falls into a zone which we feel has least impact more towards

the east than originally anticipated. now, there are a number of other concerns about these view corridor studies of seawall. i'd like to address those in a moment. for the meantime i'd like to say these corridor studies are important to the arena itself. there is a very large structure and will have certainly the most impact on the surroundings, more than the structures that are anticipated in building here. >> before you move on, if i can ask the question, because it's come up with some of the our residents [speaker not understood]. can you go over which sites you've examined and how you chose those sites? clearly the first one is the water mark, but if you could -- [multiple voices] >> yes. each of those sort of orange blocks that you see filled out are the immediate adjacent sites as well as the public view spaces. so, we have two sets on the top which are on bryant street. those are immediately adjacent to the site and have open views currently.

then just to the south are the buildings along beale street and then in the middle is the water mark. then the large swath that runs really north-south is basically a zone that is the public space related to the embarcadaro as you move up and down. and you'll see this view study again in a moment related specifically to the seawall site. this right now is just focusing on the mass of the arena, which is quite a substantial building. and, so, it's the first step we took. >> thank you. >> and as we move further you'll see the basic design as has been developed until the site plan and an arrangement for the structures. you'll see the arena placed far to the east as possible, removing its mass from the embarcadaro, and open space plaza in between and just to the west of the arena and the multi-purpose facility that connects to a retail venue which is along the embarcadaro proper. and we'll talk more about that

retail structure in a moment. then across the street is a seawall site which has currently a low level podium, basically in the range of the podiums that exist today. and then some more dense structures slightly taller or taller atop that podium. and we'll address that again in just a moment. one of the views of the site from the distance shows how the arena and the multi-purpose venue itself will reach out into the water and create an interesting focal point along this portion of the waterfront that is essentially today an open space in between giants stadium and the financial district and the bay bridge itself. one of the other views, studies that we did was simply from public spaces. so, this is a view from an area that is essentially where main street reaches down to bryant street. today that's a lesser known street. but in the future when transbay terminal is built, one will imagine that street will be

more pedestrianized than it is today. and also we'll see more traffic moving, pedestrian traffic moving down this corridor. so, we wanted to make that view and the view between pier 28 and pier 30 a unique view and we wanted to preserve the types of finger pier type spaceses in this particular slot. so, the buildings are of similar height along that edge. additionally as you move from main street proper looking out as you come down the hill, you know that's a very, very steep hill right there. so, if you just look on the map and you see it as flat, you think, well, you can never really see anything anyway. in fact, it's quite a steep hill. as you're coming down the hill you will have views from main street out over the water that we wanted to protect. and once again, moving the arena and multi-purpose facility to the east allowed us to do that. and also you'll see our current designs for the seawall side allows us to do that. from the embarcadaro proper, we're trying to preserve as much as possible the wide view

out to the waterfront. it's not perpendicular to the waterfront as it is today. we're preserving that corner with low rise, structure is low, that will allow passersby to see out to the bay. finally, really interesting view that we're working with as you move north from giants stadium and from areas south of south beach, you'll be looking towards the bay bridge pier. this is one of the few locations where the bay bridge first pier is really visible and we wanted to highlight that in the new design. here is the first sketch that we have of the concept, sort of the arena to the east. retail low rise to the left. enormous space, this wonderful space that frames the view of this pier, which is really one of the most dramatic components of this part of the city and certainly of the neighborhood here. these are some later sketch renderings that we've made. these are very early. i did want to mention that we have not yet really resolved the facades and the finishes yet.

it's still too early. buts as will be noted in a moment, we are looking at transparent grass facades for the arena so people can see in and out of the activities there as they move along the waterfront. * glass this is moving closer. you can see this is from the new park looking towards the piers and the bridge. and once again, by framing this view, you're really characterizing the drama of this unique spot in the city. this is a later sketch. all of these are still really sketches from where we had hoped and are hoping to provide some direct access to the waterfront for human-powered boating as well as other marine activities as you'll see also in just a moment. this is a detail of the site plan. and just to mention to you, one of the key features here, this plaza that's in between the arena and the retail is actually raised so you'll see a series of ramps and steps leading up to that. and that brings you up to the level of the entrance into the

