The experience of picking up a cake from San Francisco-based Butter&’s commercial kitchen was less than stellar for both customers and employees, owner Amanda Nguyen admits. The shop’s popularity increased during the pandemic with the introduction of the brand’s “quarantine cakes” — smaller cakes that serve 1-2 people, emblazoned with PSAs like, “wash your hands” — but rather than stopping by a shop to pick up their orders , instead customers pulled up curbside at an industrial building to an “indiscreet” door, before texting the business of their arrival. Inside the commercial kitchen, employees would field texts, and trek down from the third floor via an unreliable freight elevator with cake in hand, to deliver the goods. It was an exhausting experience considering the bakery was receiving 100 orders a day. “It’s not really the most on-brand experience, it feels a little closer to a drug pickup if anything,” Nguyen says, jokingly.

This is all a long way to say a Butter& storefront has been a long time coming. After first launching the cake business from her South Potrero Hill home, then moving into the aforementioned commercial kitchen, Nguyen has finally landed the keys to the former Kin Khao spot at 690 Indiana Street in the Dogpatch. After almost two years of searching for a space, she’s found what she thinks is a suitable home for butter& cakes to shine. “A big reason for this space was that the Butter& team [said] it’d be really nice to be able to be on the first floor of a building, where we can create an experience for our amazing customers, who are just really caring people who really love what our brand stands for,” Nguyen says.

The new Butter& store will retain the same look and feel as the previous iterations of the space, since the design still fits within the brand’s aesthetic, Nguyen said on the Pastel blog. Instead, she told Eater SF the team will focus on outfitting the kitchen with baking equipment, such as upgrading their ovens and adding in mixers. As for offerings, Butter& will of course focus on cake and take advance orders for pickup at the shop, but will also have a limited amount of cakes on display for same-day pickup — at first. They’re also experimenting with cake sizes ahead of the opening, working on a single-serving cake that Nguyen says is not a cupcake, but a cake “in a format that is very in line with the Butter& aesthetic.” And while Nguyen says the storefront won’t be launching a coffee program, instead they’re considering a tea service for beverage offerings.

But beyond the cakes having a home, Nguyen is eager for the shop to also be a place for the Butter& team to shine. The space will be an “open production pastry kitchen” where customers can see the team at work making cakes, an experience she feels is lost by the faceless online ordering system. Nguyen’s proud of the company’s mission to be “people-centric” and strides to be “the best employer in the food industry,” pointing to the fact that the team has an ownership stake in the company, full time salaried folks have stock options, 100% company contributions to health care plans, and three months of company sponsored mental health therapy. “We really want to get to a point where everyone has a creative time so that we can continually innovate and push the Butter& company forward,” Nguyen says. “We have grand plans for Butter& — this is store one and we hope to be able to start looking into opening up store two in LA next year.”

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The post San Francisco-Primarily based Customized Cake Bakery Butter& to Open Storefront within the Dogpatch This Summer season appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco is getting an Institute of Contemporary Art – a new contemporary art museum with no permanent collection – in the already artsy Dogpatch neighborhood, and it’s partly funded by the same people behind the Minnesota Street Project.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San Francisco is moving to 901 Minnesota Street, an 11,000-square-foot industrial warehouse that used to be a children’s high school. As reported by the New York Times, its director will be Ali Gass, who previously ran the ICA San Jose and held curatorial positions at SFMOMA and the Cantor Arts Center in Stanford.

The new museum has raised $ 2.5 million to date, including $ 1 million in seed capital from Andy and Deborah Rappaport, the couple behind the five-year-old Minnesota Street Project on the street.

Other ICAs already exist in Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, although they are not affiliated museums.

“There’s a truism in the venture capital world that the best companies start at the worst times,” said Andy Rappaport, who is also a partner at August Capital, in a quote from the Chronicle. “We were prepared to get out of COVID. coming out to say how can we capitalize on the fact that there is now a fertile environment for this kind of creative thinking and frankly a lot of energy for positive thinking and moving forward. “

ICA San Francisco’s early donors also include Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who have agreed to fund the director’s salary for the first three years.

Krieger tells the Chronicle, “We love getting into the world of downstairs investing,” said Mike Krieger. “(ICA San Francisco) is just getting started, preparing to set up their space and do their first programming.”

Gass tells The Times that she was drawn to the idea of ​​a non-collecting museum when she accepted the job at ICA San Jose.

“Presenting and preserving collections costs a lot,” she says. “One of the tenets of ICA SF is to address equal pay issues for artists and staff. Instead of an arms race of collecting, we are committed to giving artists and museum employees an above-average salary for our region. “

What the new museum will show, Gass says, it will be split 50-50 between emerging Bay Area artists and established artists.

