characteristics of dog patch historical district. the other buildings seem more related to like the project across the street in scale and detailing. but that one building did not seem to related. that was my comment. >> okay. any other comments? seeing none, we have those. thank you very much. we'll move on. >> city clerk: that will place you on item 8. item 8: 2014.0048h k. wong; 4155 575-91000 50 fell street north side of fell street between polk street and van ness avenue, assessor's block 0814, lot 010 - request for a major permit to alter for the exterior alteration of the historic property. the proposed project includes the insertion of two new door openings and installation of a new stair and accessible ramp, installation of a new gate at the site wall, and redesign of the existing courtyard into a playground. constructed in 1931 in the mission revival style, 50 fell street historically known as the viavi buildingg is an l-plan building consisting of a two-story brick wing on the east and three-story

reinforced concrete wing to the north. the subject property is designated as a category 1 significant building under article 11 of the planning code. 1234 >> good afternoon commissioners, kelly, department staff. the project before you is a request for a major permit to alter 50 felt street. a category 1 significant building of the planning code. the building was originally constructed in 1931 by ellis polk and company and known as the yabe building two 2 story concrete frame in the spanish colonial revival style. the l shaped building is divided into two wings and features sealed windows. rod iron ban bal balcony and courtyard specifically the project includes removal of a non-historic ramp and concrete stores, two new door entrances one at each wing,

requiring removal of wall below and insertion of new painted steel door with surrounding lights. installation of awe new painted frame and glass assembly, removal of a pair of non-historic door at the primary entrance, installation of a new painted aluminum door to match the historic redesign. repair of rod iron balcony and restore section beyond repair with new steel and not aluminum as outlined in in the staff report to match profiles. missing brick and new metal fence section to match existing and design and profiles and to clarify the new

contemporary design and new steel gate and not aluminum as in the staff report. and the courtyard. the project was received by the architectural review committee on july 15, 2014. the arc provided comments and recommendations on the proposed project which is included in your packet. to address these, the project sponsor made the following changes. one, the design of new doors was revised to be steel framed with hardware and profiles and patterns consistent with the building and two, the new ramp and stair assembly to the northeast corner of the courtyard. the overall design changed to a lighter and transparent design with glass panels and steel frames and rails and the primary

entrance of the east wing is no longer obstructed and now through a new entrance and set of stairs. based on the drawing reports andesite -- site visit, the proposed project meets the standard for provision of article 11 for the following reasons. the proposed project will be compatible with the historic materials features , size and scale and program and will be compatible with the character of the existing building and property. the design of the doors, ramp and stair assembly and gate draws upon the patterns and materials of the building but will be constructed using modern materials and recognized as a

physical record of time and use and the proposed project will limit removal of distinctive material. additionally the new element are all reversible and will not damage the historical property or the building. based on these finding. the department recommends approval with the following conditions. the following shall require review and approval by the planning department preservation staff. no. 1, final details of the ramp and stair assembly, 2, final details of the primary entrance door assembly at the east wing, 3, final details of the playground design. 4, specific treatment development and 5, finished sample pell for the proposed door assembly, new

gates and new brick. the public received no inquiries for general information about the proposed project. however we received letter letter of support provided by the project sponsor which is also included in your packet. the project sponsor team is here and has prepared a short presentation to review the details of the work. i'm available for questions and this conclusion my presentation. thank you.

>> while we bring that together we'll ge started. my name is larson, the operator of the proposed building. with me today are frederick nap from nap architect #50i8d -- i would like to start by thanking the commission and on working with us on the sped expedited timeline.

they have given us a lot of comments as you heard and really made the project better. we are excited to be here today to work with you towards restoring this historic building. it has been vacant for the past 15 years. with your support, come january we'll have over 200 children attend infant, toddlers and preschool programs at this location. we chose this property because it has four great attributes for a preschool building. it has a beautiful courtyard which we plan to build a grassy playground for the children. we like the location. it's close to public entrance is for the and the neighborhood is great to live there and work there.

