From Nov 9 through the end of January, san francisco transforms into a citywide gallery of art. The 10th annual Illuminate SF celebrates San Francisco’s vibrant art scene and one of the country’s most extensive permanent collections of light art. In just a decade, Illuminate SF has grown from six to 62 permanent and temporary light art installations created by a diverse array of renowned local and international artists. san francisco will shine even brighter this festive season with luminous installations complementing the city’s dazzling holiday lights.

SAN FRANCISCO, october 20, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — San Francisco’s Neighborhoods will transform into a luminous gallery of art at night during the holiday season for the 10th annual Illuminate SF Festival of Light. Presented by San Francisco Travel Association and 5 M in collaboration with local civic, arts and cultural partners, the 2022/2023 Illuminate SF festival runs from Nov 9 through the end of January and celebrates San Francisco’s vibrant art scene.

Inspired by the debut of Leo Villareal’s The Bay Lights, San Francisco Travel launched the festival in 2013 to brighten the longest nights of the year. Illuminate SF has grown since its inception from six to 62 temporary and permanent eco-friendly light art installations created by a diverse array of acclaimed international and local artists, including Olaf Eliasson, Jenny Holzer, Daniel Libeskind, Jorge Pardo and Jerry van Eyck, along with San Francisco Bay-based Jim Campbell, Johanna Grawunder, Dorka Keehn other Brian Goggins.

Illuminate SF light art installations can be experienced across the city from the Embarcadero to the Inner Sunset, North Beach to Bayview, and while flying in or out of san francisco International Airport (SFO). The works come to life at dusk, turning evenings into an illuminating adventure, especially when combined with exploring San Francisco’s world-class restaurants, nightlife, cultural events and holiday activations.

“There is nothing like celebrating the festive season in San Francisco’s captivating glow,” said San Francisco Travel President and CEO Joe D’Alessandro. “The city has one of the country’s most extensive collections of light art, and this holiday season Illuminate SF will be even bigger and brighter. And in keeping with San Francisco’s ethos of inclusivity and accessibility, nearly 80% of the light art installations are free for visitors and residents to enjoy.”

“We are thrilled to be the presenting sponsor for this year’s Illuminate SF and to showcase our majestic wind baffles that light The Parks at 5 M,” said Christie Donnelly, Director of Development for Brookfield Properties. “The Illuminate SF lighted art tour starts at 5 M and is quintessentially san franciscouniting community through arts, culture and experience.”

Spectacular New Additions to the Illuminate SF Festival of Light
The Wind-Baffles: The iconic wind baffle structures that anchor The Parks at 5 Ma new, vibrant community connected to the surrounding fabric of San Francisco’s SOMA District by a cohesive network of public spaces, are the brainchild of Jerry van Eyck, founder of !melk, an award-winning urban design and landscape architecture firm. Built to mitigate wind, the baffles or “wind breakers” are artfully illuminated from the outside and complemented with a soft glow that radiates through the perforations in the upper zones. Though made from steel, a material associated with heaviness and industry, the baffles are often referred to as “flowers” for their stem and leaf-like design elements. Come nightfall they transform into breathtaking sculptures and suddenly seem to float.

Helical Trace: A permanent installation inside the new LUMA Hotel in Mission Bay, Helical Trace is local artist Jim Campbell’s latest contribution to San Francisco’s Light Art Trail. The dynamic light installation can be seen from the street through the lobby’s floor-to-ceiling three-story windows. The prolific artist who installed Day for Night atop the Salesforce Tower created this striking installation that looks different from every angle and uses the reflection of the windows to amplify its movement. At a distance, the helix form gives the illusion of water across light. The figures within climb an infinite stretch of waterfall, allowing Campbell to create delight out of physical struggle.

Franchise Freedom: Immersive Arts Alliance will bring the acclaimed aerial light performance Franchise Freedom to san francisco for five nights beginning Jan 12. Created by internationally renowned Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta of DRIFT, Franchise Freedom is comprised of 600 illuminated drones that will fly from Treasure Island over the San Francisco Bay towards the Embarcadero, allowing visibility along the shorelines in san francisco, Sausalito, Emeryville other Berkeley. Based on a biological algorithm from over 10 years of research into starlings’ flight behavior, Franchise Freedom stretches boundaries between nature and technology and generates an impactful social connection.

