november 19, 2014, >> >> city of san francisco >> >> historic preservation committee >> >> please stand by... >>

>> san francisco architectural heritage was present and expressed heritage report on three contracts and planning staff gave a short presentation. committee member supervisor avalos did have some comments about san francisco's program in relationship to other programs throughout the state of california and

the types of properties that took advantage of the program as compared to cities and san francisco and did comment as to whether or not the properties applying for the mills act this year were in truly need of a property tax break. as a result of those comments, the committee deciding to forward the contracts to the full board without recommendation which was disappointing for us but we believe we'll be able to demonstrate to the full board that the mills act program is in fact a really important viable financial incentive for landmark properties in san francisco. sew -- so we'll keep you posted on that. the second item i wanted to share with you was an item heard at the

planning commission. the planning commission unanimously approved the downtown project authorization on embarcadero before them. the reason i bring to your attention, the commissioner richard contemplated to pursue landmark designation for the property, but after further discussion with the planning commission members they elected not to include the designation as a requirement but encouraged the property owner to consider that for the future. with that, i will conclude my comments and happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. commissioner wolfram? >> >> is that where the tennis club is going? >> that's correct. >> commissioner that will put you under commission matter item

3. announcements. >> no announcements. >> item 4, draft minutes for november 4, 2014. >> thank you, commissioners, any corrections or alterations that you see at this time? seeing none off the bat, we'll open this for the public. any public comment on the draft minutes? seeing none. commissioners? >> i move to adopt the minutes. >> on the motion to adopt the minutes, commissioner highland, johnck, matsuda, wolfram and commission president hasz. that passes. now item 5 for comments and questions. >> comments, questions or disclosures? >> >> commissioner highland?

thank you, we wanted to report on the meeting prior to our next meeting december 3rd and hoping we can do it once a month probably the first meeting of the month and then if ar c is needed to be scheduled as a project that we can shuffle it as we needed to. >> we have this room starting at around 11:15, we would schedule it starting at 11:30 to get ample time for a brief break in between and to refer to it as a committee. >> okay, just some context to what commissioner matsuda and i were thinking is to have an open

forum to invite the community and talk about what their most important assets are in the community and the work by heritage and workshops have been a great start. we thought it might be good to open it up and give people the opportunity to speak who may not have had that opportunity. we would like to invite supervisor campos' office to present their legislation and someone from the mayor's office. i'm not sure if it's with oewe with the civic department to get feedback from the mayor's and we would like to reach out to the supervisors to see if there are community members in their district. what we'd like to do is get some feedback from each of the separate districts at our first meeting. there is a lot of activity going on

around here and we don't want to duplicate efforts but want to hear what's happening. i just became aware of an opening of a program that's been launched by census place lab in san francisco tomorrow where they ask the communities of bayview and mission to do this exact thing. it's a photographic essay. they asked them to take photographs of the community assets that they value and they are going to be on display at soma arts on brand tomorrow for a few weeks. i will go visit that exhibit and see what's come of that. that's what our thinking is. >> and to ask if we can have the planning department staff to help us do the outreach and to contact people who have already been

involved in various communities to also feel free to offer their thoughts. >> we might as well ask heritage to participate as well. >> i think we'd be happy to coordinate that for you. >> okay, thank you. that's a big agenda. >> for 1 hour. >> commissioner johnck? >> yes, i was wondering how we are doing with architectural landscape and the project completion coming back to us? >> the project was continued to the december hearing. we will be asking for a continuance. we did receive authorization for the additional funding for the consultant to update the project. so we are still

in contract negotiations and finalized some of the details of the contract. hoping to have that done in the next month or so. mr. hasz did share information with us. as soon as we are under contract with the sculpture -- consultant we'll have a better idea for you. i'm presuming late winter, early spring next year but i'm hoping to have a date at the december 5th hearing to present to you. at least the outline that you are going to contract them to cover. >> okay, that would be great. thank you. >> seeing no other commission comments, disclosures, we'll move on. >> commissioners that will place you under your regular calendar to be item 6. item 2011.0910 l,

2168-2174 market streechlt consideration to initiate landmark designation of the swedish american hall. good afternoon, commissioners. planning department preservation staff. today i'm pleased to present the landmark for the swedish american hall. this is two reports. landmarks is authorized under section is of the planning code which allows for individual

structures or districts having special character or special history category architecture or historic difference. this is to initiate landmark swedish hall in the upper market area. the building is located welcome -- within the open mark district and also contributed to the upper market commercial historic district. the commission hall meets all landmarks under section of the planning code. should this commission choose to initiate landmark designation, the item will be referred to this commission for the board of supervisors to approve, disapprove or modify the proposal. constructed in 1907, the swedish american hall is the most significant building with san francisco's swedish community and for

