the city administrator you know i love g s a and to hear pittsburgh it's role it refers to our clients as customers. i went through those years trying to recreate those agencies given the opportunity and the high privilege of re13wi7b9 government and making us not only relevant but at the value for everything we must accomplish. i will add to the appreciation of president obama and his stimulus packet. i was here years ago i broke this ground with the architect and we were happy to before a break ground with leader pelosi and we looked at across market

street and we saw market street as thirty percent vacancy rate a darkness to it people hurried and look what's happening 3 years later. i'll also reference this is one of our stimulus lettuce projects that's the purpose of that act. we want to demonstrate when you give us a little bit of stimulus we take it all the way in san francisco (laughter) this is so appropriate to have the architect and the artists with us. part of the magic that leader pelosi is referring to say happening with the people that make magic with the artists and the architect.

we respect a building things like. i want to see the curved doorway the one i saw and the beautiful office up there. it can only be matched by another rival office across the center (laughter) and take the history of this building the respect and what it means whether it's a coast guard or in the correspondents of the g s a and the other agency that will interact and all the people on behalf of the public i want to congratulate you and to let you know that you're also historically on the united nations first it's be packed our country with the rest of the world.

24 is history and to them showcase this building respectfully and to see the plaza this g s a building compliment the work we're doing with center market street and right now 3 years later after the groundbreaking we have 15 companies to relocate here we have 5 thousand residential unit being built in the 3 block radius and a 26 percent of them are going to be affordable. we want to create opportunity to work and live in the city to be creative and to be include in the economic opportunities here. so i'm working with anyone else

technology companies but companies that decided to move into mid-market even without the innovative of a tax exemption and 3 of the company's said we're coming because of the talent here in the city. i know they're to be matched with the talent of the people in g s a. we've wanted to work outside of our bureaucracies. this is the new government we're producing here locally and we want to match that we have great partner like our libraries and museums and we're going to compliment that. we can only do that to embrace

the opportunity not only to make mistakes but better sufficiency and involve more people and housing and economic opportunity. this is what market street isal about it's our main corridor in san francisco. and that's why for so many years even before the companies technology came to be there were those artists from a.c.t., from the theatres, from the costume shop and their great arts foundation burning man they were trying to get some life 90 in the story front and with that risk-taking came some attraction

but it's symbolic with the public-private partnership we help them and they us. my job and i know nancy pelosi has done it i'm following here lead to sustain that success to open up those opportunities. this building will compliment what we're doing and it's going to be sustained. we've got neighborhood investments and ambassadors that are hired from people who live in the district to compliments the workforce. it's now, one of the great streets market street. so i congratulate the g s a you're the new caretakers but

those will be our folks to recreate all the pathway for those to visit and to recognize that san francisco proudly is an international city one that is proud to take every stimulus opportunity and to establish and a sustain it and grow it right now like we're doing. congratulations and thank you very much for being here (clapping.) thank you mayor ed lee we're pleased to have you here to celebrate this signify center. this project was about thinking outside of the box and transitioning it. our next speaker michelle cracking i think is the principle and has focused on

complex institutional and mixed use projects. please welcome ms. mccrack i think (clapping.) so it's so amazing to be at the end of this project. i always think about the start and the finish and i love them both i love the beginning that the adrenaline rush that starts at the beginning of every project but love the final movement that is filled with the joy. i can still remember when we had our first meeting in august of 2009. we were behind schedule the day we started. we knew we had to move quickly

to sustain the future possibility this future workplace we never doubted we could pull this off. during the initial design phase we hit our mark and wow. ed center. we thought our efforts were simply awesome. we identified the $40 million flaw (laughter) and at that first meeting among the design team g s a it was clearly in my mind we were halfway through this high wire act and it felt like we dropped our pole. i always remember that moment it was the rebeginning moment.