“When we start an institution from scratch, we can think deeply about contemporary art as a navigational tool for local and global issues,” Gass tells the Times.

And as she told the Chronicle, “I think museums will more than ever have less formal discussions about our historical ways of artistic progress, and much more:” Let us learn with and through contemporary art practice how we can be better global “. Citizens.'”

Construction is underway and the ICA San Francisco is scheduled to open next summer. However, the room will be open during the construction phase in January for the FOG Design + Art Fair.

Photo: Google Street View

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A stroll down 901 Minnesota St., rubber mats and a few foam balls on the floor point to the building’s recent life as a fitness center and former biotech office. On a leafy street in the Dogpatch neighborhood, the space’s industrial architecture is a clue of an area home to metal stores and expensive condominiums. With its high ceilings and an area of ​​11,000 square meters, the building’s bones also seem perfect for displaying art.

“It really just needs a slight polish and a certain ADA security conformity,” says Alison Gass, director of the newly founded Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, which plans to move into the building in 2022 after renovation by Jensen Architects. “We really want to keep it open, expansive and flexible for artists who don’t necessarily work in Germany.”

The news of the establishment of the museum was announced on Wednesday, September 8th. It comes at a time when many established visual arts institutions are grappling with the financial ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic and are re-evaluating their missions and values ​​in the wake of calls for more social justice. And in a city known for startups, this museum has attracted the support of some big players in the tech and venture capital world – the kind of patron that many arts organizations have sought.

The ICA San Francisco is sponsored by the Minnesota Street Project Foundation. Deborah and Andy Rappaport, the founders of the five-year-old arts center of the Minnesota Street Project nearby, have also raised $ 1 million in seed money through their Rappaport Family Foundation.

The institution plans to be a non-collecting art museum, which Gass and the Rappaports believe it will give it more flexibility. By not focusing on acquisitions, ICA San Francisco can devote more resources to exhibiting new local and international artists, as well as programs that can be created quickly in response to current events. ICA San Francisco also seeks to be a fairer organization, paying salaries commensurate with the high cost of living in the Bay Area and attracting a broader economic base of applicants. The museum plans to open in the summer of 2022 and not charge entry.

“In talking to Andy and Deborah, it really became clear that we believed there was room for this in the ecosystem,” says Gass, most recently director of the independent Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose. “The more institutions from the world community and the local community can have truly critical importance and respect, the better Bay Area artists can be encouraged to stay and work here.”

Alison Gass, Executive Director of the new Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, in the premises of the museum, which is currently under construction. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

“In the venture capital world, there is a truism that the best companies start at the worst times,” says Andy Rappaport, partner at August Capital. “We were prepared to say after COVID: How can we capitalize on the fact that there is now a fertile environment for this kind of creative thinking and frankly a lot of energy for positivity and advancement?”

What convinced the Rappaports to support the project?

“Ali was the right person at the right time,” said Deborah Rappaport.

The museum’s other founding donors: startup investors and collectors Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard; Rsquared Communication founder Rebecca Henderson and Slack Technologies co-founder Cal Henderson; Collector and philanthropist Pamela Hornik and Lobby Capital founding partner David Hornik; Art philanthropist Susan Swig; Kaitlyn Krieger, president of the Future Justice Fund, and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger; and Dr. Martha Muña and the founder of Kindred Ventures, Kanyi Maqubela. To date, the museum has raised $ 2.5 million; it projects an annual budget of $ 2.5-3 million per year.

“We love entering the investment world on the ground floor,” says Mike Krieger. “(ICA San Francisco) is just getting started, preparing to expand their space and do their first programming. Ali is exactly the kind of leader we love to support. She is super creative and dynamic, she knows how to adapt. “

The Kriegers have pledged to finance the director’s salary for three years. Kaitlyn Krieger notes that this is the first time the couple have put their name in a position they have funded.

Husband and wife Andy and Deborah Rappaport, shown in 2015 in the warehouse they converted into the Minnesota Street Project. Photo: Michael Macor / Die Chronik

Gass’s résumé includes curatorial positions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, and as director of the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. In June 2020 she became director of ICA San Jose. After years of working in more traditional institutions, Gass says she was drawn to the similar mission at ICA San Jose.

“It became this real affirmation that non-collecting contemporary museums have the ability to turn left and make a switch much easier than larger collecting institutions,” she said.

