Week 3: May 18 - May 22nd
MOSCONE CENTER EXPANSION
San Francisco, CA
The team of Mark Cavagnero Associates in association with SOM was selected by the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Management Corporation on behalf of San Francisco Tourism Improvement District to master plan and design an expansion of the current Moscone Convention Center. Executed as a public/private partnership with the City and County of San Francisco, the goal of the expansion is to create a comprehensive campus that provides a sense of place that enriches the urban environment. The expansion will provide much needed additional space in order to fulfill the needs of current clients, while also attracting future convention clients. The project will increase contiguous exhibition space, support spaces, retail space and other functions to a total of 350,000 to 450,000 square feet.
The MCA/SOM Team is providing building program validation and master planning services, as well as full architectural design services through construction.
San Francisco, CA
The team of Mark Cavagnero Associates in association with SOM was selected by the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Management Corporation on behalf of San Francisco Tourism Improvement District to master plan and design an expansion of the current Moscone Convention Center. Executed as a public/private partnership with the City and County of San Francisco, the goal of the expansion is to create a comprehensive campus that provides a sense of place that enriches the urban environment. The expansion will provide much needed additional space in order to fulfill the needs of current clients, while also attracting future convention clients. The project will increase contiguous exhibition space, support spaces, retail space and other functions to a total of 350,000 to 450,000 square feet.
The MCA/SOM Team is providing building program validation and master planning services, as well as full architectural design services through construction.
Feb. 5, 2013 – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the Moscone Expansion District (MED) which will provide the majority of funding for the expansion of the City’s convention center. In a unanimous vote, the Board passed a resolution approving the establishment of the MED and three additional measures that will help finance the expansion through issuance of Certificates of Participation and allow the project to move forward in the environmental review process. Hotel assessments from the MED will provide two thirds of the funding for costs of the expansion project. The other third will come from a continuation of funding from the City’s General Fund. Project costs are estimated to be $500 million. The expansion of Moscone Center will add approximately 350,000 to 400,000 square feet to the convention center, including 80,000 or more square feet of contiguous exhibit, essential for attracting larger conventions.
“San Francisco has already lost meetings representing $2.057 billion in direct spending as a result of space limitations for meetings with dates between 2010 and 2019. The existing three-building configuration of Moscone Center is effectively filled to capacity,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association. “Therefore, it is impossible to significantly grow the San Francisco convention market without providing additional meeting and exhibit space – especially contiguous exhibition space.” The Moscone Center currently hosts 1 million visitors each year and generates more than $1.6 billion in visitor spending. This spending contributes millions of dollars to the City’s General Fund and supports thousands of jobs. Tourism is San Francisco’s major industry, generating almost $8.5 billion in economic activity, supporting more than 71,400 jobs, and contributing $524 million to the General Fund to help support neighborhood services such as police protection, parks, roads maintenance and firefighters. The planned expansion of Moscone Center will benefit the City in many ways:
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The Moscone Center Expansion and Improvement Project will create 3,407 new construction jobs, 3,480 new, permanent local jobs; generate $734 million in new economic impact, and $20 million in additional hotel tax revenue. Two-thirds of the cost of expanding the Moscone Center will be borne by hotels through a special assessment. The above-grade expansion and improvements will be within the current building footprint, allowing for an expansion to and improvement of the surrounding open spaces and the introduction of new retail opportunities. Pedestrian-friendly space will replace 25,000 square feet of surface parking and vehicular circulation, exit ways, and ramps. Plans call for an enclosed bridge between Moscone North and South for direct access.