we had the simplicity and the clarity that is still stavrl to me. we literally in the course of three weeks mreld reimagined what we were doing and we moved from the chaos to clarity to achieve this design kleenex. deceptively simple our corridor exists because of mark and glen and because of jim and because of susie and the japanese gentlemen and because of every outdoors member of our design team and because of the partnership we are forged that day among our design team and others. i remember that day when we

represented for the sdpept approval i remember that day when we met again and again and again to get approval. i believe we needed the system inspected. we had our challenges i never doubted we would succeed. so i'm very grateful i have the opportunity to work with this team and to be part of such a lovely project. i hope all who experience it will feel as much pride as we who created it. thank you (clapping.) thank you michelle we appreciate

hearing before your experience. our final speaker is the visibley artist heats completed more than 50 sculptures. while sought after for creating nuisance sculptures he maintenance small-scale skurlz please well, mr. cliff >> thank you and thank you congresswoman pelosi and mayor ed lee for your comments. this building and project represents many things i want to talk about the roll of art in the contemporary society.

within their design convalescence program. this court yard was done within the program. this program offered the opportunity to work with architect and engineers and significant collaborations that integrate art into the general mifgsdz public buildings. during this collaboration i had the pleasure to work with jennifer and ken barker in washington and don davis. as well as others from the construction site. and we also had an excellent contractor. that my most significant professional collaboration in the project was with two people

don doug last from the fine arts program and cliff low. cliff lows sensitive were structural for me to create the landscape ribbons. don douglas demanded the best quality. the sculptor in this court yard called ribbons is the heart and soul of the building. it's meant to adapt to the moments like this. it can be a place of respite. the sculptor responses to the hierarch of the skrurlt with the

ribbons. this major emphasis on the horizon is to compliment the architecture and it is perfect to the historic use. from under no circumstances ribbons the sculptors that you see to the side rise and fall and create pathways of decomposed granite that anchor the space. there's actually an interesting story about the fountains. when arthur brown completed the designs in 1932 the court yard was never completed because of guess what, budget adversaries (laughter) so it's good to know we're not alone in our contemporary

conditions. but i was able to get ahold of the original plans and they showed those like wedding cakes had had or that are different so i replaced those with the cubes and i was able to in that way like the court yard itself really complete the historical nature of the building and bring it into its contemporary use. as part of this visual vocabulary those fountains and benches you seeing see rising and twisting from the ground are digitally cast into concrete. the concrete is an 80 percent recycled material which is in con formulations with the plat form of qualifications of the

architecture by hk s. the decomposed granite allows water to pass through. sculpture is meant to be skrurlt it is also accommodating the lives of people who are going to work in this facility and use it. i think this this sense it's what the art and architecture program intended for its platform for architecture. john dewey once said that long. >> art it the beauty parlor of civilization neither art of civilization are secure. it's a recognize that the

federal government believed that art should and can enrich our lives. this project was taken out of the beauty parlor and put here ugly or usable and behalf. they've recognized the building art and it's through those those types of collaborations that are become into the arts collaboration. i hope this continues to grow our infrastructure. i take it my dreamy know from experience if we can do it with the courtyard we can do it with infrastructure like water and bridges can be built and reflect the best qualifies of american

democracy. nancy pelosi said we should keep on building thanks or things that inspire and endure. thank you (clapping.) thank you cliff i'm sure everyone will agree it is a wonderful particulars. today you've heard about the objectives and goals but we wouldn't have been successful without the contractors i want to acknowledge the architects and the art and architecture design of cliff garden studio and the cliff management that team led i mr. robert. and noting folks and the xhiths

firms. at this time i'll to take a brief moment to recognize the g s a team which are directly involved for the public building service region 89 (clapping) regional 7, 8, 9 project sponsor patricia that were recreational chief aektd larry (clapping.) recreational recovery act executive matt. and others. (clapping.) >> project executive andrew and his predecessor kim wong.