100 years has served it's home for the swedish in san francisco and the oldest swedish organization in the pacific coast and on then claef and upper market area of the turn of the century and a variety of social groups related to san francisco scandinavian community. the building is also characteristic to a period and method of construction as well as being architecturally significant work of swedish born architect. the buildings are usually fine and depict a level of craftsmanship. it conveys a street presence and offers superior

detailing and the largest public place features highly ornamental style in california and defining features and outstanding level of integrity. over the past year several interiors of the space has been remodeled and as well as remodeling of the cafe. an ada elevator is also installed. mcgivens is here to -- today and he can also speak to this work. clearly it is an article landmark and supplied the planning department with a letter expressing support by that organization for article 10 landmark designation. before i conclude my presentation i wanted to

share with you, the commission an updated resolution. these were at the request of the city attorney's office. i just wanted to make those available as well. that concludes my presentation. >> what is the difference between this and what was in our packet? >> tim can speak to that. >> commissioners, the previous item, basic motion in your packet was the motion erroneously listed as a motion rather that be a resolution since it was a recommendation whether or not to forward a recommendation to the board. >> thank you. >> does sponsor want to speak on this? >> if you have no comments.

>> we'll hold on to those. forgive me. in the interim, sponsor wishes to speak on this item? >> yes. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is dylan evan. i'm one of the new tennants at the swedish american hall and the ground floor restaurant and we have been working on this for about a year 1/2. we started our outreach to provide some new viable vibrant buys -- businesses to the building. what we heard from the community is they wanted to landmark the building. we had many meetings with the triangle neighborhood association and they said we are

willing to support you with whatever you want to do, as long as we can preserve this building for the future of the neighborhood. there is a lot of big shiny glass buildings going up and this building really stands out as something special in the neighborhood. i have been in business on market street for about nine years 9 years and i live at 17th and dolores. so i know the neighborhood very well. we also heard from the society that the building needs a lot of work. it's a 104 building and if something fell into disrepair, they wanted an elevator. they build the shaft but never put the elevator. we have a fully ada compliant elevator in the building so which means that meetings held, they can now go up to

the fourth floor, they had the meetings on the ground floor because they didn't want to climb the four 4 stories. for the next hundred years people will no longer have to be carried up those stairs. we also installed several new ada bathrooms and we've modified the restaurant and bar spaces so they are fully code compliant with san francisco's health code and will work with the vibrant businesses and we did this with the historic nature and interior of the building. we want to make sure we tell the history of the building accurately and we think we've done so. we are very happy about the future of the swedish american hall and hope it's there for many decades and centuries to come. thank

you. >> commissioners, any questions? >> commissioner matsuda? >> i just have a comment. thank you for doing this. and hopefully you can use some of the information created for the landmark designation to include around the building, these stories, i didn't know there was such a huge community there in that area and learning about it makes me want to know more. i think there are many people like me who would want to know more and having stores like this available for someone who might want to get a drink at the bar might want to know more and hopefully never forget the community that once existed in that neighborhood. thank you. >> commissioner johnck? >> i thought it was an

extraordinary report. >> seeing no other questions or comments. public comment. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? >> commissioner wolfram? >> i'm very impressed with the report. very thorough and comprehensivi and concise as well. >> thank you, i would like to point out that one of the resources for the scandinavian resource from the county library was very helpful and also the translation from google translate. it's perfectly accurate and a brave new world for historians. >> very well done. >> commissioner frye? >> i want to chime in to remind you that with every landmark

designation this will have to come back to you one more time and at that next hearing we will ask for a recommendation. this hearing is meant to review the report and hear from the public and see if there is any holes that we need to address prior to the next hearing. as you know this hearing is noticed through our standard agenda notice but for the next hearing we will send out a mailed notice to alert the public of the proposed designation. >> commissioner pearlman? >> i want to echo what everybody is saying about the report. i have worked in the area for many years and i think it was dylan said how to neighborhood is changing and the shocking comparison of this building to i think it's called the lumina down at the head of dolores street with what's happening along the street is so stark and startling that i

