>> okay, welcome to our regular rules committee meeting for thursday, march 7, 2013. i am supervisor norman yee and i will be chairing the meeting. to my left is supervisor malia cohen and to my right is supervisor breed. the clerk today is linda wong. and the committee would also like to acknowledge the staff at sfgtv, jennifer low and nona nakolian who will record each of our meetings and make transcripts available to the public online. madam clerk, are there any announcements? >> yes, mr. chair. please make sure to turn off all cell phones and electronic devices. completed speaker cards and copies of any documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the march 19th board of supervisors agenda unless

otherwise stated. >> thank you. can you please call item number 1? >> item number 1, motion approving/rejecting the mayor's nomination for appointment of jonathan pearlman to the historic preservation commission, seat no. 3, for a term ending december 31, 2016. >> okay. i believe mr. pearlman is here today. please approach the microphone. how much time do i have to make a statement? >> you don't have unlimited time. [laughter] i'm not asking for an hour. >> two minutes. thank you. supervisors, thank you for having me here today. my name is jonathan pearlman. i would this out because i'm not as good a speaker if i don't do that so i will read this statement.

when the mayor's office contacted me asking me to interview for a possible seat on the historic preservation commission, i assumed it was for the one of the seats designated for historic architect and was surprise today learn it was seat 3, the architectural historians position. since i'm not a traditional candidate for this seat, using preservation using the academic model, ways somewhat reluctant to accept the invitation to interview. after discussing my concerns and told i was qualified for the seat, considered the contributions i might bring to this commission. as an architect i'm in the trenches having to work with home and building owners and their neighbors who are unfamiliar with local history and in particular the history of the buildings that they own, want to purchase, and see every day. i will be able to bring to the commission a blending of two skill sets. as a practicing architect that has to address preservation issues and as a historian. preservation of san francisco's significant built environment necessarily involves educating and explaining property owner's

role in historic preservation. since i was in college in boston in the late 1970s, i've been committed to the preservation, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historical buildings. one of the projects that i worked on back then was a very early searchable database for the cataloging of over 1300 architectural drawings by prominent boston area architects of the early and mid 19th century. my thesis project at tufts university was used in research for the rehabilitation of the president's house at boston university and during that period i assisted the prominent new england architectural historian in research and photography for articles and books that she published. to demonstrate my continuing involvement outside of my works for the past five years i've been the program coordinator of a volunteer organization in los altos that has saved a house designed in 1939 by richard noitra who is considered to be one of the most influential california residential architects of the 20th century. to raise funds for a d-a-p tabv reuse we created numerous educational programs about 20th century american and california

architecture landscape and design. we've mounted a lecture series with talks by california leading architects, landscape architects and critics. we presented a film showing topics such as great california arts and crafts architects on charles and ray emes, the great modern actech turrell photographer. we sponsored modern home tours. in the summer we'll have our first design camp for eighth and ninth grade to introduce them to the disciplines. i participated in a panel on legacy, gave a talk on the history of modern residential design from 18 50 to 1950 with a c-e-q-a coming this spring. i'm the program coordinator for the lecture series, the home tours and the architecture camp this summer. it involves research and applied knowledge. while the lecture series is not presented in a university forum our role in educating the public has been greatly successful. i mention this as a way of explaining there are ways to bring architectural history to

the public in a gentle way to elevate the discourse and helps the punished understanding in their context. i believe strongly that a built environment defines us and is a picture of who we are to others and as winston churchill said we shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us. i believe that i'm a person who can be a bridge to the public from the formal way of defining architectural history to one that is applied, to help turn the fear of owning an historic resource to one of pride to be refreshing and adding to san francisco history in a way that noger diminishes that history nor diminishes the needs of the public. when i came to san francisco in 1989, the first project i worked on was the renovation of rehabilitation of temple emanuel on lake street, a building by legendary architects that includes the office of babe he will and brown and bernard bay back. i worked on historic buildings all over san francisco including in district 1 i'm the lead architect for the alexandria theater. in district 2 in the presidio,

i renovated one of the office quarter houses. district 6 the rehabilitation of the hibernia bank building that the historic preservation commission with no debate or criticism. hibernia bank project is essential to the economic revival of the mid-market area, of course. i also designed the first new building in the western soma light industrial and residential historic district. in district 8 i wrote wrote the nomination for landmark builder 2 41, the workshop [speaker not understood]. ~ related to this i presented at the california preservation conference on the identification of historical and culturally significant spaces in san francisco in the minority movement. in architectural practice i often hear people remark, it's so ugly how could it be historic? my role is to help them understand that esthetic beauty is not an evaluative criteria that ultimately determines whether a building or area is considered historic. in my discussion with friends, colleagues or clients about our

work, it is evident that we, those of us in the professions, architects, historians, the planning department and the hpc need to do a much better job of outreach to educate the public on what an historic resource is and why retaining them is a san francisco value. from this vantage point there is great disconnect in the public's attitude about preservation. it is often perceived as scary or merely a political tool or a wedge issue that hampered progress. what i find most often from the public that i deal with is fear. fear that their home will be considered historic resource or contributor to an existing or potential historic district. and because of that they will have little or no choice in how they upgrade or modify their own property and to do anything will add significant additional expense and significantly more time. as one example, in 2009 i was writing two historic evaluation reports at the same time. one for a small two story ordinary modified house on an alley in west soma, a grand

single-family house on pacific avenue facing the presidio in the area that is chock-a-block with the houses of the likes of morgan [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood] with no known architect or builder compromised integrity and surrounded by parking lots and warehouse yards would be the historic resource. the reason for its significance was explained in the historic context statement for west soma light industrial and residential district. small houses on the alleys are sufficiently rare and therefore considered to be contributors to a future historic district. the pacific avenue home was not considered a historic resource because there is no district in this area. and while it was designed by a known architect, he was not considered important, which allowed the homeowners to move forward with plans that significantly increased the size of the home without regard to rehabilitation standards of the secretary of interior. my challenge with how to explain to the owner of the soma house who lived in the house for more than a decade at that point why he would be severely limited in what he could do with the building.