Lucy in the Sky: One of two new light art installations joining the City’s extensive Civic Arts Collection, Erwin Redls Lucy in the Sky is a landmark artwork in the city’s new Central Subway (first opening for weekend service on Nov 19). Located in the Union Square/Market Street Station, the immersive installation is comprised of over 500 translucent 10 x 10-inch light panels, each containing an array of color LEDs. The panels are suspended along the entire length of the concourse level’s ceiling, spanning nearly 670 feet. Installed in a diamond-shaped pattern, the light panels are computer programmed to slowly change color and display simple patterns, creating a kaleidoscopic experience.

Untitled: Along the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit (VN-BRT) Geary Street Station’s north and southbound boarding platforms, Jorge Pardos lighting sculpture brings a pop of whimsical light and color. Comprised of painted steel, fiberglass, acrylic and LED light fixtures, Untitled is playful and sophisticated with engaging use of color, form, movement, space and light.

Peace in the Middle East: Taravat Talepas and’s Peace in the Middle East returns as a permanent installation in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Grand Lobby. Hung from the ceiling, this intricate neon artwork (featuring the word “peace” in Farsi “صلح”) explores the cultural taboos that reflect on gender and political authority through Talepasand’s lens as an Iranian-American woman.

Lantern Stories: san francisco: This public art installation of 29 illustrated lanterns by award-winning interdisciplinary artist Yu-Wen Wu illuminates San Francisco Chinatown’s history, culture and community. Creating a luminous canopy on the 600 block of Grant Avenue, the lanterns relate the long and fraught history and legacy of Chinese immigration in the US They feature images of Bruce Lee, Amy Tanjournalist Helen Ziapioneer restaurateur Cecilia Chang and others. Many highlight the arts, calligraphy, music and performance, as well as the community’s strong commitment to education, entrepreneurship and social justice.

GLOW: Discover the Art of Light: The Exploratorium is bringing back its popular – GLOW: Discover the Art of Light from Nov. 17 through Jan. 29, 2023, with six artists illuminating Pier 15 with light sculptures big and small. In gallery 3, Jen Lewin’s The Last Ocean is an expansive landscape of interactive platforms that illuminate to resemble a glowing ice field. Created from reclaimed ocean plastic, the platform’s five-sided pieces form a beautiful geometric tessellation — a repeating pattern of flat shapes with no gaps.

In the Black Box, Anila Quayyam Agha’s All the Flowers are For Me is inspired by Islamic textiles, architecture, and floral motifs. A single beacon of light glows from within a suspended steel cube, producing immersive patterns that ripple and change as visitors move through the space. Similarly, Agha’s Teardrop (after Robert Irvin) interweaves delicate, traditional Islamic decorative geometric patterns and architecture with modern materials. The work is inspired by jaalis (intricate, carved screens), which cast moving shadows as the sun rises and falls.

Entangled Attraction and Raylights, a pair of installations by Resonance Studio artists Sally Weber other Craig Newswanger, immerse visitors in trails of light in motion. Entangled Attraction features 100 pinpoints of light that appear to orbit around each other when viewed from afar, while Raylights produces ever-changing, mandala-like light patterns synchronized to ambient sounds.

Let’s Glow SF: Downtown San Francisco will again boast the largest holiday projecting mapping event in the US with the return of Let’s Glow SF. Running Dec 2 to 11the nightly journey of light and color will feature stunning whimsical, abstract, and naturalistic winter-themed works by local and international artists projected onto four iconic buildings.

Click here for a complete list of 2022/2023 Illuminate SF Light Art Installations.

Find detailed information on the #IlluminateSF festival, installations and artists, plus downloadable light art maps at http://www.illuminatesf.com.

5 M
5 M is a new, vibrant mixed-use destination in the heart of san francisco located at the intersection of 5th and Mission streets. Developed by Brookfield Properties, named “Developer of the Year” by the San Francisco Business Times in 2021, the four-acre parcel was previously home to parking lots and underutilized buildings. Now, it has been transformed into a lively community for locals and visitors alike.