did have one comment. i don't think it said anything about the gable of the features. >> i believe with you the character defining in general includes exterior elevations. if you call out as many as the other items. >> the first one which talked about the massing just saying it's a three 3 story building with a mezanine it's what you notice first. it's definitely

a piece that should be called out. >> mr. highland? >> i just want to say this is exactly the type of building and story that we want to carry forward into future. i have lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and i didn't know there was a large swedish community. it good to know and let other people know. the cafe, it's been closed recently. was it closed in order to reopen. >> to my understanding it was closed and will be reopened after remodeling. >> this is something our subcommittee will be interested in recognizing. >> given the recognition floating out there. it certainly would. >> commissioner johnck? >> i raised my kids on the park and i always walked by the hall and

here i am today and little do i know this is where i would be here today. i'm thrilled to see this happening before this beautiful building. i definitely agree with you on the gables to mention that because that's really what you focus on immediately. and the question i have for staff is can you comment on when we do recommend landmarks on signage and how that's handled. i wanted to comment that we have spent a lot of time on the commission talking about plaques and movement. i just went by 933 battery that is complete and the beautiful, the signage required there is fantastic. absolutely beautiful. you just stop right away and read it. i just wanted to comment on that. can you just mention how we handle signage. >> commissioners, similar to

the twin weeks tavern where this commission recommended this a couple years ago, because of the 1st amendment law does not regulate content but more about the style and design of the signs. if a business were to change hands while we would likely require similar colors and neon and replication and size we wouldn't affect the change of the name. >> it would say landmark designated? >> i thought we were talking about the cafe. in terms of plaque program, that is something we have developed with a graphic designer. because of funding issues it's sitting on my desk and something we wanted to bring to you as part of the roll out for the website which is also on hold

because of backlog issues with our graphic design team, but certainly our goal is to at least make available a template for all landmark buildings interested in installing a plaque being able to do so. >> who would pay for that? >> right now there would be no funding and it would be up to the property owner. i have been getting quotes from various manufactures and anything from a couple hundred dollars to much higher as a fee. one idea was to either create something, add something to the department's budget in consultation with dbi to allow us to fund for city plaques. another idea was perhaps the historic preservation fund committee could sponsor plaques for certain types of properties. we certainly

wanted to talk to you once we bring the design forward. >> commissioner highland? >> yes, i have two thoughts as you were talking about the cafe signage. when i first started looking over the report, my first question was cafe part of the original structure and i was really pleased to see it was very early along if not with the original design. >> it appears to be the first thing that opened in the building. >> so while we can't maybe dictator require that names remain, it might be a way to encourage and provide some incentive for doing that because i think the name is very important. >> that could be a part of the plaque, right? >> >> it would be a shame to lose cafe den oerd for that. >> it's perfectly within your jurisdiction if you decided

to rename the designation swedish american hall cafe building as a way to memorialize the cafe's original location. >> commissioner pearlman in with that relative to twin peaks tavern and the bar, we are doing specifically that. so it seem to me that's a really nice way that no matter what happens in the future. i mean how often is there a name that has lasted as long as this name so far. i think that's actually a really good recommendation. is that something? >> certainly something we can do. i would love to reach out to the swedish society. they very proud of their building and i also do not want to step on their toes. they are product of the cafe as well that they

would rename it at the swedish hall which is the primary significance. >> mr. frye, our agenda says approval but you say we'll see it again and approve it the second time. >> we are going to adopt a resolution. >> i move we adopted the resolution to initiate designation of the american swedish hall. >> second. >> commissioners, before the commission secretary chiems in, would you want to include in that resolution direction to staff to amend the character defining features indicated by commissioners pearlman and johnck, i don't know if there is anything you want to add about the plaque program or changing in the designation? >> i think we are going to wait. >> i would say yes, we would include you -- the additional

changes that commissioner pearlman mentioned but the name of the designation, maybe we'll ask staff to investigate whether that's the swedish american hall feels it's appropriate. >> is that amenable to the second? >> yes. thank you. >> okay, then commissioners if there is nothing further there is a motion and second to adopt a recommendation to initiate this landmark designation as amended to include the double gate as a character of defining feeter, on that motion, commissioner john's, wolf ram and commissioner hasz. that passes unanimously 7-0 and places you on item no. 7. 2014.095 il,

186-194 gough street. consideration of tools to manage initiate landmark designation of the r l gold bergberg building. >> as mentioned the consideration for the landmark consideration of the l goldberg building on gough street in san francisco. the building is located in