arena and allows for views of the harbor front in a unique way slightly above street level because we want people to be able to see the water from different levels, different perspectives which we think will be exciting. this is a very draft plan of the ground level. one of the things that we'd like to point out is that the northeast corner, you see that sort of empty blue square, that's a multi-use community facility as well as a basketball practice facility that can be used at different times for different purposes on that corner. we've also pulled the building back from the corner to allow for more open space along the edges of the water so people can stop there and enjoy the views and activities along the waterfront directly. we've pulled all of the support facilities into the arena as far into the core as we can. if you see there is a gray spot in the middle right next to the blue with a bunch of parks in it, that's where the loading dock s. so, we've pulled the

loading dock deep into the project so it will have as little impact on the surroundings as possible. the parking area that we are obliged to provide is also buried deep in the project so it's underneath this raised plaza and the raised plaza helps camouflage the sound and site of the parking to the neighborhood and the yellow off to the left there is the retail component. and just to the south you'll see an open park, low-rise access both to the arena and to the retail establishment. it's down at street level. inside the arena, as i mentioned earlier, we're promoting the use of glass at all the public areas as much as possible so that while you're in the large public concourses that lead to the seating areas, you'll be able to look out over the harbor and have these kind of amazing views of the city. likewise, you'll be able to see back into the arena when there are activities at night. we are looking to provide an open, sort of openly publicly

accessible outdoor ramp that leads up to the side of the building that gives unique views of the harbor that cannot be found really anywhere else in the city. and the possibility we hope to plan for an observation deck related to this ramp itself. the retail functions of the site are placed in a low-rise structures that are very much in the quality and appearance, esthetic of the original structures along the piers. so, they're about 60 feet high and they have the shed-like appearance that we're still developing. they'll have direct access from the embarcadaro. this is a view showing those retail facilities in relation to nearby pier 28. you'll see they're about the same height. so, there is no sort of wall or tower kind of structure on the west side of the embarcadaro. it's simply continuing the esthetic and mass of the existing facilities. >> mr. dikers, can we just ask you about those structures? >> sure. >> are they like shopping mall

type retail, or what would be the purpose of those sheds? >> there's a number of functions that are being considered, certainly a range of functions all the way from traditional coffee shops, restaurants and things that the community might be able to use, all the way to larger venues that might house entertainment related to late night activities and so forth. but also shopping, food, and other kinds of facilities. they were not large footprint. they're designed to take regular retail modules. >> okay. and then on the exterior -- building's exterior, you mentioned an open air walkway. and in earlier reports the examiner had mentioned besides the observation deck a possible roof-top terrace. what are the plans for that? >> that's under consideration very seriously at the moment. but, of course, we are still working through cost mott hethxv. but the goal is to provide that kind of open access to the edges of the building. * models.

we do need facilities to get people out of the building so the goal is to try to combine those with open access when there is not a venue in the facility operating. the seawall side has been of tremendous concern for many people. we understand that. i'm going to move very quickly. we're almost finished. the idea here is to focus now more attention on this site. tremendous amount of energy has been spent on the pier sites. just to show you what is sort of the general zoning restrictions on this site, you can build up to about 100 feet high with relatively small tower-type footprints above a podium. this allows itself to about 600,000 square feet of area that we could build up to. but we didn't find this very appealing. we found it very problematic. so, we are so far exploring designs that have about 100,000 square feet less than what might be allowable. we are also minimizing the height of the podium down from,

it could be about 100 feet down to around 50 feet. and we're trying to compress the rest of the activities that are necessary for the site to create the appropriate cost model into a smaller footprint. some people calm them towers, but they're relatively low and certainly lower than the adjacent structure that are nearby, for example, the water mark. we understand the concerns and we're trying to work through that. there is a workshop tomorrow night. we're going to get feedback on. this we're going to try and work with that feedback to see if we can find a design that will be appropriate to those people that live nearby. but we do like the proposal that we've created primarily because it does open up a number of views. and if you can see here on the north side of the site, we've cutback the footprint so that the area at main street and bryant is an open space that allows for views and movement across the site without interfering with the facility itself. now, there are a number of use studies we're doing and i know people might say, well, you