At ICA San Jose, Gass helped set up the ICA Social Club, a membership group aimed at art collectors at various levels. She also initiated the museum’s facade installation program, which shows a mural by Amir H. Fallah in autumn 2020 and will present another project this autumn with an accompanying exhibition by Conrad Egyir. ICA San Jose also hosted Jamaican artist Ebony Patterson’s first solo show on the west coast in 2020.

Pamela and David Hornik became art distributors and donors for ICA San Jose after they met Gass at Cantor. Pamela Hornik says Gass’ ability to get audiences excited about art was one reason she supported her work. They have so far donated $ 250,000 to ICA San Francisco and plan to continue helping.

“It’s an opportunity to bet on the future of the art world and identify emerging stars,” said David Hornik. “It’s an opportunity to get involved with these artists in ways that are often challenging for established institutions.”

Gass said she watched other institutions struggle after the upheavals of the pandemic and social justice last year. ICA San Francisco, she said, has the opportunity to make equity and inclusion its founding principles.

The new “emergency logo” by the artist Christopher Martin for the ICA San Francisco, the museum’s first commission.

“San Francisco and the bay in general are anticipating a cultural turning point about who lives here and why,” says ICA financier Maqubela. “Art is the perfect timing to convey moments like these and to influence them. In a way, this is a perfect time for a new cultural institution to get involved. “

Although the museum is slated to open in the summer of 2022, it plans its first events in the space under construction in January during San Francisco Art Week and Fog Design + Art Fair, which is scheduled for January 20-23. Oakland artist Christopher Martin will create a work in the space during art week that he believes will be part fabric and banner installations, part gift shop with affordable items like clothing showing his work.

With the creative agency Four One Nine, Martin also created the image that ICA San Francisco had commissioned to replace a traditional logo. It shows one of Martin’s characteristic Cupids in the style of sailor tattoo illustrations reaching into his quiver: arrows are shot at the letters ICA on individual banners.

“Now, more than ever, the moment has come to prioritize art as a lens for the larger social, political and cultural issues,” said Gass. “I think museums will more than ever be less formal discussions about our historical way of artistic progress and much more: ‘Let us learn with and through contemporary art practice how we can be better citizens of the world.’ ”

Related articles

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Alison Gass becomes the new director of the San José Institute of Contemporary Art

Minnesota Street Project Announces New Nonprofit Minnesota Street Foundation

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The mixed-use Potrero Power Station project, a waterfront urban development in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, officially broke ground.

This project is located in a historic industrial area and provides for the revitalization of the decommissioned Potrero power plant, which was first built at the end of the 19th century. This development will open up much of the city’s central waterfront for the first time in 150 years. A new 29-acre mixed-use neighborhood with supposedly sustainable features will be created, accommodating 2,600 residents, 1.6 million square feet of work space, 100,000 square feet of storefronts and seven acres of green space. These include restaurants, hotels, cafes and childcare facilities, among others.

The development reportedly delivers over $ 860 million in community benefits, including hundreds of affordable housing, heritage protection, public infrastructure, and the expansion of Dogpatch’s streetscape. The original structures of the power plant will be preserved, including station A, the chimney structure and the power plant block 3, which was one of the oldest power plants still in operation in California at the time the plant was closed. The neighborhood will also prioritize active and public transportation, and all buildings are expected to meet or exceed LEED Gold standards.

In the heart of the area, Foster + Partners designed two residential mixed-use buildings with affordable residential units.

Armstrong Yakubu, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners, said: “This project is a unique opportunity to revitalize a former industrial district and to breathe new life into this part of San Francisco. Our proposals will deliver much-needed homes guided by a people, sustainability and community-borne design approach rooted in the site’s rich history. It is our goal to give Dogpatch an ideal urban framework in order to create a lively, healthy and integrative living and working community of the 21st century. “

Inspired by the traditional courtyards and alleys of the district, the buildings are grouped around a central, ground-level open space, lined with local shops and local supplies. Pedestrian and cycle paths lead through these spaces and create new connections with the environment. The lower floors of the buildings house several common social rooms and co-working areas, which are a focus of activity throughout the day.

The design is based on a series of interconnected two-story elements within a modular organizational grid that allows both spatial and programmatic flexibility. The buildings combine to form a dynamic arrangement of step blocks. In addition, the apartments have been carefully designed to maximize fresh air, natural light and access to the leafy terraces throughout the property. The new district park is visually and physically connected to the garden roof terraces with a view of the water.

The Potrero Power Station mixed-use project was unanimously approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission and the city’s board of directors early last year. Developer Associate Capital bought the property for $ 86 million in 2016, and Perkins and Will oversaw the development master plan. The project will be built in six phases and has an estimated duration of 16 years.

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