Connected to the surrounding fabric of the SOMA District by a cohesive network of public spaces, 5 M is anchored by a vibrant and dynamic urban park designed by !melk, an award-winning urban design and landscape architecture firm. The park offers outdoor performance space with year-round programming and special events centered around celebrating the arts, neighborhood culture and youth. The buildings located at 5 M include The George, a 20-story sustainably designed luxury apartment building and 415 Natoma, a 25-story state-of-the-art office tower offering sweeping views of the city. Additionally, two historic buildings were restored; the Camelline Building that is earmarked for retail and nonprofit uses and the Dempster Building, which Brookfield Properties donated to CAST (Community Arts Stabilization Trust) for arts and cultural uses.

SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION
The San Francisco Travel Association is the official destination marketing organization for the City and County of san francisco. tourism is San Francisco’s largest industry. More than 26 million people visited the destination in 2019, spending $9.6 billion. More than 86,000 jobs are supported by tourism in san francisco.

For information on reservations, activities and more, visit w http://www.sftravel.com. Follow SF Travel on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please use hashtags #sftravel and #AlwaysSF.

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
SFO is excited to welcome travelers back to the skies with an airport experience featuring seamless access, thoughtful amenities, sustainable design and inspiring artwork and exhibits.

For up-to-the-minute departure and arrival information, airport maps and details on shopping, dining, cultural exhibitions, ground transportation, masks and COVID-related protocols and more, visit https://www.flysfo.com/. Follow us on twitter.com/flysfo and facebook.com/flysfo.

United Airlines is the preferred airline of the San Francisco Travel Association.

# # #

Note to editors:

Media Contact

Lori LincolnSan Francisco Travel Association, 4152272603, lori@sftravel.com

SOURCE San Francisco Travel Association

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By dr Marcy Adelman

Twenty-four years ago, I co-founded Openhouse with my late partner, Jeanette Gurevitch, to build senior housing with services for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community. It was a time much different than the one we now live in. LGBTQ older adults were invisible in all areas of mainstream senior services. LGBTQ seniors were not welcome in either market rate or affordable senior housing or at any point along the continuum of senior care in San Francisco. LGBTQ older adults would go back into the closet to access senior housing or services, or at great risk to their health, choose not to access needed services at all. Low-income seniors were being forced out of San Francisco by evictions and rising rents by an inflated housing market. The situation for LGBTQ seniors was more dire; they were being forced to leave their home and the community they built, where they felt safe to live an out life. With few safe options, they faced an uncertain future.

We invited senior community members, Jan Falkner, Matile Rothschild, Arthur Hurwith, and Warren Van Eck, to join us. They accepted our invitation and together we comprised the founding board.

We spoke about aging at small gatherings in people’s homes and to numerous LGBTQ organizations. How did people want to age and with whom? We asked people not just what they thought was possible but what they would like to see happen as they got older. I knew I wanted to live in an intergenerational community that embraced aging and centered the voices, experiences, and ongoing contributions of LGBTQ older adults. Whether I lived in senior housing or not, that was the kind of greater community I wanted to be a part of. We were a grassroots effort imbued with the spirit of community building. This spirit continues at Openhouse.

We searched for a housing developer partner. We met with both for profit and non-profit developers. Some questioned the financial feasibility of our project; others said they were too busy building housing for their own community. After all, we had little to offer to enter into a partnership. We had no money and no land to build on. We explored the possibility of a partnership with two different developers but they didn’t work out. We also made several serious attempts at securing a site to build on. All of which were in or near Hayes Valley.

Hayes Valley seemed like the most likely place for our village. It was and is a gay friendly neighborhood close to the Castro. It also was a neighborhood with large parcels of open land. The Central Freeway had come down during the earthquake and the neighborhood was determined not to rebuild it. They wanted to replace the freeway with a green, walkable neighborhood with fewer cars, more housing, and more sunlight. The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) was home to some remarkable advocates. Jeanette and I sat in on some of their meetings and then presented our vision of what we wanted to build in the neighborhood. We found we had much in common. We became members and supporters. We didn’t know it then, but our long relationship with HVNA would play an important role in securing a developer and eventually the site on Laguna Street.

We also met with city and community leaders and city personnel. To address the concerns we encountered when meeting with city personnel, we decided to conduct a survey designed to collect demographic, psychosocial, and senior/retirement housing information from LGBT people of all ages. A total of 1301 LGBT adults returned the survey. There were too few bisexual and transgender elder respondents to include in the analysis of the study. However, people of color made up more than 25% of the sample. The survey was the largest and most racially inclusive sample of gay men and lesbians over the age of 50 that had been conducted up to that time.

