have spent over 30,000 hours taking care of over 10,000 animals year after year after year, and the friends who continue to raise money, and raise awareness for this amazing project. this will be an absolute incredible facility, and i just wanted to acknowledge our new fire chief, janine nicholson, thank you so much for being here as well. [applause] >> please know that we are increasing the capacities of the fire marshal does not have to shut down the new space. we will have plenty of room and places for people to be. thank you everyone for being here today and your support for this amazing project. [applause] >> i almost forgot, also i forgot to thank the leader of animal care and control, thank you so much, virginia, for your hard work and your commitment. [cheers and applause]

>> and your steadfast leadership [applause]. >> and at this time, i want to bring forth our city administrator naomi kelly. [applause]. >> good morning. our mayor and director of a.c.c. , virginia don who basically said it all. this project is so important. it was one of the first projects i worked on when i became city administrator in 2012. i instantly realized when i went on a right along with one of the animal care control officers that a.c.c., the staff, the volunteers, they are all of the unsung heroes of the city. is the mayor mentioned, as virginia mentioned, animal care and control is truly first responders when it comes to getting animals off the streets, and then they have communicable -- communicable diseases, you don't hear about these diseases going from pets to humans, because they do great work. when there is an emergency, they're the ones making sure folks are evacuating in a safe

way, especially if you have many people who are pet lovers, and they don't want to leave without their pets. they have emergency plans around that. when their incidents with police and fire, and their people and buildings you don't want to leave because animals are there, or they are -- that are homeless encampments, and folks want to leave without their animals. animal care and control is there as the mayor mentioned, they are moving from just down the street , so they will still be in proximity with other animal agencies, and they're moving right here to build a building that is seismically safe. this is important to our capital plan because we are looking at all of our seismic safety of all of the building and as a reminder, the capital plan is a fiscally constrained document that looks at all of our infrastructure in a way that we prioritize what is seismically safe, what is sustainable, what will help with our city to make it vibrant and resilient.

i want to thank, as the mayor did katy tang, and your leadership on this. public works director, virginia donohue, and ed risk in from the sfmta. i also want to give a special thanks to our friends at a.c.c. who are doing so much and making sure we raise funds for behavior and training, foster program support, medical emergency fund, rabies and microchip supplies, marketing and outreach, food supplies, rescue partner grants, senior cat, baby cat supplements , and much more, and also the furniture fixtures and equipment center going into this building. i want to thank the board treasurer, volunteer dianne davis and christopher davis, a board member christina -- christina kizer, and dr. sue wong. your generosity extends past the groundbreaking in this official opening.

with that, i would also -- one last thing, i need to give a special thank you to park construction. they are the contractors working with public works on this. and in phase one, they have awarded -- contracted 24 business enterprises in the amount of $12.5 million, that is 33% of the contracting cost. [applause] >> of those who are working on this project, 149 workers are from san francisco, so thank you with that, i would like to introduce the former supervisor, animal care and control champion , katy tang. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. as i was telling some people here today, the only thing that will take me out of retirement from attending press conferences is something to do with animals. i am so excited to be here and

explain a little bit about how i got involved with animal care and control, and really wanting to see this facility rebuilt. aside from the fact that i grew up with a mother who was a vegetarian, at one point in our life, my dad said, i want a dog, and we were shocked that he all of a sudden in his life, in his early fifties or so wanted a dog , and so we went to animal care and control every weekend for four months straight to search for the perfect dog for him. in that process, i saw the facility first-hand at a.c.c., and it was heartbreaking to me, and then of course, working in the city took additional tours and learned that there's not enough space for animals being quarantined when some of them have diseases or illnesses. i mean i saw that animals had to be strapped to some of the banisters as they are doing intake, the elevator, i mean, don't even talk about that.

