protestant church west of the rockies and it memped with another church. i was there at the end of the closing of our church. our congregation memped with park presidio and we fought to keep our building to continue the legacy in the community through a nonprofit program although they knew they couldn't continue as a congregation. we wanted to use the building for the community and put forth proposals. in the end they were voted down and went to the annual conference to sell. this was considered -- there wasn't a time there wasn't a developer who wanted to buy it and financially capable we heard. i heard about bethany and from reverend norman thong when i

talked about this project and they actually had the ability to do it, but they were turned down, maybe by one individual up there. since there there were one or more that actually want to do this project and it's most unfortunate all of this also information is given out how they demand said it be sold for money and no developer was able and i will come and talk with you more another time. we will leave the photographs of the buildings that aren't demolished but those people are working -- >> thank you. next speaker please. general public comment. >> save the tree. jeffrey leebwitz. today was reported that legislation for the james

herman cruise terminal at piers 30-32 has been picked by the assembly member mr. tang. i wanted to bring that to your attention because as a san franciscan this alarms me. i think you will see it in comments about the story a direct assault on the waterfront on their authority and the act and the plan and i think we should be alarmed by this because that particular legislation was to preserve the waterfront and the environment. you have another item on the calendar. i will be back to comment on that but i think we should pay very close attention to this legislation and i think that san franciscans get in touched with the newly elected assemblyman and let him know how delicate and important the bay is to us and the bay front. i

wanted to bring that to your attention if you have not read that story. thank you. >> my name is jerry wolf. i apologize to the commissioners for this. i was here today -- which i will take a moment for, for the consent calendar of 975 bryant, orchard supply hardware -- >> we pulled it off -- >> how does that work? >> it will happen under the regular calendar which is the next -- >> within the hour and a half. >> so it will be heard today? i apologize for that. thank you. >> any other general public comment? okay. public comment is closed. next item please. >> commissioners that places you -- >> we're going to do -- with your permission there is an architect for the piers 30-32

space that has to leave and i would like to hear item 12 in this order, four and seven. >> understood. >> thank you. >> commissioners in that case item 12. the event center and mixed use development at piers 30-32 and sea wall lot 330 informational item. >> good afternoon president fong and members of the commission. i am joy [inaudible] of planning staff. this is an information item on the mixed use and development at piers 30-32 and sea wall lot 330. there is not a hearing on the environmental review for the project. however that is under way. as the notice of preparation went out and we will come back this fall with the draftd eir so today we're going to present the project. the presentation will go as

follows. i will have jennifer max from work force development come up say a few words and david a allanba and what is important in terms of design and craig dikers will go over the project design and he is accompanied by nick raider from [inaudible], bill crocket and [inaudible] from a com and chris [inaudible] and david israel bar architects in case you have any questions. i have other planning staff members here, chris kern, liz waddy and diane osh mafrom port staff if you have questions as well as jessie [inaudible] and ellen warner from the golden state warriors if you have questions afterwards. i will start with jenn from the office of work force development. >> good afternoon

commissioners, president fong and the rest of the commissioners. thank you very much. i am very pleased to be here. i want the project manager for the piers 30-32 and sea wall lot 330 working with staff in order to develop this project and move it forward. we have been working closely with the planning department from the inception when this project was first announced in may and all fall we have been working collaboratively as you will hear on describe and transportation issues. today's presentation is a presentation that has been evolving, receiving feedback from various stakeholders, community groups, the advisory port group and staid lands. we wanted to give you an opportunity now to understand

some of the foundational ideas that have been presented for this multi-use arena and for the uses on sea wall lot 330 and receive feedback from you on some of the initial concepts. the intention of the project sponsors and the city is come back in late april with responses and another iteration of this design at that time. after taken into account the feedback we're receiving from the various stakeholders. at the same time as working on the design and program for this project we are looking closely at transportation. peter albert from the sfmta and aaron miller are leading up a city wide and a regional wide effort to do a waterfront transportation assessment that is looking at all of the development that is planned for and predicted along

the waterfront to pier 70 and north to green street and half mile inland and understanding what is the development that is proposed? what are the transportation infrastructure improvements that are already planned? what may need to be augmented and refined and developed in order to serve this area of the city as successfully as possible with all modes of transportation, not just ones controlled by the city, but looking our regional partners including water base transportation. that waterfront district transportation assessment we would like to come to you and actually do a presentation on where that process is as well. there is a lot of focus on the arena because it's geographically located in the center of the assessment but also because of the conversations that are happening at the cac around this project so while it is not

designed simply to address the impacts of the arena and other uses, we have been giving a lot of focus to that one element of the waterfront assessment. with they would like to turn this over to david allen to talk about the planning departments has engaged the warriors from the beginning in providing guidelines around the expectations and parameters around which planning department's expectation of design at this site. thank you. >> thank you. >> thanks jenn. good afternoon commissioners. david allen member of staff. since the project was announced as jennifer said staff has been working with the project team as it has been articulated and i wanted to give you overview of what the planning department and