Key takeaways from the Openhouse study were that (1) the incomes of LG older adults mirrored that of their heterosexual peers and (2) that LG older adults differed from their heterosexual peers as they are more likely to be single, live alone, not have children, and to have higher disability rates. These results shattered the myth of gay wealth and of the gay community not being in need of, or deserving of, affordable housing; and second, that LG older adults, having fewer traditional supports and higher disability rates, would greatly benefit from support.

Our community needed so much; we decided on a vision that would care for as many people as possible. Our vision was to build a mixed income, multicultural senior housing and service village that would provide LGBTQ welcoming housing and services for openhouse residents, the neighborhood in which the village was located, and LGBTQ seniors throughout the city. We further understood from the start that we could not, on our own, build enough housing or provide enough senior services to meet the needs of our aging community. So, since 2004, Openhouse has been providing LGBTQ older adult cultural competency training for Bay Area senior serving providers and organizations.

In 2008, Openhouse finally secured a site to build on. In April of 2008, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to give final approval to a Hayes Valley residential complex with affordable housing welcoming to LGBTQ older adults. Construction was expected to begin in the fall of that year and completion was scheduled for 2011. But the recession delayed construction and the project wasn’t completed until just before COVID.

Despite the delays that were outside of Openhouse’s control and last-minute changes from a mixed income project to an affordable housing project, Openhouse, in partnership with the city and Mercy Housing, successfully established its flagship site of senior housing and services on Laguna Street in Hayes Valley.

The Openhouse village consists of two buildings: 55 Laguna, a repurposed and beautifully renovated historic building that includes affordable housing apartments and Openhouse’s Service Center; and a newly constructed five-story building that includes the 75 Laguna Openhouse Community Activity Center and the affordable housing at 95 Laguna. There are a total of 121 affordable senior apartments in the village. The buildings share a large courtyard and outdoor space nestled in the back of the buildings.

Openhouse’s LGBTQ senior cultural competency training for senior service providers and senior serving organizations also has been successful and has had an impact on making local services and both market rate and affordable senior housing more LGBTQ inclusive. Much has been accomplished. But there is still much more work to be done.

Openhouse is now a seasoned and well-respected nonprofit that has developed one of the largest affordable LGBTQ senior housing complex in the country. Openhouse currently serves over 3000 LGBT older adults with a range of services such as art classes, social groups, language classes (Spanish and Yiddish), home-delivery program, friendly home visitor program, cooking classes, walking group, lunch program, long term Survivors HIV/AIDS Support Group, Housing Workshop, Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Aging Services Program, Rainbow lunch, and Community Day Services, to name just a few.

There is much to celebrate and be proud of. It has taken decades and countless people who helped along the way—the senior LGBTQ community first and foremost, community and civic leaders, the amazing Openhouse staff and board members, donors, foundations, and so many others.

Still, despite all the progress made, the LGBTQ senior community continues to be underserved in mainstream senior services. According to the 2018 San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services Needs Assessment, LGBTQ seniors are two and a half times less likely to utilize mainstream senior services and more likely to access services housed within LGBTQ identified agencies. Similar results were reported in the more recent 2022 needs assessment. Going forward, Openhouse can continue to play an important role in meeting the community’s unmet needs.

A 2022 study by the San Francisco LGBTQ Aging Research Partnership reported on the physical and emotional health of San Francisco’s LGBTQ older adults during COVID and which services they were able to receive and which they were unable to access. In many cases, most older LGBTQ adults were able to access the services they needed. Mental health counseling, however, was reported as the highest unmet need by almost 17% of the 500 respondents. Mental health issues, such as depression and PTSD, spiked, and feelings of loneliness and isolation increased. More than one in four people of color, HIV+ respondents, and people with disabilities reported being unable to access mental health service. Even with the new and innovative telehealth counseling program coming online at Curry Senior Center, the LGBTQ senior community will still need greater access to culturally appropriate, senior centered, affordable mental health services.

dr Kathleen Sullivan, Openhouse’s Executive Director, arrived during COVID. She is the first Openhouse ED experienced in LGBTQ senior housing and LGBTQ senior service. She has a Ph.D. in Urban Studies, with a focus on housing for LGBTQ mid-life and older adults. She was the Director of Senior Services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The LA LGBT Center provides services for more LGBTQ people and LGBTQ seniors than any other organization nationwide.