just the conditions that the employees had to work in where animals need to get x-rays as well, and there was improper shielding of the radiation in those rooms, so it is not just about the animals, but all the people who work at animal care and control and those conditions i think the conditions are really sad, and i'm so excited that we are standing here today to hopefully, and a very short amount of time, you will have a new building. but also the other thing, even to this day, a lot of people when i talk to them, they actually don't know that we, as a city, have an animal shelter. they are familiar with the different organizations and nonprofits that help with animals, but a lot of them -- you all know because you were all here, many of you don't know i think it is really important that in a city where we have an estimated more dogs and cats and other animals than we do children, that we really do have a world-class facility for them and their families. lastly, i will say that a.c.c. and the staff there, you do all

that work, and you take in the animals that other organizations , or whatnot, might not be able to take in. you take exotic animals, you take the wild strays, you also, yourself have to handle those that get killed on our streets, so you handle so much, and you are really deserving of a world-class facility. i'm excited to be here today, and thank you to every single person and department that made this happen. i'm looking forward to the ribbon-cutting. [applause] >> and of course, i have to introduce the next person who doesn't really need introduction , mohammed nuru. [applause]. >> thank you. it is always great to see you. i hope you are enjoying your life outside of city hall. i know that is how important this project is to you, and i'm so glad you're able to be here with us today. good morning, everyone. i serve as your public works

director, and just like everyone else, i'm very happy to be here today, even with the wet weather , seeing how many people are out here shows as how important this project is to so many people and of course, the animals. today is an exciting day for our city, and an exciting day for san francisco animal care and control. we are celebrating the start of unique project, and it brings me great pleasure and joy that public works will be overseeing the design and construction of the project. it is not every day in san francisco that a modern structure more then a century ago. that is what is happening right here. the new animal care and control facility. the new shelter will be built with the original brick warehouse behind me, the building was constructed in 1893 and served as the original

market street railway corporation. it is eligible for listings on the state national registry and historic basins. it served as a maintenance facility for the sfmta overhead lines. the reuse of the building will be an elegant nod to the city's pass that serves the needs of the 21st century san francisco that historic brick face and wooden frame windows will remain intact, while the interior will be transformed into a state-of-the-art, multilevel facility billed to serve the needs of san francisco for many years to come. as mayor breeden said, we must think about the future of san francisco today, and there's no better way to do so by investing in capital improvements to our infrastructure. public works is proud to be working with clark construction and the many people who will be working on the projects.

thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. we are going to do the ceremonial gravel shovel thing, and then we are done. there is tons of delicious food that clark brought that is right outside, food and drinks, and we hope you all stay around for a bit and enjoy each other. >> five, four, three, two, one! [cheers and applause] >> there we go.

>> my name is alan schumer. i am a fourth generation san franciscan. in december, this building will be 103 years of age. it is an incredibly rich, rich history. [♪] >> my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building

alive. i am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. i have two ways of looking at my life. i want it to be -- i wanted to be a fashion designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. i ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. the work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a

richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the garment industry. i had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. it is almost like an extended family. i have formed incredible relationships with them, and also some of the people that come to take a tour. she was a dressmaker of the first order. i would go visit her, and it was a special treat. i was a tiny little girl. i would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. the garment industry had the -- at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly

favourable to women. you will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a difficult to survive and survive financially. there was a woman by the name of diana. she was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. she classified it as a third i. will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of san francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. i believe he has not a third eye

, but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. >> the board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. jeffrey heller, the city and county of san francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. >> to impart to the history of this building is remarkable. to see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you start talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers

across their face. with children, and i do mainly all of the children's tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can start talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of san francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. >> at times, my clothes make me feel powerful. powerful in a different sense. i am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have

to have something that would draw your eye to me. usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. i have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit? retirement to me is a very strange words. i don't really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the people's palace. you want a long-term career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long

as you know that you are giving to someone or something you're then yourself. follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along

>> good morning, everyone.

