i think i will throughout the night. do know that she's a special person and this entire community owes her a debt of gratitude. i want to thank leo and his family for bringing the level of artistic integrity for this work that somehow slipped through the progress of a work of contemporary art parallel in art history. it has everything to do with leo and our interpretations with our discussion and that one minute that transformed how people will be receiving this project and how i can make this happen and lieutenant governor will

join us at the ceremony at the bay light.org. i really want to thank our mayor who is a visionary in his own right and common good and who i had the pleasure of working with other projects and he's making this city better every single day. people should know that mayor embraced this team, this project ma way that had nothing to do with really -- even, it was a matter of passion, a personal desire to see the work of art radiant and shine in our community it was an amazing gift. mayor lee, we owe you a great debt of gratitude. thank you so much. [ applause ]

>> thank you. welcome everybody to the building in san francisco. gosh, your vision, i have been living with this vision for almost two years now ever since our city engineer said, come with me to this event and you are going to be surprised how we can turn infrastructure to a piece of art. i have worked with so many projects with roads and buildings that we oftentimes cannot lift this heavy piece of metal or holes in the ground an construction and not be able to see the work of art that contributes to this city and future. amy, thank you for your incredible leadership on this. i met you first at this event

here but was immediately sold on the possibility that we can unleash art in the most creative way. this is in fact a beacon for our arts community, for a world class city and it has the ability to attract some $50 million of contributions to our economic vitality a huge base of fans that will visit our city. there is going to be 150 million visitors, i think it's going to be $97 million contribution to our committee already scaled by our travel association. so part of it is economics, but i actual, without even having those numbers in front of me knew that this was going to excite us. i actually know that when

we unveil this tonight, the feeling that i'm going to be having, is we just won another world series because it's going to bring that kind of excitement into city. and to have this timed in a way in which we have just finished the 75th anniversary of the celebration of the bay bridge, we have opened the auditorium and on our bay for the first time we have just finished the world series and the 55 sealing on our bay is a celebration for san francisco and this incredible rebounds that this city is experiencing can really only be complimented by the arts, because allows the arts to celebrate all the other things that we are trying to do economically to be covered, i

think is an incredible cap on our future on what we can experience and exemplify to the rest of the world. this leaves me to an appreciation to the artist that he has not only visualized what 25,000 led lights can do but discovered a fashion in which will not see the same pattern at any time experience. this is kind that have innovation that we are experiencing in san francisco that creativeness, that we've always wanted to have from our arts community to us with all the other things that we are doing in struggling everyday and sometimes there are good stories but art has always been an inspiration to me. you can imagine anything you want in these lights. the artist will

say that leo has always said it and documented in so many other interviews to give yourself a chance to work with these 25,000 light is. to me it's the mustache. it will be for every child in us, the ability to celebrate, to see what's good and what we have done here, but i think it will be the beacon for world class to happen here in san francisco. i look forward to -- we talked about this being a 2-year commitment. but we all know with the success this has, we are already and i will predict that people, including myself will want this to be on going certainly during my lifetime. [ applause ] >> so i have every expectation

we'll about be right there hand in hand celebrating with you to create even more art in the city. by the way, it's budget time, so tom in the art commission, you have done very well with the opening of this timing with everybody else that we have the proper level of art to be creative, to bless us with all the things that are so positive and to exemplify the arts community for what it's done. with that, i would like to introduce our artist leo villa real. >> thank you so much. i'm beyond thrilled to be here today. this has been an incredible 2-and-a-half years from the initial idea when ben davis asked me to consider the bridge and how it can be turned

into a canvas and having thought about it and created an assimilation on the computer, animation that so many people saw and were inspired to get behind and enabled to happen. so many people to thank, but certainly folks at cal trans and mayor's office, governors office. there were so many hoops we had to jump through. getting the permit was one of the miracles. i thank you for believing in public art and helping us get this done. amy has been amazing, our executive art director. [ applause ] amy was able to shepherd this impossible project through all

the intricacies, i'm in incredibly grateful for her help, grateful for his efforts in another monumental task. he's raised $6 million of our $8 million. this project is an incredible gift by our pat patrons through the city. this is an incredible piece. you don't have to buy a ticket. it's there and available. a very universal quality, it has some response to it. it's operating on a very primal level. i think we the technical team that put this piece up has