Kathleen is the perfect person to take Openhouse to the next level and grow Openhouse’s footprint of LGBTQ senior housing and services in San Francisco, and she is well positioned to assist and advise other Northern California communities in how they can best serve their aging LGBTQ communities using the open-house model of senior housing with services.

A new chapter is about to be written.

dr Marcy Adelman, a psychologist and LGBTQ+ longevity advocate and policy adviser, oversees the aging in Community column. She serves on the California Commission on Aging, the Board of the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California, the California Master Plan on Aging Equity Advisory Committee, and the San Francisco Dignity Fund Oversight and Advisory Committee. She is the Co-Founder of Openhouse, the only San Francisco nonprofit exclusively focused on the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ older adults.

Aging in community
Published on September 8, 2022

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By Randolph Belle

A traveling exhibit that invokes the history of repression of Blacks in the United States arrived in Oakland for this week’s installation at Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Support Oakland Artists, an Oakland based 501(C)3, partnered with Society’s Cage to bring the acclaimed social justice art installation as a feature in front of Oakland City Hall from May 9-30, 2022.

Society’s Cage is an open air, accessible pavilion featuring 500 hanging steel bars that form a cavernous cube with a habitable void allowing visitors to experience the symbolic weight of institutional racism.

This immersive experience offers the opportunity to consider the severity of racial biases within our institutional structures of justice and allows for moments of reflection and healing.

The designers, Dayton Schroeter, Julian Arrington, Monteil Crawley and Ivan O’Garro, created the installation to contextualize the contemporary phenomenon of police killings of Black Americans within the 400+ year continuum of racialized state violence in the United States.

It is a data-driven installation shaped in response to the question “What is the value of Black life in America?”

The Oakland installation will be the first on the West Coast as it travels nationally to sites of symbolic power related to justice, freedom & democracy. Originating in Washington, DC on the National Mall in response to the 2020 murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Society’s Cage has continued its journey as an interpretive lens highlighting the historic forces of racialized state violence in the United States.

Other sites have included War Memorial Plaza in Baltimore, Maryland, and the site of the Vernon AME Chapel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race massacre and destruction of the Greenwood District, known as Black Wall Street.

Oakland is an ideal host site for the installation as the home of the Black Panther Party, which was founded to combat the legacy of police oppression, inequitable incarceration practices, and remnants of slavery in the form of state-sponsored terrorism against Black people.

In 2009, the killing of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old, unarmed Black transit rider by the BART police in Oakland set off local and regionally organized protests that catalyzed a national movement.

Support Oakland Artists Executive Director Randolph Belle atop the installation called ‘Society’s Cage’ as it was being assembled. Photo courtesy of Facebook.

“We were inspired to create the installation as a response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor,” explains Dayton Schroeter, lead designer of Society’s Cage and design director at SmithGroup, which has offices in San Francisco. “The pavilion is a real and raw reflection of the conversations about racism happening now. It’s a physical manifestation of the institutional structures that have undermined the progress of Black Americans over the history of this country.

“The name Society’s Cage refers to the societal constraints that limit the prosperity of the Black community,” says Julian Arrington, who led the design with Schroeter, and is an associate at SmithGroup. “The pavilion creates an experience to help visitors understand and acknowledge these impacts of racism and be moved to create change.”

“It only took an instant for me to commit to this project,” said Randolph Belle, executive director of Support Oakland Artists. “In my over 30 years in Oakland as an artist and community developer, I’ve strived to utilize the arts to engage the public in thoughtful ways around important and timely topics. This project, this site, and these times are an unprecedented example of that.”

Visitors are encouraged to participate in a shared experience upon entering the pavilion. After holding their breath for as long as they can, evoking the common plea among victims of police killings, “I can’t breathe,” visitors then post a video reflection of their experience on social media using the hashtag #SocietysCage. This exercise is meant not only to build empathy but expand the installation’s impact online to allow anyone to participate in this shared exercise.

The pavilion was fabricated by Gronning Design + Manufacturing LLC in Washington, DC, and Mejia Ironworks in Hyattsville, Maryland. A soundscape was commissioned from a pair of composers, Raney Antoine Jr. and Lovell “UP” Cooper.