you guys should be excited. good morning. thank you. i serve as the director of public works in the city and county of san francisco. on behalf of public works, we are very excited because we are going to be a tenant in this new building 49 south vanness. how about a big hand for that. [applause.] i am also excited to be here to celebrate a major construction milestone. today is very, very exciting not just for public works but for the other nine city departments that will be relocated into this state-of-the-arts building upon its completion. at the end of our ceremony, we will raise the final steel beam into place to complete the

structural framing of this new 430,000 square foot building. 430,000 square foot building. how about a big hand for that. [applause.] it will house approximately 1-800-cit1800city staff to movet summer. this gives us a good reason to celebrate. i want to thank all of those forgetting us here today. thank you builders, the prime contractors. let's give them a big hand. the development firm and the architects worked on many projects.

let's give them a big hand. public works takes great pride in the public private partnerships such as this one as they help bring the city's vision for a modern advanced san francisco to life. i also want to give a special shout out to the project management team. let's give them a big hand. [cheers and applause.] all of this work would not happen, however, without the leadership from our elected officials who allow for capital infrastructure projects to be approved and implemented. with that said i have the pleasure of introducing our mayor london breed to say a few words about this project. welcome, mayor breed. >> thank you. you know, as someone who grew up in the city and someone who has

had to get permits and get permits specifically for festivals and community events, it was often times frustrating works through did bureaucracy. one minute it is the planning department in this building then to city hall, then down the street somewhere that you couldn't find, and the fact is this building what is so amazing. we are bringing 10 city agencies together in one building with a central permitting system that would make it easier to do construction projects, would make it easier for entertainment, easier for events and all of the things we do in san francisco that make san francisco such a great city. it is about making bureaucracy more efficient. that is what this building is about. i know people don't get excited

around efficiency, but i do. because i know you all remember when it was taking us 18 months to build one accessory dwelling unit and putting out an executive directive to bring in the fire department and planning and building department to work together. we completely reduced the time. now it takes up to six months. streamlining the process is critical to building more housing and making sure the festivals and events and nightlife that we are so excited to have in our city continues without delay because san francisco as we know is a special place, but we only work when we work more efficiently together. i am excited, and i know those over 1800 employees are excited

to have new bathrooms and shower and places to park bicycles and the other great things we are adding to new buildings. i want to thank everyone who is building this place and the work you are doing to get this building built on time and hopefully on budget. you know that is important to us. more importantly, how this is going to be one of the projects that really changes how we do business in san francisco. no longer will you have people going on line to those different places where they complain about the process and what they have to do to get a permit. what i want to see them going on line to say is, wow, the city makes it easier. they have a new permitting process to get permit online and it doesn't take that long. that is what this place is about. i want to thank all of you for being here today. i also would like to acknowledge which i think is absolutely

incredible that we will have an on site child care at this location as well so that families who work for our city in those various departments have a place to take their children. this budget that i just announced last week also including $7.7 million to digital the city permitter and create an electronic review process. san francisco is the technicaltal of the world but our city is a little behind schedule. we have to make the right investments to get to a better place. this is making bureaucracy more efficient. i want to thank all of you who have played a critical role in doing that. probably the only member of the board of supervisors who cares about efficiency the way that i do is my former colleague on the board who is supervisor for

district 6. i want to ask supervisor aaron peskin to say a few brief words. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mayor breed. i am the supervisor representing the northeast corner of the city, but i share with mayor breed the desire to have a one stopper hitting shop for everything in san francisco, and this floor print of almost an acre, 40,000 square feet, is precisely the right way to do it whether it is integrating planning and building and health and fire. this is going to be a huge step forward for the city and county of san francisco. thank you to related, thank you to public works. i cannot wait for it to be finished. [applause.]

>> it is not easy to get projects done in our city. the person who is a leader to make sure we put forward the responsible policies and budgeting practices to allow an opportunity like this and recognizing we need to make the city more efficient and provide facilities that are safe and energy efficient is really the leader, one of the leaders of the city, our city administrator, naomi kelly. >> good morning. i have to say i am so honored to be here today. i want to thank mayor breed, supervisor peskin. they were with us in the beginning. we had to go to them to help with financing. part of that was selling off three city buildings to get into this one beautiful building that will have a one stopper mitt center. part -- permit center.

