SAN FRANCISCO | Projects: Under Construction, Approved, and Proposed

[BTinSF]

Please go to http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2008/...rs_an_endrun_and_ending_for_55.html#more and read about what Aaron Peskin is trying to do to block the 55 Laguna project and what you can do about it. If you, like me, want to stop him from ending this project, it's important that you email (or call) one or more of the supervisors listed BEFORE MONDAY MORNING.

The 55 Laguna Project

Source: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2008/...n_appeal_and_in_front_of_san_franci.html

[LWR]

...So it shall be done, so sayeth Ramses I. (Ramesses, Paramessu)

All I could do was leave a message (considering the time of the call). Once I enter the "doors of medicine", my time is not my own.

GET BACK HERE SOON AND DON'T FORGET YOUR CAMERA !

[BTinSF]

Thanx. Be back at the end of April--with cameras. Really craving Thai red curry.

[BTinSF]

More about 55 Laguna:

Bay Area gay senior housing closer to reality
Judy Richter, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, March 30, 2008

With Baby Boomers moving closer to retirement, entrepreneurs and community groups are looking to serve niches within that huge demographic group.

One such niche is retirement communities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Nationwide, dozens of groups have tried to build retirement communities for gays, but only three have opened thus far, according to Gerard Koskovich, who tracks the subject for the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network.

Aging experts, entrepreneurs and nonprofits say the need is there, but the challenge is more complex than build it and fill it. They have to raise money; find an affordable, attractive, gay-friendly locale; and motivate people who, like all seniors, might want or need anything from Pilates classes to nursing care.

In the past decade, at least 40 ideas for gay senior housing have come up, but many stalled in the planning. So far, an upscale project in Santa Fe, N.M., that opened in 2006 has had difficulty filling. An affordable complex that opened in 2007 in Hollywood has had more success.

Despite that national track record for gay senior housing, three Bay Area projects are moving closer to reality after years of planning.

Each of the three - Barbary Lane in Oakland, Openhouse in San Francisco and Fountaingrove Lodge in Santa Rosa - has a different business model. Nevertheless, each is premised on the concept that many gays want to spend their retirement years in places where they're comfortable being themselves.

Accustomed to being out of the closet, they don't want to go back into it for fear of rejection or discrimination at a retirement center. They go along with Barbary Lane's motto, "Closets are for clothes, not seniors."

Because of anti-discrimination laws, none of the projects is exclusively gay. Straight people may move in, too, but the projects bill themselves as gay-friendly.

San Francisco's Openhouse

Openhouse expects to take a big step forward Tuesday afternoon when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is tentatively scheduled to approve its land-use plan. (BT Note--Unless Peskin pulls his fast one).

"This represents three years of getting the project through the city process," said Moli Steinert, executive director of the nonprofit organization.

Openhouse will be part of a larger rental project being developed by AF Evans on the site of the former UC Berkeley Extension campus at 55 Laguna St. Evans is preserving three buildings there and converting them to housing.



New construction will include Openhouse's eight-story building with up to 88 independent living studio and one-bedroom apartments for gays and lesbians 55 and older, Steinert said.

Although earlier plans had called for only some of the apartments to be affordable, now all of them will be affordable because the Mayor's Office of Housing is financing the long-term ground lease. "The city made an extraordinary move," Steinert said. Other financing is expected to come from low-interest bonds.

Exact income figures for affordability are undecided, but Steinert said they will be no more than 50 percent of the area's median income.

Evans also will build 328 apartments for people of all ages, whether straight or gay. Most of the units will be market rate, but 20 percent will be set aside as affordable. A community center, small park and public garden are planned, too.

Work is tentatively scheduled to start this fall. Openhouse's building, foreseen in the second phase of work, might start in late 2009 with the hoped-for opening in 2011.

Besides the apartments, Openhouse wants to provide services like meal and day health programs for its residents and neighboring seniors.

To serve residents who need in-home health help, Openhouse is working with the Institute on Aging, which has case-management services.

For the benefit of other gay seniors who need the in-home services, Openhouse is cooperating with the city's Department of Aging and Adult Services to teach service workers "LGBT best practices," Steinert said.

Finally, Openhouse has started a community outreach program for isolated seniors. It began in Bernal Heights, where gay people of all ages were invited to a meeting and asked to be aware of gay senior neighbors who might need help, such as referral to the Bernal Heights Senior Center.

The outreach program will move to the Castro district and Noe Valley, which have many gay residents. "People are fired up," Steinert said.

