Commonwealth Club puts move on hold-Club Wants To Destroy Original Facade From 34 ILA General Strike Bloody Thursday sfchronicle/bayarea/article/Commonwealth-Club-puts-move-on-hold-5997706.php#/0 By J.K. DineenJanuary 6, 2015 Updated: January 6, 2015 5:56pm Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle A rendering for The Commonwealth Club lobby planned at 101 The Embarcadero hangs inside the building after being displayed for the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. The Commonwealth Club’s plan to move to a new home on the Embarcadero is temporarily on hold. Two years after buying a building at 110 The Embarcadero, the 112-year-old civic affairs forum faces ongoing appeals from a handful of neighbors who say the $25 million project’s proposed glass facade is inappropriate for one of the most historic buildings on the downtown waterfront. So the Commonwealth Club has signed a two-year lease for 15,000 square feet at the former San Francisco Press Club at 555 Post St. It will move there in February. Fighting the appeals, led by Rincon Center resident David Osgood, will cost the nonprofit organization $1 million, CEO Gloria Duffy said. The club has been housed for 30 years at 595 Market St., Duffy said the lease is expensive and the club had been looking for decades to acquire its own space. It was only after the 2009 economic collapse that commercial real estate values came down enough to make ownership feasible. Meanwhile, the club, which presents speakers and forums on current issues, has faced rent increases in the current market. The club’s rent at 595 Market rose 30 percent from $34,000 a month to $48,000 over the last two years. The two years at 555 Post St. will cost $500,000. The central issue under dispute at the Embarcadero site is the extent to which the Commonwealth Club will restore the facade of a building that played an important role in the city’s bloody 1934 general strike. From 1933 to 1935, a portion of the building, which has entrances on Steuart Street and the Embarcadero, was the International Longshoremen’s Association’s union hall. Bloody Thursday’ The bodies of the two union workers shot during a clash with police on “Bloody Thursday” lay in state in the hall for four days, and the building was the starting point for a funeral procession across the city that drew an estimated 40,000 marchers. Duffy said the Commonwealth Club is working closely with representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which supports the project, according to President George Cobbs. Other supporters include the San Francisco Buildings and Construction Trades Council, historian Kevin Starr, and neighbors including the Jewish Community Relations Council, Perry’s restaurant and the YMCA. Duffy said the Steuart Street side of the building will be restored to its 1934 appearance, but that the Embarcadero side has very little historic fabric remaining. Its original windows and decorative roof line are long gone, leaving only five original half pilasters on the top half of the structure. Instead, the club has worked with LMS Architects to design a sustainable glass facade with 51 windows that will cool the building and allow it to be certified under the National Green Building Council’s standards. Duffy said the glass front will allow pedestrians to look into the club and see civic engagement in action. “Our architect has talked from the beginning about transparency being a hallmark of the Commonwealth Club — transparency of ideas, opinions, information. To be able to look into the building and see people gathered and see these things taking place is a positive thing,” she said. New appeal date Osgood has lost two appeals rejected unanimously by the city Planning Commission. The next appeal will be heard by the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 27. He said the proposed Embarcadero facade “would fit in like a Wurlitzer in the string section.” Another opponent, Bradley Wiedmaier, said the 100 block of the Embarcadero, despite being home to several modern office buildings, is one of the most intact examples of the old downtown waterfront. “There were 36 blocks just like that block. It survived. It has character. That is why people come here.” Duffy said she is at a loss on how to please Osgood and his supporters. The 1934 photographs of the Embarcadero side of the building show a naval uniform shop and another store. J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jkdineen@sfchronicle Twitter: @sfjkdinee
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:05:46 +0000
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