project director. fabulous job. this is the baby and it's a beautiful baby. and cathy author fabulous job. jason and others (clapping.) and san francisco service center mark and all the other g s a members it's done if record time really when you think about it. i want to make sure everyone knows we appreciate the hard work and we're going to enjoy it for one hundred years. thank you for the team that helped to put this event today and we appreciate all of you as well (clapping.) ladies and gentlemen, this

concludes our formal ceremony and thank you for coming. if you one way or another would like to take a brief tour please join our staff at the elevator and i'd like to ask the speakers to join me for the ribbon cutting at the front of the podium for the ribbon cutting >> 1, 2, 3. there you go. okay (laughter) (clapping) how about a big something like you guys. here we go. horrify

>> hi. welcome to san francisco. stay safe and exploring how you can stay in your home safely after an earthquake. let's look at common earthquake myths. >> we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. we have 3 guest today. we have david constructional engineer and bill harvey. i want to talk

about urban myths. what do you think about earthquakes, can you tell if they are coming in advance? >> he's sleeping during those earthquakes? >> have you noticed him take any special? >> no. he sleeps right through them. there is no truth that i'm aware of with harvey that dogs are aware of an impending earthquake. >> you hear the myth all the time. suppose the dog helps you get up, is it going to help you do something >> i hear they are aware of small vibrations. but yes, i read extensively that dogs cannot realize earthquakes. >> today is a spectacular day in san francisco and sometimes people would say this is earthquake weather. is this earthquake weather? >> no. not that i have heard

of. no such thing. >> there is no such thing. >> we are talking about the weather in a daily or weekly cycle. there is no relationship. i have heard it's hot or cold weather or rain. i'm not sure which is the myth. >> how about time of day? >> yes. it happens when it's least convenient. when it happens people say we were lucky and when they don't. it's terrible timing. it's never a good time for an earthquake. >> but we are going to have one. >> how about the ground swallowing people into the ground? >> like the earth that

collapsed? it's not like the tv shows. >> the earth does move and it bumps up and you get a ground fracture but it's not something that opens up and sucks you up into haddes. >> it's not going anywhere. we are going to have a lot of damage, but this myth that california is going to the ocean is not real. >> southern california is moving north. it's coming up from the south to the north. >> you would have to invest the million year cycle, not weeks or years. maybe millions of years from now, part of los angeles will be in the bay

area. >> for better or worse. >> yes. >> this is a tough question. >> those other ones weren't tough. >> this is a really easy challenge. are the smaller ones less stress? >> yes. the amount released in small earthquakes is that they are so small in you need many of those. >> i think would you probably have to have maybe hundreds of magnitude earthquakes of 4.7. >> so small earthquakes are not making our lives better in the future? >> not anyway that you can count on. >> i have heard that buildings in san francisco are on rollers

and isolated? >> it's not true. it's a conventional foundation like almost all the circumstances buildings in san francisco. >> the trans-america was built way before. it's a pretty conventional foundation design. >> i have heard about this thing called the triangle of life and up you are supposed to go to the edge of your bed to save yourself. is there anything of value to that ? >> yes, if you are in your room. you should drop, cover and hold onto something. if you are in school, same thing, kitchen same thing. if you happen to be in your bed, and you rollover your bed, it's not a bad place to be. >> the reality is when we have a major earthquake the ground

shaking so pronounced that you are not going to be able to get up and go anywhere. you are pretty much staying where you are when that earthquake hits. you are not going to be able to stand up and run with gravity. >> you want to get under the door frame but you are not moving to great distances. >> where can i buy a richter scale? >> mr. richter is selling it. we are going to put a plug in for cold hardware. they are not available. it's a rather complex. >> in fact we don't even use the richter scale anymore. we use a moment magnitude. the richter scale was early technology. >> probably a myth that i hear most often is my building is just fine in the loma prieta earthquake so everything is

fine. is that true ? >> loma prieta was different. the ground acceleration here was quite moderate and the duration was moderate. so anyone that believes they survived a big earthquake and their building has been tested is sadly mistaken. >> we are planning for the bigger earthquake closer to san francisco and a fault totally independent. >> much stronger than the loma prieta earthquake. >> so people who were here in '89 they should say 3 times as strong and twice as long and that will give them more of an occasion of the