In the process, Openhouse can see where gay seniors are clustered into "naturally occurring retirement communities," she said.

Oakland's Barbary Lane

The Bay Area gay retirement community that's closest to welcoming its first residents is Barbary Lane, an independent living center in the historic Lake Merritt Hotel at 1800 Madison St., Oakland.



Barbary Lane Senior Communities at Lake Merritt, a for-profit company, is transforming the 81-year-old Art Deco gem into 46 studio and one-bedroom apartments for people ages 55 and older.

After introducing Barbary Lane to the public in June, the developer had hoped to welcome the first residents in November.

That projection proved overly optimistic. The developer had planned to keep the original kitchens, but it convened a focus group that said people want updated kitchens.

Going along with that recommendation added four months to the construction schedule and $1 million to the budget, said Dave Latina, president of Barbary Management Group, the developer and operator. Renegotiating the construction loan took four months, delaying work on the kitchens until last fall.

The developer had already planned to replace the six-story building's elevator to meet accessibility standards, but that work took three months longer than projected because the state required extensive upgrading for the elevator shaft, he said.

Latina expects the state to approve the elevator work in early April, allowing the nine people who have reserved apartments to move in to them in May and June. He expects two or three move-ins each month after that. He added that the number of people who have reserved apartments meets industry standards.

Because of the delays, the developer isn't actively marketing the project, "but we're still getting calls," Latina said. "We see people coming to us."

Barbary Lane is named after 28 Barbary Lane, home of the fictional central character Mrs. Madrigal in author Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City," a popular Chronicle series that started in 1976. The series was followed by six "Tales of the City" books and updated in Maupin's newest book, "Michael Tolliver Lives."

Barbary Lane residents will have two meals a day in the hotel's restaurant, which overlooks the lake. Among other basic services will be weekly housekeeping, utilities, social activities and transportation.

Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove

Fountaingrove Lodge is not as far along as the other two projects. This continuing care retirement community is planned by Aegis Senior Communities, a for-profit company that develops and operates dozens of retirement facilities in the West. Fountaingrove Lodge will be its first for gays.

Aegis has submitted its development plans to the city of Santa Rosa, but no date has been set for them to go to the Planning Commission. Aegis hopes to start construction within the next year or so. The project will have 148 cottages, apartments and flats for independent living.

As residents' needs change, they can have health services in their homes or in an on-site assisted living center. Fountaingrove also will provide Alzheimer's and dementia care. Therefore, residents won't have to leave friends and familiar surroundings if they require more care.

New residents pay entrance fees that could range from $350,000 to $1 million, depending on the type of residence, The Chronicle reported in October 2006. Up to 100 percent of the fee is returned to the resident or his estate when he dies or moves out.

Residents also pay a monthly fee, which, in conjunction with the entrance fee, covers rent, most meals, housekeeping, utilities, upkeep and maintenance of buildings and grounds, transportation, and use of services and amenities. It's expected to range from $2,700 to $4,900, plus $700 for a second person, The Chronicle reported.

Barbary Lane's Latina said that even though relatively few gay retirement projects have opened thus far, he believes the demand is there. Despite the delays at his project, "we have not seen people's interest decline."

One of the problems nationally is that unlike Openhouse, which is deemed affordable, most of the projects are geared to middle- and upper-income gays, but there's a demand for more-affordable models. "You can never build enough" of them, Latina said. He added that his company hopes to build five more Barbary Lane communities in California and to make some of the units affordable to lower-income gays.

or more information

Barbary Lane: www.barbarylanesenior.com, (510) 903-3600

Fountaingrove Lodge:

www.fountaingrovelodge.com, (707) 576-1101

Openhouse: www.openhouse-sf.org, (415) 296-8995

Chronicle news services contributed to this report. E-mail Judy Richter at [email protected].

Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/30/REM9VR0FE.DTL

[BTinSF]

Place: Glass space meant to spur imagination
John King
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Ignore those new glass skyscrapers: San Francisco's most intriguing construction project is a four-story building tucked into a sliver of Mission Street.

It's called the Urban Center and it will house the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. The think tank known as SPUR has lived upstairs at 312 Sutter St. since 1972, but next spring the 16 employees will move into an $8.5 million structure at 654 Mission St. with a two-story-high glassed-in exhibition space and a multipurpose room that can hold 125 people.