Composed of four pieces, each eight minutes and 46 seconds in length in recognition of the time George Floyd suffered under the knee of police, they are themed to reflect each of the four institutional forces that sculpted the pavilion’s interior — mass incarceration, police terrorism, capital punishment and racist lynchings.

Early sponsors who have made the hosting of the Society’s Cage Oakland installation possible include the Akonadi Foundation, Tarbell Family Foundation, individual sponsors including principals from SmithGroup’s San Francisco office, corporate sponsorship including SmithGroup and many community partners including BIG Oakland.

Jeremy Crandall and Emax Exhibits were the Oakland Installation team.

A public unveiling is scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2022, at 11 am, and a programmed event featuring local cultural artists is scheduled for Sunday, May 29, 2022, at 7 pm Participating individuals and organizations include original members of the Black Panther Party , the Black Cultural Zone, HipHopTV, and a host of local artists.

For more information, visit www.societyscage.com to find a link to the donation site. Additional donations will assist with programming and documentation related to the Oakland activation.

Randolph Belle is the executive director of Support Oakland Artists and RBA Creative studio in Oakland.

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In 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake destroyed more than 28,000 buildings and left about 250,000 people homeless. One of the few buildings that survived the disaster was the 10-story Aronson Building at 706 Mission Street, named after its developer Abraham Aronson and designed by local architects Hemenway & Miller.

Built in 1903 and known for its Chicago School Style and decorative terracotta ornaments, the building originally housed offices and production facilities on the upper floors, and rented retail space on the ground floor.

Image courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org.

Today, the Aronson building still stands tall thanks to its recent restoration, refurbishment and conversion, which was overseen by the architect Page & Turnbull in cooperation with Handel Architects. The project masterfully combines historical authenticity and modern innovation and consists of two contrasting structures – the redesigned Aronson Building and an adjoining new 45-story, 510-foot tower, the 146 Luxurious Four Seasons private residences.

However, combining an adaptive reuse project with a new build is rarely an easy endeavor, and the Page & Turnbull team had a lot of work to do for them.

[Related: How the Space Needle’s New Observation Deck Celebrates Its Original Design]

“One of the most difficult aspects was the reconstruction of the historic Colusa sandstone entrances, which had previously been modified to modernize the building,” recalls Elisa Hernández-Skaggs, AIA, Associate Principal at Page & Turnbull. “This resulted in the original decorative features being removed and hidden.”

As a result, the project team examined existing features and archive photos to reconstruct the entries and restore their original appearance. Architectural details of the remaining entries have been repaired and missing features have been reconstructed using artificial stone to match the original, said Hernández-Skaggs.

Another challenge was the stabilization of the “rope course” – the terracotta decorations with acanthus leaves that stretch just above the ninth floor over the entire length of the facade of the Mission and Third Street. “This protruding ornament suffered from severe cracks and eventually became a fall hazard, compromising the safety of the pedestrians underneath,” she noted.

Image courtesy of 706 Mission Street Co. LLC / Page & Turnbull.

Page & Turnbull mapped the crack patterns and their relationship to the internal structure of terracotta units, “which allowed us to recommend the best locations for new anchors to tie the units together and reattach them to the building,” said Hernández-Skaggs.

The bulk of the Four Seasons Private Residences is engraved into the new tower to form a series of alternating glass and masonry volumes that create vertical lines that relate to the linear landscaping of the Jessie Square square that the tower faces. The vertical masonry that runs the full length of the new tower is organized so that it visually connects with the strong vertical expressions of brick and terracotta of the Aronson building next door.

“The tower is a tribute [to the Aronson Building] by using complementary materials, glass and Sierra White marble, ”said Hernández-Skaggs. The marble cladding is expressed as vertical bands that mirror the vertical pilasters of their historical counterpart. The tower’s pedestal is similar in height to the base of the Aronson Building, and the new tower is set back to visually convey the bulk of the historic building, she explained.

Image courtesy of 706 Mission Street Co. LLC / Page & Turnbull

sustainability is inherent in remediation projects like this because the approach avoids construction and demolition waste ending up in landfills or incinerators. As fewer new materials are needed, the pressure to extract resources to produce wood, steel, masonry and glass is reduced.

“The total carbon content of a reuse project is much lower than that of a new building of comparable size,” emphasized Hernández-Skaggs. “The greenest buildings are those that have already been built.”