The project will add more than 8,000 square feet of new public open space, including a new tot lot for younger children, and improve the pedestrian pathways and children’s gardens. There will be multiple outdoor terraces which provide dramatic city views and can be used for receptions and events. Third Street will have a widened sidewalk, new retail, outdoor dining and new access to the gardens by reducing or eliminating ramps, exits and berms. Reworking existing loading docks will provide greater efficiency. San Francisco Travel will have a Visitor Information Center integrated into the building. When completed, the Moscone Center will use less space per visitor than any major convention center in North America, save more than five million gallons of water annually, generate clean energy with the largest rooftop solar installation in San Francisco and will seek LEED Platinum certification. Construction is expected to begin in December 2014 and be completed by the fall of 2018. Construction will be completed in phases and the convention center will remain open during the entire building period, reducing short term economic impact on neighborhood businesses and services. “San Francisco Travel is proud to be continuing and expanding our public/private partnership with our City partners to transform the Moscone Center into a state-of-the-art facility that will be even more competitive in attracting conventions to our city,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association.
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An Iconic City. An Iconic Project. A World Class Experience.
The Moscone Expansion project is an extraordinary effort by the City, the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Management Corporation, and the hotel industry to expand our existing convention space. While it is one of the most succesful convention centers in the United States, Moscone Center is operating at capacity and is losing business to competing markets with more space to offer. In order to continue to attract the best and brightest events to San Francisco's convention market, we plan to increase our capacity and contiguous space. Tourism is the single biggest contributor to San Francisco's economy and Moscone Center is responsible for 21% of it. This project serves to safeguard the myriad of benefits brought to line-service employees, San Franciscans, and our city at large by guaranteeing our ability to meet demand for years to come. The increases in hotel tax revenue, job creation, and the general positive economic impact of this project will serve the needs of all San Franciscans and visitors alike. |
Vision & HistoryThe Moscone Center consists of three components that were developed every eleven years over the last 30 years. The first was Moscone South, completed in 1981. The second included the Esplanade Ballroom and Moscone North, complete in 1991 and 1992 respectively. Third, Moscone West, opened in 2003. Today the Moscone Center is San Francisco's premier meeting and exhibition facility. From the ver core of a vibrant and active downtown district, it anchors the City's commitment to a vital tourism industry. There are more than 2 million square feet of building are that includes over 700,000 square feet of exhibit space, up to 106 meeting rooms, and nearly 123,000 square feet of per function lobbies.
Although, as the city and the convention landscape continue to grow, the Moscone Expansion Project plans to meet that need by expanding contiguous exhibition space as well as increasing the amount of flexible meeting and ballroom spaces. We plan to maintain operations throughout this entire process which necessities following a strict timeline as the windows for construction open and close quickly. In addition to adding new rentable square footage, the project architects – Skidmore, Owings and Merrill – seek to create an iconic sense of arrival that enhances Moscone’s civic presence on Howard Street and reconnects it to the surrounding neighborhood through the creation of reintroduced lost mid-block passageways. As such, the project proposes two new, enclosed pedestrian bridges connecting the upper levels of the new Moscone North and Moscone South as well as an upgrade to the existing pedestrian bridge across Howard Street. This would help to frame the main public arrival space between the two new buildings, provide enhanced circulation for Moscone convention attendees, and reduce on-street congestion all while maintaining full-time elevated public access across Howard Street from Yerba Buena Gardens to the cultural facilities. |
The images above are a mix of prototypical images taken directly from the Moscone Expansion Project website, photos of already existing structures, and images of conference halls and conventions centers within the Moscone property. The Moscone expansion project has ben underway for almost 7 years, yet only now are they beginning the construction. While these images are not yet physically constructed, there is a lot of excitement about vision at play. In a congested, bustling, chaotic area of the city, this expansion project hopes to provide spacial harmony, and offer a sustainable, aesthetically pleasing space.
“Investing in the expansion of our world class Moscone Center is absolutely essential for San Francisco because tourism dollars generated by activities at the convention center ripple into every neighborhood of the City through jobs, local purchases and taxes paid by visitors,” said Mayor Edwin L. Lee. “The City is proud to partner with the hotel and tourism industry to make this investment which will help grow our recovering economy and create jobs.”