know, you already showed us one view study that puts the triangle of buildable space way out to the east. well, we can't very well build out to the east. on the seawall site we pushed the higher impact facility, these two 100, 150-foot high towers as far away from the center of the site a possible to promote a large range or large spectrum of views from the surrounding. we're still working on the exact placement of that. or if that's really the appropriate design, but this is just to show you where we are that we're taking these concerns to heart. so, here's a prospective sketch which really is nice i think to show the impact of the buildings we're creating. in the center there is the water mark, which is the only adjacent building directly on the site. and to either side of it, proposed blocks, proposed residential hotel towers. they're significantly lower, sit atop a podium. take out the podium you see the

red line points out the height of the surrounding neighborhood. you're given a fairly wide berth of view by pushing these to the side. at least that was our intent, to create as much openness as possible. we are nearly done. this is a view from the water mark building looking out across the site. because the arena has been pushed far away, its impact of obscuring the horizon line is lessened. and here is generally the red line shows the outline of the existing pier front as it is today. these are just some outdoor uses we're planning for the open space. the open space is about 7 acres. to put that in context, the amount of open space being provided by this project that is publicly financed is about four union squares in size. so, if you open the union square, you stick four of those next to each other, that's how much open space is being provided. all around the waterfront, every edge of the pier will be provided direct maritime use,

fire boats, ferry, a docking facility, the water taxi, and human-powered launch, craft launch area to the south. we are situated in a very interesting location. in some ways, more integrated to public transport than even at&t park. as the transbay terminal is finished, you'll see here that it's equidistant to many of the facilities being planned there. about seven ways to get to the site. * in addition to cars which are obviously are hoping will not occur. there are a number of public transpour venues we are designing this project around. we are providing bicycle routes and pedestrian routes entirely around the perimeter of the building. open access to the core of the pier. exit ways that distribute people over a wide range of areas after an event occurs. and as you can see here, we're pulling the entries and exits very far back from the embarcadaro which many people are aware of at&t park today

all the exits and entrance is right off the street, this will create a different kind of atmosphere where people can gather. and it is actually a much smaller venue. we hope the impact will be diminished. although today there are no cars on the site. it has historically parked up to 1500 cars and we're trying to reduce that number to about 6 30. and we're working with some of the key transportation figures here, as peter mentioned earlier, to design some of the complex crossings where bicycles, cars, and pedestrians will cross at the northeast corner. so, we're opening up those zones and creating a controlled and managed traffic plan for that key portion of the site. and i just want to conclude by saying one sentence as i'm at the end here. we very much appreciate and are focused on the fears and concerns of the neighborhood. i myself live in an urban waterfront community in new york city that is undergoing significant development. so, i have all of the same concerns in the area where i live and i take them very

seriously and so do we all. but we are trying to create a situation that will alleviate those fears and concerns and at the same time provide economic development and job growth for the neighborhood for the city and the region. we're focused on making this a place where families and other people of the neighborhood and the city can enjoy themselves. and the space that is today a surface parking lot of about three acres in a degrading concrete pier. this is something we all feel we can only improve the quality of life, the property and social values of the neighborhood as we take the concerns of those nearby to heart. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. dikers. i actually just had a couple of comments, more comments than questions. i just want to express -- by the way, thank you so much for the presentation. the design is beautiful, and i thank the comments and feedback that we got.

there is general consensus that it was presented to the neighborhood, it was quite stunning. but, you know, as we've heard some of the concerns from the neighborhood -- and i just a kind of want to put it out there, when we're introducing a project, we often kind of put out a design of all the bells and whistles. and so the concern is we promise [speaker not understood] and when the actual project comes forward, real costs come into play and start to whittle our way at the positive aspects of the plan about the neighborhood dikes. i want to, as we move forward, i want to have a realistic presentation as possible to the neighborhood so that what actually gets built on that site, if it gets approved, is what we actually show to the neighborhood. so, i just want to bring that up. around the open space, i think the open space is incredible. i think it could actually increase public access to the waterfront which i think is the goal of the project. i love the transparency. i love that people can use the arena even if they're not going to a game or an event.