in the past year we've talked to many families in san francisco and they told us that finding quality child care is difficult. they hope that this will restore the historic building and help us get our school started by january. thank you so much. >> good afternoon commissioners. we are great if ateful for the report we got from arc. we think their points and criticisms and ideas would help the project. we would like to go through three aspects today. improvement of the street facade and courtyard and design of the ramp. on the street facade, there are two main

elements that are missing or damaged which is as you can see in the two lower corners of the left is existing on the right and you can see two pilars and you also see there is a chain link gate now that is not original or compatible. we are proposing a compatible steel gate and on the upper left you see this ironwork is deteriorated and we are proposing to restore it and replace damages sections and and repair what is repairable. so it's attractive and more compatible with what you see today. >> good afternoon. i'm heather dennis from

architect. we are doing improvements to the courtyard. the original courtyard contained pathways and a fountain. the existing courtyard you see there with curve and linear ramp with stairs going up an entry door there. the proposed improvements we are creating an environment that satisfies the department of social services requirement for an active play area and we'll be adding a, introducing a landscape plan and adding three new trees and incorporating a fountain. you can see on the left is the existing courtyard and how much hard is surfaces there are and on the right we have all of the landscaping shown. the landscaping features are generally low lying naturalistic. there is no above the ground

fixtures and they have been designed in such a way that they are reversible. in agreement with planning staff, the approved west courtyard ramp design proposed on the minor permit to alter was changed on the over all design for the courtyard. the proposed ramp improvement for the non-compliant ramp for the exits and to the exterior room. the new ramp design is simple and allows the historic building to read beyond. the new ramp and stair composed of the railing, clear glass and concrete. the configuration allows for egress and access from both north

and east wings and we have consolidated the original design. we actually in response to arc comments, we have regrade td pathway from the west gate to the east entry achieving 120 slope and reduce the over all length of the ramp foot print by 11 feet. working with blank staff, the switch back was moved to the north and we added a stair to align with the east entry as you can see that it is unobstructed view. the ramp is a non-permanent fix you are that can -- if fixture that can be removed at a later date. we are taking out a portion of the existing historic window assembly and we are saving that on-site. we are

replacing that with a can can ustom design for historic buildings and new non-historic entry doors will be setback to create an entry vestibule and it will mimic the original historic design. >> again, we believe the changes we made in the historic design, is comparable to the arc and this design conforms to the standards. it retains character defining features flt property and repairs lost features that we can document,

replaces them in kind, repairs, deteriorated features which can be deteriorated and incorporates vital new development in a way that does not detract from the historical character of the property. we want to thank you all very much for the time. we know you've spent on our sizable sponsor packet and we look forward to answering any questions you have. >> commissioners, any comments for the staff or sponsors? >> i have one question, it seems like the ramp designs in particular, there is a lot of different pieces. i'm wondering what the actual design you will come up with. you talk about the rendering 620b that shows the stairs going up.

>> the final design is with glass. >> i was going to ask about the wind ows. i'm happy to hear that you are trying to get a can ustom design from hopes. one thing is just a comment from planning staff is the detail on 50 to pay careful attention. we don't want that piece getting too bulky. >> correct. the window portion of the framing is going to mimic very closely the original. the door frame itself is going to have to be widened so to allow for window and door closing. >> thank you for clarifying that. two other questions, what is

the thing behind the glass railing and cables? >> well, we were getting comments that the vertical cables detracted from the overall facade of the building because it is a unique building and quite beautiful and just having this picket was attracting your eye. so we went with a glass railing and then incorporated metal elements that mimic what's going object -- on in the building itself. >> on the railings, did you look at some of the ralgsz whether railings, whether or not they were negative next speaker -- necessary or not in >> yes. by code, but from another perspective child safety is the more reason why we are incorporating the glass at all

locations. i'm speak -- i can speak to that more. we would have children that are learning to walk. we can see in our schools that little toddlers at 15 months, they don't tv -- have the body control. they will stumble and fall. we just want to make sure they are safe for that access for the building. that's why we chose the plexi glass even where it's not actually required for the children. >> okay. any other comments? seeing none, any public comment?

>> hi. i am short. i am a mom. my husband and i work full time. we have a two 1/2-year-old and another one on the way. i own a at tutoring company. i used to be a teacher so i consider education for my child very seriously. i considered opening a school in san francisco because there were few options. i wanted my child to have a quality montessori education. when i went around looking at the school none of them fit the bill or that had availability for my son. in fact there's no toddler program for toddler montessori program for that age and no infant program and very few preschool options with very lolling -- long waitingist. list.

