Comments at the Groundbreaking of City College STEAM Building

December 15, 2022

First, I want to thank some of the people who have done the work to get us to this stage so far. This includes Chancellor Martin, who has been instrumental in moving these projects forward. I also want to thank Vice Chancellor Al-Amin, Associate Vice Chancellor Alberto Vasquez, the rest of our facilities teams, and the staff of the previous administration, and in particular former Vice Chancellor Rubin Smith.

Thanks also to our amazing architectural team, lead by the SmithGroup, LPA Design Studios, and the builder, Rudolph & Sletten. Thank you all for delivering the designs of a most beautiful facility. I also want to thank project manager Kitchell, and in particular John Watkins.

I also want to acknowledge the SF Building Trades, which represents the workers who will build this great facility under a Project Labor Agreement that I am proud to have worked on.

Finally, I want to thank the members of the Board's Facilities Committee. We have spent years reading through specs, contracts, and planning documents, and I can tell you, it is VERY exciting to be breaking ground.

It's taken a long time to get this point. It started about 5 years ago with analysis and planning about what the College's needs were. ?

We are taking a parking lot and turning into a wonderful new 4-story learning facility.

The Steam concept

The STEAM building will be many things. First, this building will be a replacement for worn out buildings that now have no heat and leaky roofs, as well as a replacement for the "temporary" bungalows that for decades have hosted students in less-than optimal conditions. But our students deserve no less than the best facilities modern learning facilities. And that's what they are getting with STEAM.?

But this building goes beyond state-of-the-art facilities and a pleasant place in which to work. At many colleges, including City College, the arts and sciences are segregated into separate buildings. The concept of STEAM is to bring together the hands-on lab classes of the sciences and the arts in a multi-disciplinary way, providing flexible social and study space.

They'll be a 24-hour accessible maker space for the arts; state-of-the-art science labs for biology and chemistry; engineering labs for biotechnology, material science; and computer science labs. Of course, it is no coincidence that we are placing STEAM right next to the Performing Arts Center. It is our hope that the STEAM building will provide support the Performing Arts activities as well.

But wait, there's more.

The STEAM will also be a green building. Sustainability is at the core of the design of the STEAM building. This LEED-Silver certified building will lower the College's carbon footprint, use less energy and water than the buildings it will replace.

And, finally, STEAM also be a beautiful building, inside and out. The architectural team has done an amazing job in creating what will be one of the finest public buildings in the City.

The first of a series

But with the STEAM building, we are breaking ground on the first building of a series of new buildings that the College will soon begin constructing. Within a few months, the College should breaking ground on Student Success Center, which for the first time, will bring together all of the support services that we provide for students.

We are also expecting state approval of the earthquake retrofit of the 750 Eddy Street building in the Tenderloin, a building that has been shuttered for 10 years but which should break ground within a few months.

And of course, also in the pipeline is the fabulous new Performing Arts and Education Center, which is in the late stage of design right now. In addition to housing three theaters and facilities for teach music, theater, and the back stage trade crafts, this will be the permanent home of Diego Rivera's 75-foot-long masterpiece, Pan American Unity, which is now at SF MOMA. If you haven't seen it yet, you should get over to MOMA.

Starting with the STEAM building, and taken together, these projects will re-invent the aging Ocean Campus for the 21st century, making it more functional and flexible, and enabling the College to offer curriculum that it now cannot offer.

Although I will no longer be serving on the Board, I look forward to attending the groundbreaking of each of these projects. Thank you for attending today's ceremony. And I hope to see you and the others in the months to come.