June 19, 2014 – The Moscone Center Expansion and Improvement Project, which will keep San Francisco’s No. 1 industry competitive, create thousands of new jobs and enhance the neighborhood with a 21st century urban design that adds more greening, open space and pedestrian-friendly elements, is on schedule and on budget, officials announced.
"The Moscone Center generates more than 20 percent of San Francisco’s $9.38 billion visitor tourism economy, accounting for more than $1.98 billion in visitor spending every year. As the city and the convention landscape continue to grow, Moscone Center must expand to meet future needs," said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association. "Without this expansion, $2 billion in economic activity will be lost between now and 2020." The $500 million project has gone through more than a year of community outreach and review, with design revisions informed by those conversations. "After months of community interaction and input, we have developed a plan that addresses neighborhood concerns while creating more than 500,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space, enhancing pedestrian circulation and improving the gardens and their connection to the neighborhood," said San Francisco City Administrator Naomi Kelly. |
"We're designing a memorable work of architecture that will be luminous and welcoming," said Craig Hartman, FAIA, Design Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), architects for the project along with our very own Cavagnero Associates. "We're creating a new, pedestrian-friendly, highly urban presence on Howard Street composed of transparent and translucent materials which will bring natural light to interior public spaces and reveal life within while activating the surrounding public realm. The building’s lightness and luminosity will continue at the skyline with a civic cornice that celebrates San Francisco’s natural light and the environmental roof’s role in harvesting solar energy and rainwater."
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California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Basic Information about the Legion of Honor:
The California Legion of Honor displays a collection of ancient and European art spanning 4,000 years. The legion of honor was built to commemorate soldiers from California who had died during World War I. The legion of Honor overlooks the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge, and has one of the largest collections of prints and drawings in the country.
History of the Legion of Honor
Alma Spreckels was completely enamored by the French Pavilion at San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition which was a replica of the Palais de la Legion d' Honneur in Paris. Originally known as the Hotel de Salm and designed by Pierre Rousseau in 1782 for the Prince of Salm-Krybourg. Hotel de Salm was completed in 1788; however, the prince lost his fortune during the French Revolution. After, the building was briefly owned by Madame de Stael, before it was owned by Napoleon who took it over in 1804. He wanted the building to the home of his newly created Legion d'Honneur, which was an order he created as a reward for civil and military merit. Alma Spreckels asked her husband to recapture the beauty of the pavilion as a new art museum. The french government allowed for the construction of the replica; however, WWI halted the project until 1921. The replica was completed in 1924 and was accepted by the city of San Francisco as a museum of fine arts dedicated to the memory of the 3,600 men from California who lost their lives on French soil during WWI. |
Some of the owners of the La Legion d'Honneur in Paris |
Style: Neo-Classical
The viewer is meet with “The Thinker” as the approach the Legion of Honor in addition, to a transparent pyramid that provides a small window into the museum. There are a number of artists whose works are displayed throughout the museum. Some examples include, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, David, and many impressionists and post-impressionists. For example, -, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Seurat, Cezanne, and many more. restored the building's original appearance along with some critical upgrades. The California Palace of Legion of Honor is a three quarter scaled replica of the original in Paris. The walls are 21 inches thick; there are a total of 700 cubic yards of concrete. In the 1980’s after an evaluation of the building it was determined that resulted in a significant renovation from 1992 to 1995. This major renovation included seismic upgrades, building system upgrades, and the restoration of historical architectural features, and an additional underground expansion that added 35,000 sq. ft to the museum. Also there was a visiter center added and the program facilities were increased. The architects chosen for this project were Edward Larrabee Barnes and Mark Cavagnero and Associates. Once the renovation was completed in 1995 the square footage of the museum was increased by 42%. There were six additional exhibit galleries that added around the pyramid skylight that is visible as one enters the Legion of Honor. |
Video overview of art pieces in the legion of honor in addition to a walk through of the space |