so we had very few options which was to move out of the city or getting these guys to open the school. since we heard of their reputation they are very well known in the montessori community. as i mom and business owner i couldn't really dedicate the time to opening the school myself and i knew how great los l.a. port was and the quality they provide and able to provide full working hours as well as year around child care and education was really key for us both being working parents. so we really wanted to stay in the city and we approached lapt about coming here and getting this em to do all of this work. thank you guys for your time today. i represent not just myself but the hundreds plus other families that have already enrolled their children in the program and we are eager to

get everything going and get our kids started in school. this you for putting in the time for that. >> yes. i'm also a parent that wants to send a child to lapt. i work here and my wife and i had our child about three 3 years ago. we are very much interested in a classical montessori. we searched around the city and basically we really only found two options that fit our criteria, originally, so our son is now 3 1/2 and both of them were far away. one is in the lake merced area, and the other one over in berkeley. we ended up sending him to the montessori in berkeley where he is now and this is fairly onerous on

us around here costly to do logistics and we are also aware of lapt and what they were doing in the southern california area and we were very excited they were coming up here and very much looking forward to them being in this area and our ability to reduce our overhead and cost and also have this traditional montessori which we very much value as parents. we are very much looking forward to that. thank you. >> i'm not an architect. my husband is but not for this project. i'm here with several hats. my first of all i want to reiterate that we appreciate so much all of your thoughts and comments and we really are hoping that you can grant approval today so we can open in

january. primarily selfishly so my daughter can attend in january. i'm here with many hats all of which attribute to the city. i'm a mother who is very excited to attend the spanish emersion program and moud rate or and teacher trainer and parent coach for over 10 years both in the city and greater bay area. i have been on the board for the bay area for montessori commission supporting teachers and parents. i have been an apparent coach not necessarily with the montessori hat but with any parents who come to me with for over five 5 years and one of their biggest concerns that they are stressed about are parents

who live in a city and finding high quality preschool. it's really really hard. so, i have also had many parents approach me to start a program. we couldn't find a place with a program because the rent was too high and we had so many cost that we couldn't take that on. i also was super delighted to hear about lapt starting and start collaborating with them over a year ago both in recruiting families and staff for the project., and before i put my hat and link myself i went to see this program, i went to several different schools and so blown away by the quality and the professionalism that the teachers showed. i

haven't seen that level of commitment until -- until bay area and i was deeply excited. i also have the unique opportunity of being the only enrolled parent who has steven -- seen the building and been inside. my husband is an architect and so i appreciate the deep historical elements of the building. i would be excited to tell the children, one of the key elements of the montessori is to tell the children about the historic building and be able to show them the doors that they have taken great care to keepen place and the building spectacular. >> thank you very much. next speaker? >> hi. my name did ssh --

prospective, my daughter is one. we started looking for preschools when my wife was pregnant. it's challenging to find preschools in the city. i own and business and my wife is general council in the city. we got married in the city, we've been here 10 years. we toured lapt down in southern california because we liked it so much because we wanted a montessori program for our daughter. we liked it, came back up and got on the weight wait list. i'm not emphasize how challenging it is as working parents to find good child care in the city. there is a lot of natural light in the building, it has green space. we would like it to be over the diverse environment, but also make sure they has access to a little bit of outdoors and understand

what it means to live in the city that is diverse and has all kinds of different peoplen it which we will not be able to get in the suburbs. i really appreciate you guys taking the time and hearing us out and i hope you approved their application. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> hi. any other name is jim more shell and active in the san francisco planning committee and historical preservation. this building is a real treasure and we are happy to see it become activated with constructed new use after being vacant for 15 years. i will be speaking purely for myself today and neither victoria nor neighbor association was given a heads up on this so i can't speak

for the organizations. from what i have seen today, i think had they come to us we would have been able to actually be very enthusiastic and reviewing it. while elements of it seem very compatible with our goals as well as secretary interior. we are very happy the orientation of the differentiated compatible, emphasizing compatible is being emphasized here and we are very pleased and would like to commend staff on this very quick turn around and we love seeing things put back to use as quickly as possible. we are -- love a family focus emphasis and encourage family oriented housing in our community. the only element that i heard that i don't know in detail but

caused me some concern was the either plexiglass or glass on the stair cases. sadly, we've seen some instances where this element has been introduced and it does a very glaring effect. there is an historic property on masonic between haight and wall ard that best describes sort of bathroom panels goetsdz -- going up their staircase. if you can possibly get better clarification to be sure that was executed as beautifully that is deserved for this building that would be my only concern. but again, i think this would be a very welcome addition and we look forward to having it. thank you.

>> president, commissioners, i'm here representing jane kim. i have a report to submit. supervisor kim would like to thank the commission for this work on the project. she and her staff have been working with this year and looks forward for the school opening this january. this building has been vacant for more than 15 careers and we -- years and we are excited to see it open again. supervisor kim is aware of school options in this school and this is an option in this neighborhood and we look forward to working with the neighborhoods to support this school. supervisors kim urges support for this project. >> any more comments? >> back to