port staff have presented to the piers 30-32 cac and to the project designers as they are articulating the project. what you will see today are intended to be general urban design guidelines that we believe the project sponsors should strive to meet as the design it articulated and they're not intended to stand in or replace existing guidelines and controls. we are pleased they listened to our concerns and i think you will find most of them are incorporated in the designs you will see. the first thing for the city -- as we saw it this is a very important site in the city and the chance for the city to consider a use on this site is a rare opportunity and one that we need to get right, and so we know that the community, the city, the port, and other state interests will have interest in what is going

on there so we're working as a staff together as a team to explore uses for this site. the urban design cues that we began to articulate we think that the project sponsor should respond to these. first there should be a dialogue with the setting. if you know the site it's in a situated beautifully at the edge of the city and we feel that the whole composition needs be in this dialogue with the setting. at the same time it also needs to engage respond to and express the place where it sits in the city and the scale and the character of the adjacent neighborhoods and the city behind it. it should certainly address the grand scale of the embarcadero and even grander scale of the bay. another cue

is the site to the shoreline and fold and open to unveil intricacies as you go along the site and the embarcadero and the adjoining streets and the bay and the shoreline should always be apparent and capitalized on and always part of the dialogue of the place that is created. at the same time we believe that what is built over the bay on piers 30-32 should be dramatic and compelling and cutting edge contemporary design and i will talk more about that in just a minute and finally -- not finally, but one of the more important aspects given the location to the south of the bay bridge is the inner play with whatever is proposed on this site and sort of engaging of the dynamic dialogue that development will have -- indeed have with the bay bridge and

the engagement with the bay and the hills. while the site needs to hold its own and the scale and the hills beyond and needs that drama as well so with that as a back drop we also considered some of the most important basic moves that this project you have. as i said earlier we believe that the development certainly at least on piers 30-32 ought to have contemporary cutting edge design and we show the images on the screen not as suggestions to the describe team but the drama and design that other cities had in similar situations and we believe that the design ought to represent the best of our times and imaginations and aspirations of this time in the city. this will be a challenging design

problem. the design needs to be aware of the historic district which it is nestled and have a human scale and people scale and shouldn't be introverted but an extroverted development, open and welcoming to all. it is of course two sites. there is the sea wall lot on the west side of the embarcadero and the pier on the east and they need to be thought of a single unit with the embarcadero running through it, the two sides have different context that ought to be expressed in the design. on the land side with respect to the neighborhood and its context what is built should spring from the adjacent neighborhood acknowledging the grand scale of the embarcadero and the bay beyond and like all streets in san francisco on the land side should be of a human the scale. should have a strong visual interest and urban pedestrian presence and the street front we believe should be lined with

active uses. on the bay side what is built over the bay should be free to draw its form and drama from the location over the bay. the relative separation of the fabric of the bay and we believe the design ought to be the most creative and what is built there should be a welcoming transition from the crescendo of a multi-use facility to a human scaled active transparent embarcadero. we also believe that the development -- it's important that the development create unfailing welcoming place. the site should create drama through balance of the site, the buildings, and public accommodations and draws and welcomes people whether the facility is in use or not. that there should be 24 hour activity as much as to develop. that

the site in the open spaces should serve the needs of the immediate neighborhood and the city and the region and given the pier is visible from all sides and vantage points there should be few blank points and strong access to the water's edge and the sunny edge facing the basin and the pier should have direct access to the water and not slope down and step down and give people direct access to the bay. on the eastern edge the embarcadero the character should be one of openness and transparency and the pier and the public spaces and the bay beyond and finally in terms of the guidelines that we presented it should be unfailinglily public place that is accommodating folks that arrive not just in cars but walking,

biking and ferry access and to rely on the automobile as least as possible. it should minimize the traffic on the embarcadero and along the site and allow minimal access along the embarcadero. i will briefly summarize the port directions as well. drawing their inspiration or direction from the water land use plan showing some of the major goals for the land use plan in this part of the waterfront and activities to make it inviting and safe, improving the rincon neighborhoods and mission bay and south beach. taking advantage of downtown san francisco by providing attractions to the general public while respecting the needs of the residents.

establish high design standards in new development that give ride architectural identity for the shoreline and improvement that extend through the area and provide pedestrian connections between different portions of the downtown. i will close with a picture of the what are -- wharf. i will introduce craig [inaudible] who you will give an overview of the site today. >> thank you.