Another measure to secure the Aronson Building for many years to come is to make it resilient to further seismic activity. The building was structurally reinforced by connecting the Aronson Building to the new tower, which gives the historical building structure lateral strength. In addition, the project team installed strongbacks on the inside of the brick walls for added stability.

A stunning example of adaptive reuse in a modern city, the Aronson Building sets a new standard for opulent living by combining luxurious accommodations and distinctive elegance with the legendary personalized services of Four Seasons.

Read Next: How An Iowa Mill Was Converted To A Luxury Hotel

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SACRAMENTO (KPIX) – Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers expand their transition kindergarten to allow all four-year-old California children to enroll in a publicly funded school for free, regardless of income.

It’s a turning point for California, which has lagged behind other states in early childhood education.

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But while seven out of ten Californians polled by the Public Policy of California this spring support state-funded preschools, not all agree on how to do it.

Joyce Gomez and her husband are thrilled that their three-year-old son Asher may have a free year of pre-kindergarten school at their neighborhood public elementary school next year.

“I’m so happy! I can’t wait,” said Gomez.

The home mom says childcare is expensive and a free year before K would allow her to get back to work and give her son the jump-start he needs.

“The human brain develops 90 percent between the ages of one and five, so it gets better for him how early he can get into a preschool program,” she said.

The California transition kindergarten – or TK – currently accepts around 100,000 children.

These children, who will turn five between September 2nd and December 2nd, are currently receiving a free year of publicly funded Pre-K.

From one year onwards, however, more children will gradually start school until all four-year-old children can attend a transitional kindergarten in public schools by September 2025.

MP Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) presented the bill to expand the transitional kindergarten.

“This will really help the students. It’s a big win for California, ”said McCarty.

However, critics say universal TC would cripple an already fragile childcare industry and hurt families they serve.

BAHIA Inc. provides childcare for children ages two to ten in Berkeley.

Managing director Beatriz Leyva-Cutler only heard of the state’s plans to expand the transition kindergarten last year.

“It was like a cold bucket of ice on our face,” said Leyva-Cutler. “We had to do with COVID and then found out about this transition kindergarten.”

She fears that four-year-old children will leave their bilingual child development program for a free transition kindergarten that does not offer the same high quality education.

That would force them to switch to caring for children ages three and under, a more expensive business model that requires different education and more individualized care.

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“Panning is not as easy as the authors of this bill seem to think,” said Leyva-Cutler. “You know, you just can’t say ‘OK’, you’re a preschool teacher, now a toddler teacher or an infant toddler teacher.

The results could decimate licensed childcare workers who are unlikely to survive the pandemic.

“Many programs have already told us that they must be closed. You have to close. You will have to cut working hours, your staff, ”said Laurie Fürstenfeld from the Child Care Law Center.

Lizz Nolasco says this could put her family in a bind, and not just for her as the preschool director.

If her little son registers in the TK in a few years, the working mother may have to take him from place to place because the transition kindergarten only lasts a few hours and there are still no concrete plans for all-day offers.

“So we would have to start looking for these pre- and post-care options. In the worst case, I might not have a job, ”said Nolasco.

Others worry about additional support for students.

Head Start Executive Director Christopher Maricle says he is working to ensure families can keep the health services they depend on.

“We have a hundred thousand children in Head Start. We just want to make sure in the end that the parents are getting what they need and some of them will need it, ”said Maricle.

The Early Edge education initiative supports the expansion of the transition kindergarten.

According to Executive Director Patricia Lozano, this means around 225,000 more students will have an extra year of schooling at a crucial time for learning.

“All in all, it’s an amazing budget. A historic household. How can we implement this now and help with the implementation? ”Said Lozano.

McCarty says expanding the transitional kindergarten is a huge undertaking and there are still many details to be clarified.

Every fourth public school already has a transitional kindergarten. The state plans to spend billions of dollars to provide elementary schools with portable rooms or to retrofit classrooms that are empty due to falling school enrollments.

Despite a labor shortage, teachers would be reassigned or hired and trained.

Reimbursement rates and support will increase for subsidized childcare serving children under the age of three.

“We think it’s an absolute win-win situation. But the reality is that change is difficult. It disrupts the way things are today, ”said McCarty.

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California plans to have the country’s largest universal transition kindergarten in the next five years, but it is clear that transitioning in or out of the classroom will not be easy.

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