These spaces should be ideal for a group that hosts dozens of policy events each month. "We felt the need for a ground-floor presence that is accessible and welcoming," says SPUR's Dianne Filippi, who heads the project.

The design by Pfau Long Architecture will add a contemporary accent to a block defined by heavy masonry. Simple and light, it's a flat and mostly glass facade screened by aluminum louvers - except for the two-story-high glass wall that showcases the exhibition area along Mission Street.

The east edge of the facade anchors everything else: a 12-foot-wide bar of translucent glass starts next to the main entrance and rises 53 feet to the roof. Tucked behind it, but illuminated at night, will be the building's seismic bracing and main stairway.

"The idea is that you can't walk down the street without being engaged by what's going on," says Peter Pfau. The other goal: flexibility, with rooms that can handle talks, exhibitions, what have you. Or as Pfau describes the 14,500-square-foot structure: "It wants to do all these mighty things, but once you put in the bathrooms and fire stairs and structural elements, there's not much space left."

As for that translucent vertical stroke, it started out as crisp tile - until rising costs dictated change. Pfau got creative and devised a taut curtain wall that would cost no more than layers of stucco-covered gypsum board.

"We had one of those moments where we found architecture by chance," Pfau recalls. "It made me happy for days."

Though small in size, SPUR always thinks big. Consider the panel last month that drew 50 die-hard policy wonks to an 8:30 a.m. session contemplating whether we need coordinated planning for a 21-county region extending from the Bay Area east to Lake Tahoe and south as far as the San Louis Obispo County line.

The theory: So many economic and cultural lines extend across this terrain that it should be considered as a whole.

To illustrate the point, SPUR Executive Director Gabe Metcalf talked about the proliferation of housing tracts in cities like Tracy and Manteca. Many residents there drive west through the Altamont Pass to their jobs.

"The de facto affordable housing strategy for the Bay Area is 'build it in the Central Valley,' " Metcalf said. "We can't be in denial that this is happening."

But wait! Metcalf said many proponents wonder if we should even stop there. After all, Southern California's meganess is just an hour away by air. Why not put it in the mix as well?

Considering the parochialism of many Bay Area cities, I'm dubious as to whether there's an audience ready to take the (needed) broad view. And indeed, Metcalf said the idea of thinking really big was squelched by an expert: Robert Yaro, head of New York's Regional Plan Association.

"Bob pointed out 'so far you haven't been able to plan nine counties, much less Northern California,' " Metcalf confessed. " 'Get that worked out first.' "

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/04/01/DDG5VS99Q.DTL&type=printable

[BTinSF]

S.F. General Hospital renovation plan unveiled
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The city revealed Tuesday the first detailed look at the renovation of San Francisco General Hospital - an $887.4 million project that is set to go before voters in November.

The construction plans, presented in a 51-page report during a Health Commission meeting, include a nine-story building with 284 patient beds on the edge of the hospital campus.

The old hospital, with 252 beds, is considered seismically unsafe and under state law must be renovated or replaced by 2013. Under the plan presented to the commission it would remain standing, and would hold psychiatric beds, clinical laboratories and outpatient facilities, along with the cafeteria.

The project will go before the Planning Commission on April 10 for public comment. If a bond to pay for the renovations is approved by voters on Nov. 4, construction would start on the new building next summer. The hospital would be complete by 2015.

"This hospital is the anchor to our entire system of health care delivery," Mayor Gavin Newsom said during Tuesday's Health Commission meeting. "We have a historic chance to do something that will secure our future."

Newsom and health commissioners said they were pleased to see such an extensively detailed plan of the proposed hospital months before it will go before voters. The city spent $25 million studying renovation concepts and preparing the proposal.

The goal, Newsom said, was to avoid a situation similar to a bond measure for Laguna Honda Hospital nine years ago. Voters at the time approved a $299 million bond to rebuild the hospital, but the cost has more than doubled. The hospital is expected to be complete next year. Newsom said that the detailed San Francisco General plan makes the cost of the project clear, right from the start.

"We have a lot of angry people that don't trust us" after Laguna Honda, Newsom said. "Now we're asking them for close to a billion dollars.

"We're on the verge of resolving one of the city's greatest challenges. We must do what is right and principled."

Health Commission members said they are relieved to have the opportunity to plan the San Francisco General project so early. "We weren't allowed to plan Laguna Honda," said Commissioner David Sanchez Jr.

Under state law, all acute care hospitals must be seismically safe by 2013; if they have no plans to do that, they must close by the end of this year. Hospitals can ask for extensions on the 2013 deadline if they are in the process of renovating.