why they supported us to open a restaurant you need 20 permits from 13 different city locations all over the city, not just one spot. if we get a one stopper mitt ste permitting that is how we kick started this. i promised we are not just about brick and mortar co-location. we need to streamline that process to make the permitting process more customer friendly through digital. i want to thank the mayor and board through funding those opportunities. in this building is the department of public works, building inspections, city planning, environmental services. in the one stopper mitter shop

in addition to those major departments it will include the fire department, public utilities, office of small business, entertainment commission and we are looking at other satellite departments to touch the building in here, m.t.a., office of cannabis, disability. police, board of appeals and tax collector. that is all important. as the mayor talked about a.d.u. pilot and trying to streamline that process, let me drilling down what our team is looking at. as we currently before if you were an a.d.u. permit resident you needed five different departments, answer 516 questions and navigate multiple applications and forms, as we looked at that we want to unduplicate questions we are asking over and over.

we needed 289 questions. we could stop asking the same question 227 times. that is what we are looking for. one clap is good government. that is the bureaucracy mayor breed and supervisor peskin wanted eliminated. then we will make it digital. i am excited to be here today. thank you tom, john, stephanie and all of those and ken leading this out of my office and melissa white house. you have all been fabulous to make sure we are not thinking about this as brick and mortar but streamlining the process. thank you. next up our partner in the begins, matt woody is instrumental to make sure he works with us every step of the way. he works on many projects.

this is one that is near and dear to my house. up next matt woody from related california. [applause.] >> thank you, mayor breed, city administrator kelly, director, i am matt woody. we are overseeing the development of this unusual project. in the city like san francisco that is so land constrained, it is rare to find a 2.5-acre site, much less acquire it in the heart of the city close to public transportation and co-develop it. that is the reason we are here to celebrate. i would like to recognize the vision and leadership of our former mayor ed lee. many years ago as city administrator mayor lee began creating the one stopper mitt center to simplify the process.

this including the food truck to a project like this, everything you need approval for in san francisco. this is less than a year away from realizing his vision. later on, as mayor, he was instrumental in acquiring this site from goodwill industries in 2014. this is the type of thing we look to do. it is something we are going to be proud of it a year from now when it opens. i would like to recognize the people you have heard about from the supervisor and mayor. chief among them is john updike, josh keene, john ram, jeff jocelyne and dan snider from planning. edgar lopez at public works and

charles sullivan from the city attorney's office who work with us to get us to this point. related has been partnering with the city and working in san francisco for over 30 years on large projects of this type. innovative public private partnership is the type of challenge world class developments we work to do. 49 south vanness fillings the need to consolidate the city to one place as you have heard. by designing abconstructing both buildings at the same time we had the unique opportunity to plan and consider the needs for both buildings. i would like to kill out som and their team who work with us and the city to get these two buildings less than 200 feet apart to look as compatible as we can agree they do.

the results of 1.3 million square folk and two magnificent buildings to bring 1800 city employees and apartment complex is unique in san francisco. this mixed use is proof of what san francisco can accomplish when we work together with optimism. thank you very much. >> let's hear from the team on the ground getting this building done. come on up. >> thank you for introducing me. i am joe mckeown. i have the honor to stand up with this great group of speakers. i hope i can live up to their charm and wit. welcome. this is a place of pride for all of the workers. this is our daily life and family.

we are here to work together to build this great building for the city and county of san francisco. we appreciate related california and the city and county of san francisco to build this building that will live on for the next 100 years to serve the city and county of san francisco. a special thanks to the teams that show up every day and work hard building this building. [applause.] it is the skilled trades men and women behind me today that have worked over 260,000 hours on this building. they excavated 92,000 cubic yards ofvillsoil. today will hang the last beam of 2200-tons of -- 2300-tons of

structural iron. i am proud to represent this team and i would like to ask you to join me in a great round of applause for the men and women behind me who are the heart and soul of this project. thank you. [applause.] >> thank you. now, mayor, we will go sign the beam and we can get our signatures and it makes the journey to the 16th floor to complete the structural work, and next summer this building will be occupied with the city agencies you heard and the one stop to get anything you want done in the city. come in the door and someone will take care of you, right melissa? thank you. thank you.