been remarkable. zad and zoon has been a lifesaver. incredible individual who has never said no to me. everything is always been possible and bringing the team together to actually install this work. to make a photo shop simulation and 3d animation project. it was in incredibly inspiring. i went out there on a cloudy day and it was incredible magic that was happening. i knew this was going to be fine if i can channel the interaction of all these systems into my work. so i'm very grateful for everyone

who helps install this piece. we had lane closures. everything happened from 5 a.m. there were hundreds of thousands of cars and the contractors installing this 550 feet over the water. incredibly challenging work but here we are. i would like to thank my team and studio, everyone helping, our lead programmer, transit for helping with all our networking, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes of help that nobody will know about, we have computers, wireless connections, i want to thank timothy child's who helps us invent this custom clip which

we used to hang these lights on the bridge. there was a lot of behind-the-scenes that's it's taken to bring this work to a reality. i guess our patrons are also, that's a whole other -- unleashing generosity in the way that we have just really bologna way blown -- away. incredible innovation at work and thankful to phillips for their equipment and standing behind they are technology and helping us achieve what we have done i guess we are here and ready to punch the button on the computer. we are using a laptop tonight and it's going to go on at 9:00. i'm just

incredibly grateful and keep pinching myself that this is happening. i'm incredibly overwhelmed that this is happening and i'm eager to share this work with all of you. thank you. good evening, everybody. if i can have everybody's attention for a few minutes. we would like to welcome you to the reopening of our visitor information center here in san francisco. it's a real great occasion for us. we enjoy

seeing it today than the way it was before. many visitors especially international visitors get off the bus at the airport and come here as their very first stop looking for information from san francisco. we get over 400,000 people to come here to learn about what to do in san francisco. i think the changes which i'm going to talk about in san francisco. it's brought the feeling of the city in san francisco and the region into the building and it's a positive experience for us and the visitors and the volunteers who spend so much time here. so i would like to crews right now the mayor who has been a great partner with the hospital industry. in fact this whole project without the city of san francisco could not have done with without the help

to make the plaza better and the visitor center a better experience and will work to make it more welcoming. i would like to introduce mayor lee, a tremendous ambassador to what we are all about. let's give him a round of applause for that leadership. thank you for not only what you do for the residents, but the visitors as well. >> thank you, you and the board have been just fabulous. you know san francisco i get to talk about everywhere i go whether it's ireland, paris or washington, d.c. and pretty soon i have to go to baltimore.

what a downer. and eat their crab. [ laughter ] anyway, it's all in great gist that i say to you that again this is a 16 million person visit every year to san francisco. just millions and millions of dollars are spent by our visitors in this city. so we have to keep it beautiful, we have to keep it updated and informative. we have great partners that have known over many decades that this is the heart of our business, tourism, the hotels, some of the greatest hotels in the world are here in san francisco and they will be welcoming all the people that come from 55 days of sailing. event after event find it's way to san francisco, the bay area

because they know we know how to host this. i want to welcome bob from our chamber of commerce because he's learning very quickly how wonderful this place is. [ applause ] and how we do things and how we do things successfully is to identify or challenge and get really bright creative minds like joe, and you start working with union square and you discover and help everybody be successful and you find john, who gets this going. you get all of these discoveries like people in the city like john, who has been there year after year operateing the whole convention visitor center and you start to putting things together and more each year things get better and better.

when you see success, there is so many examples of our success in working together and cooperating together that you get a whole hotel group of owners together and they are paying for an expansion of the convention center. that's going to make us world class competitors with places because of the size. so they know how to get things done and know that our city is much acknowledging that this is the most important employment center, the tourism center for the city, it continues to be, we have natural beauty but we also have beauty because we all work together to get that great experience going and for this center to be refurbished, technology wise, space wise and adding things like made in san

francisco. i have to say that because for me i got to talk about san francisco in ireland, in paris, i'm going to talk about it beginning tomorrow night the day after when i arrive in beijing that we are really on our way to kind of manufacturing beautiful wonderful things that people can take with them that they are looking for all the time. i got those inquiries. what are you making in san francisco, the middle class in china, they have money to spend, they are investing all over the world. i want them to invest here along with the other 400,000 visitors that come through here and take the advantage of the exposure and what everybody associated with the movement here. we can have more of the products, more of the accessories, more of the things that they want to have as memories, but also make on going connections with us. i