The new building, which would be located on Potrero Avenue between two current buildings, would be oval-shaped, with two large underground floors and a rooftop garden.

"San Francisco General is really the core of our health system," said Richard Hodgson, vice president of the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, which is endorsing the plan to rebuild the hospital. "Our clinics would not be able to survive without it."

E-mail Erin Allday at [email protected].

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/02/BABJVU5UG.DTL

[Jobohimself]

Has II Rincon Hill started construction yet?

[peanut gallery]

No. And there are no signs yet that they are preparing to start. Bovis' trailers are still sitting there. Last I heard they were starting a new bidding process for the construction contract, so it might be longer than originally planned.

[BTinSF]

New SFGH renderings:


Source: http://sf.curbed.com

[Gordo]

Ooh, I like ^^^

[Reminiscence]

Very nice design. It also fits in with the surrounding older brick buildings. I like the idea of a skygarden on top of the hospital, but I hope they implement a helipad landing also. Its rather expensive, so I hope it doesnt end up being more than a billion (especially how trust is hard to find for Newsom after Laguna Honda).

[WildCowboy]

The helipad will not go on the new building. If it does get approved, it's planned for the existing main hospital building that will be connected to the new one on the basement and second levels.

[peanut gallery]

A couple of photos of the Hayes. More at SF New Developments, including some interior shots.



View from the rooftop patio:

[CityKid]

Taken by me on 3/30/2008 from the View Lounge at the SF Marriott:

[CityKid]

Taken by me on 3/29/2008 from Buena Vista Park:

[peanut gallery]

Buena Vista, indeed. Is there are more aptly-named park? Great shots, CityKid.

[BTinSF]

Port of S.F. has new cruise ship terminal plan
Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 7, 2008

A long-standing and controversial plan to restore rusted piers and create a recreation and office center at the foot of Telegraph Hill could be abandoned for a new proposal that developers and port officials have been quietly discussing in recent weeks.

The new plan still would feature a state-of-the-art cruise ship terminal at Pier 27. But the office development used to pay for the terminal would instead shift south to Piers 30-32. A public recreation center - which at one time included a YMCA and a marine sports basin - would disappear altogether.

The latest scheme follows a long list of discarded proposals over the past seven years that have failed due to the soaring costs of pier repairs, restrictive state laws and neighborhood opposition.

The most recent plan for Pier 27 and adjacent Piers 29-31, was pushed by San Francisco's Shorenstein Properties LLC. It featured 400,000 square feet of office space, which would generate revenue to pay for the cruise ship terminal, pier repair and recreational areas. But it was not popular with neighbors and local environmental groups, and in the end, didn't seem to work logistically.

"What dissuaded us and the port was that as we went along we got a clearer idea about what a modern cruise ship terminal would be like and how it would interface with offices and it just didn't work that well," said Todd Sklar, development group head at Shorenstein.

Piers 30-32, which are damaged by corrosion, have also been beset with problems. Once identified as the port's preferred location for a $270 million cruise ship terminal and shopping arcade, the site was dropped more than a year ago by a developer scared off by the $155 million projected cost to fix the piers.

In an effort to create a competitive cruise ship terminal sooner rather than later, and to make something useful of Piers 30-32, the port recently asked Shorenstein to consider the change.

The port has been financially beset for years. The agency oversees 7 1/2 miles of bayfront but doesn't make enough money to cover its infrastructure repair costs, estimated at about $1.9 billion.

"This just means that Piers 29 and 31 are no longer the first in line," said Jonathan Stern, the port's assistant deputy director of waterfront development. "The city needs a good cruise ship terminal and so that is taking precedence over other interests right now."

Unlike some piers on the San Francisco waterfront, Piers 29-31 are used by tenants for storage and other warehouse needs and generate a decent amount of revenue to the port.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents the district where Piers 27-31 are, said the new idea for the piers may work.

He and a vocal group of residents were instrumental in halting a five-year, $30 million effort by shopping mall builder Mills Corp. of Virginia to win support for the project. Mills eventually gave up and sold its development rights to Shorenstein.

"I've never wanted a big retail shopping center on the Embarcadero and I've believed that the city's cruise ship terminal should be near the tourist destination at Fisherman's Wharf," Peskin said. "There's still potential for open space, but how you pay for this is anyone's guess."

It's likely that a new development at Piers 30-32 that features offices also would draw opposition from state and local environmental groups.