>> this one or this one? i guess it's this one. >> closer to -- >>i would like to use this. >> that's fine. >> thank you. good afternoon commissioners. thank you once again for giving me this chance to present our work to you. i'm here representing a very large group. some of them were mentioned earlier. a comour partners and architects and the full design plan. i will move quickly and be succinct about the work but first i want to start with what is driving us, the general direction about the project. how do we connect the cultural landscape of the city, the place where we live that changes daily with the natural environment that surrounds it? and i would say this is the primary concern that drives us and of course it's the concern of many of the people affected by the project and everyone has a different opinion as to how

this question can be answered. is there one answer? it's difficult to say, but there is one thing that we believe as we see the site today which is roughly decaying and challenging and problematic piece of infrastructure that sometimes it is used as a parking lot or fenced off doesn't represent the best world that the city offers to its bay so we hope to add to that a new cultural dynamic and complement to the city and the region and provides open space and access for the people that visit this place in a way that is more fundamental than currently exists on the site. i know many people will have a different viewpoint here and we have anger and as i look over my shoulder there are people that love what we're doing and some

don't and i can put my reputation on the dais we're and we're aware and we're working to be professional, open and as responsive as possible to a wide range of people because this projected as enormous impact and not only to the community but the city. the first thing we would like to talk about the is various characteristics of the pier site. it's a wide pier. it's not a finger pier as we are used to so it creates its own horizon and so large each edge has its own life. the southern edge which faces the sun which connected to the park and has a leisurely open quality to it that we can see people would enjoy relaxing on that portion of the site primarily because of the access to the sun and fairly well controlled climate. the north side

different and it's narrow and dark facing facade so we have to recognize those characteristics are different and there are a number of structures on the site itself and famous red's dining restaurant as well as the water mark and port side buildings nearby. a number of residential communities are affected by this project so it's important that we want to create a building and a site that goes across the embarcadero for the development so there is a calmness as to how the project is experienced as you move along the embarcadero. another thing when we think about a pier and the bay it sticks out in the water and when we stand on the embarcadero we look out this direction but because this pier is wide actually there is another

direction, a north south direction that has value to the pier because the embarcadero and the shoreline is just not about looking out from the bay. it's about looking up and down the shoreline and that is driving our thinking. the other thing we want to talk about is many of you may have seen designs in the paper and this is the first one shown in the "san francisco chronicle" and it has affected think going the project and dead center on the pier and access points on the edges and suggests there is a large retail area toward the embarcadero and we felt that was cutting off a lot of the access to the visual characteristics of the bay here so we didn't find this useful and we moved the arena

away from the embarcadero to reduce the impact and open up more views from the north-south or east-west directions and it's important to protect those corridors and we will talk more about that. this is the water mark and one of the buildings on the site and you extend that outward and the general corridors this is you what you get and this is the facades on bryant street and what they have and bay view and corridors like this. now if you put them all together this is what you get so those are the protected zones of views from private individuals from their residences and work and you see the triangle free of corridors. it's so far out it has less impact on the surroundings and that's where we chose to put the arena site

itself but more importantly we know that the private views are important to consider and public views are important too so move along the main streets and the embarcadero you need access to the waterfront visually so putting the arena here in the center that was shown in the newspaper doesn't really work. if you push it over it starts to work at least have less impact on the surroundings and this is the design as we present them to the public. these are shown now as a kind of direction that we were thinking about in terms how this could work. this is a view of the arena towards the east edge of the pier with the bay bridge in the background and unusual foggy for this part of the city and it does happen from time to time. this is view of the

arena itself with retail placed towards the embarcadero and we will talk more about how this functions as an idea in terms of the relationship to the surrounding shoreline in a moment and that is based on these things. these are the public view corridors so what you saw earlier was the private corridors and from their bedroom or work space. this is the view you would see walking down the street and down main street and down bryant and get the view here between the piers and as you move down main street proper and i don't know if you have been down the street, but you get a great view out to the bay and from the embarcadero itself there is a view out to the bay as well. now what we're interested in in is this north south movement of view and as you look here such a view corridor from the park and from the at&t park connects up to

the peer of the bridge which is a fantastic thing because what we want to propose at this particular site rather than saying the physical object itself, the architect feature, the thing that is the building as the main identity of this place -- in fact what we want to do is make the space that the building is on kind of the exciting moment of the project so the arena and the retail flame the view to the bay bridge close to the waterfront and as you come down the embarcadero from either direction you get the view from here and loop to the plaza and this there is a moment where the bridge expands and framed by the building and that is interesting in itself and it has values. these are quick renderings that we made from the park with the arena

there to the right. the bridge pier in the middle and the retail there and stairs to the raised entry plaza taking you to the actual arena here. here is a general site plan and we will talk about the sea wall site across the street too, but for the moment focus on this. there is a number of raised terraces that give a vantage point across the bridge and gradually drops down to the south to an area you are able to get close to the water. you have access in many ways around the site with these drawings. there are a number of challenges here that we respect and learned from the community and the various stakeholders that we are trying to address. this shows a raised podium 50 feet in the air. some people feel it's challenging how you

provide access to the water so we're taking those considerations into account. there's a guest dock shown on the southeast corner and many people have challenged and we have to consider that there. a number of things brought to our attention since the drawings were released. the plan is simple and towards the middle is a parking core and that raised platform that you saw earlier with the steps going to the entry that covers the parking itself and the retail itself is a lower structure that has the same architecture of the nearbye structures and this puts as mass as possible into the little building as possible with a podium roughly 40 feet high and the surrounding structures. many people had challenges with this particular scheme so we can