want to thank all the volunteers that are working here because, you know, you do it for the love of the city. if the visitors who speak multiple different languages walk in and they don't get a smile from a volunteer, earning a lot of money, they are not going to spend money and not feel appreciated. we all know in this industry, it's not just the smile we care about, this is why we need to invest in looking at this future of the holiday plaza, working with webcor, we are working to try to redesign even better i improvements here and you see the space in the highest level

of appreciation for the city. i want to emphasize it would not happen without everybody reaching out to each other, with n the city, stake holders, in our small businesses, the hotels and successful areas of our city and say let's work together for an even more improved vision of what we can do for our visitors. that is going to enhance everything, that is what turns one visit into 5 visits with the same person. it turns someone who comes by themselves and then they bring their families or they meet up with friends here in san francisco. and this is what it's all about. this is what i care about and i know that i will continue to try to do the things that the mayor's office that support this effort, talking about it, quoting the statistics to the

supervisors and they know that visitors is at the heart and all the way to market street. pretty soon, i'm not supposed to announce these things, but i would like to announce things that are not finalized yet because they get people excited about what else people want to do. market street is going to get free wifi by the end of this year. i assure you of that. because the companies of at&t are saying gosh, look at what we are doing on market street. let's get free wifi going on the plazas and all the way so that we honor people's investment and honor all of the work they are doing to recreate and reestablish market street greatest street in san francisco and then we'll work on many of the other corridors that also want our attention

and as joe has done with travel to reignite for all the people to visit and experience and do different things. this year is going to be incredible year. the exploratorium opens next month, the america's cup, the giants are back for another great season and then you have in addition to all of that you have the latest, the bay lights. the incredible innovative [spelling?] spirit that it causes. how can you do that, to put led lights and you get incredible mastery of technology to go with art. these are the things we do to celebrate. i love this city more and more even though we are working our toe nails down

to make it better, you turn and see it's really worth it because everyone loves this city and you know we all appreciate it. thank you for working together, thank you for going beyond the boundaries and thank you for reaching out to each other and asking for help and solutions. so that we don't take the person on the sidewalk and say we have a problem and we have a problem. we do something about it. we are working with everybody to make things better. we have partners, they are showing up on market street. 3300 residential units being constructed, and we have

venture capitalist. we need more. this is a big way of saying thanks to everybody for working together. another great center here and we are going to make sure this center flowers with all the other plans that we have. thank you for working together. >> thank you. for your leadership today. today i was with the representative for the football league and they are looking at the site for football. they said i haven't seen this many cranes in american city for such a long time. it's very exciting. and mayor, i wasn't able to join you in court, but i will join you to our most important city and that is our sister in italy. thanks again for your leadership and in taking this city to a new direction and preserving it's past and

celebrating it's presence and making sure it's future is as strong. let's give mayor another round of applause. [ applause ] so now i would like to clues to -- introduce you to my other boss, the board share of the traveling association and the board share of the improvement district and the square, david maeld man. >> thank you joe, thank you mayor lee for all of your support, and your leadership. it's such a great time to be in san francisco. tourism is just coming and that's due to your efforts and your administration's efforts. thank you very much. san francisco travel. as joe mentioned, i kind of wear three hats but i'm

standing in the middle of my world. union square improvement districts and tremendous work that they are doing down here, joe dell sandero with travel and of course due to mayor lee's efforts it's a time for tourism and general manager in this city. thank you. visitors information center. it was a freudian slip because it improved tremendously and it couldn't be in greater location. so all the visitors that come to san francisco from the airport stop right there and come here for information on things to do in the city.

it's tremendous for me to be the general manager because i have concierge but the volunteers and the people here are an extension of concierge and giving information for all the visitors that come in and make this a world class city and really visit all the areas, the restaurants, the attractions and everything else this city has to offer. i want to thank again san francisco travel because they are the ones who market tourism, no. 1 industry in san francisco and again i want to thank you. i want to thank the volunteers. as mayor lee has said, you are the ones that truly breathe live into this city. and you give out information with just such authentic and hospitality to all the visitors around the world. they go back and tell

their friends and tell them to come to one of the best cities in the world, san francisco. thank you. [ applause ] >> in conclusion, a couple things. we have a little game we are playing here that we encourage you to do it. we talk about our staff and volunteer that wear a yellow ribbon that say staff on them. go ahead and meet them. write their names on the piece of paper. put it in the silver bucket and you have the opportunity to win -- some prices. these volunteers speak italian, hindu, french, mandarin, portuguese, spanish, tagalog and vietnamese. they are the ones that really help. a couple things i want to point out, the main changes here. when you walked in he