Allowable uses of the bayfront under laws enforced by the State Lands Commission generally include maritime, historic and environmental restoration, recreation and commercial activities, if they are used by the general public.

Office development is not allowed on the waterfront, but Stern said the port can seek state legislation to suspend those restrictions.

E-mail Robert Selna at [email protected].

Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/07/MN2L100C0N.DTL

[BTinSF]

Some renderings I hadn't seen before of the new PUC building at Golden Gate & Polk:






Source: http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfdpw_page.asp?id=75959

Alas, at 12 stories it can't be called a "highrise" but it still looks like it'll have an impact on Civic Center. And I hope to see construction start (with demoilition of the existing decrepit building) any day now.

DPW says "Construction will begin in 2008, SFPUC staff will begin moving to their new building in 2010."

[peanut gallery]

I'm a fan of this too, BT. Same with the new green building proposed for The Embarcadero and the new SPUR headquarters. They are all quite small, but all quite good.

[BTinSF]

Exciting news!

S.F. OKs plan for 6,000 housing units
Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved two plans Tuesday that would add high-rises and thousands of residents to the upper Market Street area.

The first plan is a sweeping rezoning of the so-called Market-Octavia area, which stretches up both sides of Market Street from Ninth Street to Noe Street. The effort is nearly eight years in the making and was inspired by the demolition of the Central Freeway and its ramps extending north and west from Market Street following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.



The city Planning Department sought to remake the area with an emphasis on walking and public transportation by concentrating new housing close to major transit stops. The zoning allows developers to construct buildings that pack more residential units into a project, including boosting tower heights from 20 stories to 40 stories on some parcels near the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street.

Officials estimate the plan could mean an additional 6,000 housing units in the Market-Octavia area.

After years of hearings, the city Planning Commission approved the plan in July, but it bogged down at the Board of Supervisors. Many supervisors wanted more fees on developers to pay for housing priced within the reach of moderate- and lower-income residents. Some supervisors also wanted requirements for family-size units and less parking to promote public transit. But others, including representatives from Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, were concerned that more demands would drive developers away.
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who made the demand for more developer fees and negotiated with the mayor's office, said the long wait was worth it because the plan will set a precedent for future building in San Francisco, where land is becoming increasingly tight as the cost of housing continues to rise.

"This is a new era in planning that Market-Octavia is birthing," Mirkarimi said. "It is a harbinger of San Francisco's effort at smart growth and affordable housing. ... We wanted to make sure this set a precedent for what comes next."

The board approved the plan unanimously Tuesday, and is expected to give it final confirmation next week. As it now stands, the plan requires developers to sell or rent 25 percent of the units they build at below-market rates and imposes fees on developers that could amount to $50 million for an affordable-housing fund.

Forty percent of the new housing in some parts of the rezoning area must be two-bedroom units and parking for all new projects in the neighborhoods has been reduced from one space per housing unit to one space per two units.

The change residents will likely notice most, however, is the plan's allowance for four new, 40-story high-rises near the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue. The tallest building within walking distance currently is 30 stories, and many are shorter. In the new towers, everything built above the fourth floor must be residential.

"The goal was to bring more residents into the area where they can walk between transit corridors, and Van Ness and Market is a major transit corridor," said the lead city planner on the project, Kearsten Dischinger.

The UC Extension development, also in the upper Market area, has been in the works for several years. After concerns over historical preservation and affordable housing were ironed out, the 5.8-acre project was finalized in January.

Developer A.F. Evans' plan features 10 buildings with approximately 400 rental units, including about 90 affordable units geared toward gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender seniors. Thirty-seven percent of all new homes in the project would be rented to be affordable for residents earning just half of the San Francisco-area median income of $77,850 for a household of three.

The plan also includes 5,000 square feet for retail outlets.

Planning for the project has been ongoing since UC Extension moved out in late 2003, citing budgetary concerns. UC still owns the site, which was originally the only orphanage on the West Coast. It later became San Francisco State University, which moved near Lake Merced in the 1950s.
In other action

The supervisors imposed a 45-day, citywide moratorium on shops that sell smoking paraphernalia, such as bongs and pipes, while the Planning Department conducts a study on whether controls should be placed on the opening of new smoke shops.

The board also approved on first reading a bill that would ban new off-site liquor stores in the Excelsior district and restrict the amount of shelf space in stores that can be devoted to fortified wines and liquors.
Both measures were introduced by Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/BAE81024TC.DTL