the planning department did deny his renovation plans and the limitations set by the planning department would not result in a remodeling that met his needs resulting in his need to sell the building in a depressed market and ultimately he had to move out of san francisco. while this is an extreme example, there are many stories like this that i think give preservation a bad name in this town. i am not saying that there shouldn't be historic designations of this type of building in western soma or anywhere else in the city if it is appropriate. however, the general feeling of people outside the preservation community is that there is no balance between preservation and the need of property owners, especially homeowners to meet the needs of their families. they feel helpless when it comes to controlling their own property. in this particular case the owner had no idea what a context statement was or that it was being prepared with the consequence of the owner's inability to move forward without incurring excessive costs and time. ~ there was no mechanism for him to vet this all out in the public. and the planner couldn't explain to him why his house

was considered historic other than to offer him the definition of historic resource and that his house met that definition. while working on the hibernia bank the owner went to the enth degree [speaker not understood]. the original structural engineer would have required virtual dismantling of the glorious ornamental work in the building. i found a firm that had not only worked on other buildings, but provided a seismic upgrade that will be invisible and complete and not affect the exquisite spaces of the building. with all that, we still spent over 7 months debating why the bank teller counters would make it impossible to adaptively reuse this face. it was a failure to balance the preservation and future use of this historic building to me. ~ preservation cannot be considered in a vacuum. the historic preservation commission has to provide leadership which it did in this case and clearly defined the values we hold and why preservation is important for

san francisco without resulting in a policy of preservation for preservation sake. it has to become a form for debate and dissent if one doesn't agree with the evaluative judgments of the government officials. [speaker not understood] the application of the secretary of interior standards. right now they apply rigidly and not considered building by building basis or in context. it is as if they are solely objective rules that apply in all cases. i believe that with both my experience of practice and historical knowledge, i can contribute to making the evaluation process more flexible, more context based and discriminating. the historic preservation commission has a role in changing the evaluation standards so that preservation does not become an obstacle to livability in today's society and with today's life styles. we must balance our preservation efforts in a way that neither diminishes that history nor denies the needs of citizens today and in the future. thank you for your consideration of my nomination and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> thank you, mr. pearlman.

colleagues, are there any questions? mr. pearlman? i have a few questions. you were nominated for this same commission in 2009 and withdrew. can you tell me why you withdrew then and why you believe you are prepared now to take the same role as a commissioner? sure. it was a highly politically charged atmosphere at that time. [speaker not understood]. i was in the first group that was nominated by mayor newsome. there was enormous political infighting between the board and the mayor at that time. and we were all nominated a week before christmas, and basically thrown to the wolves to just fend for ourselves with

very little support from the mayor's office. i think the polarization of attitudes that was pervasive in the politics of that time are extremely different now. i think that there is room for public discourse for legitimate discussion and debate about our work, and i think i can contribute to that. i also believe that i have -- at that time the work that i've been doing on the [speaker not understood] project in los altos had just started. i had four more years under my belt. and seeing how to engage with the public and bring historical issues forward in a very credibly positive and successful way. also in the last four years i've been working on the alexandria theater and the hibernia bank project which i think has certainly increased my knowledge and understanding of how to work within, within san francisco's commission structure and with the planning department.

>> supervisors? cohen, go ahead. >> hi. nice to see you. thank you for taking time and your interest to serve san francisco. i'd like to discuss with me a little bit about your philosophy on, on historic preservation's -- locations that have more of a cultural significance in san francisco as opposed to, you know, hard core, what some very -- some folks with very, you know, narrow view or narrow definition of a historic building might not consider. right, i understand. >> i apologize. that's poorly worded. i think i understand what you're doing with it. when i first came to san francisco in 1989, i basically came out here to work with the

names project, the organization that shepherded the ace memorial quilt. and in that regard, i got very involved very quickly in the gay community and the aids service community. and one of the things that i worked on when i was on the landmarks preservation board back in 2002 was to landmark the building where the aids memorial workshop was. that as it turns out was one of the first movie theaters in san francisco, the jose theater built in 1910. the building itself, i think relative to your question, is fairly indistinguished. it's a generic building of its time, but the social aspect of, you know, the importance of the aids crisis and san francisco's response to it through the

quilt i think is incredibly significant to, to memorialize. now, of course, that building right now is katz restaurant. there is very little reference on the interior to the workshop and what was done there. the owner has been great. he displays quilt panels in the foyer of the restaurant at all times. but i do think we need some kind of program to identify on the building because no one would know the building, per se. but i do think we need to identify these places of culture and social interaction. so, i know there's been a lot of work on buildings in the gay community, the historical buildings of the gay community [speaker not understood] and things like that. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> supervisor breed. >> thank you. i have a few questions. >> supervisor breed, can you hold for a second?

there's an overflow room, actually, in room 250 if you're not here for this particular item and you don't want to stand up, you can go to 250, okay? >> thank you. so, i had just a few questions i wanted to ask you specifically about your work in the harding theater and just wanted you to talk real briefly about the specific issue around the stage and the historic factor of the stage that had been built in after i think in the '80s when there was a church at the location -- well, one of the first of the two churches that was at that location. okay. we don't actually know when the state -- so, the issue is when the building was built in 1926, we have all the original drawings and the permits. and at that time there was no stage or fly loft on the building.