Richard, welcome. Thank you, commissioners. On here, on another item, i wanted to talk about some other mural projects that i am working on. First, the alamein he Health Centre building, which the commissioners approved as a city landmark. That building is in process of being renovated. The city found a vendor or an occupant, and they are very appreciative of the murals inside the building, we will get to see what is on the bottom of the painted mural, which nobody has seen probably in a long time and the other building i want to talk about is the mothers building and that is not going too well. We got the funds from the Historic Preservation fund for them to do this study, and then also supervisor tang gave money to do the shortterm and immediate repairs, and they are all taken care of, but since that time, almost a year, nothing is happening. Something needs to be done to get this process moving. I was hoping maybe the commission could ask recreation and park and the Zoological Society president to come and ask them what they are planning to do to open the building to the public, and also im concerned on having discussions with the zoo staff of how will the building be open to the public so that they may enjoy seeing these murals. When i started on the project, i just thought about how, i just realized how beautiful the murals are, but since working on the project, ive come to discover that the two women artists, helen and dorothy, and the Three Sisters who did the mosaics, were really pioneers in the womens movement. This was the first time that women started to work outside of the house, and this is one of the largest collections of solo women artwork around the bay area. Donna graves, whenever you get the concept report, she wrote a report about it. I hope you will have a hearing and shed some light on this so we can get moving on this project. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who wishes to address the commission . Close Public Comment. Theyll place us under department matters, directors announcements. Afternoon, commissioners. No report from the director, welcome to the sauna, apologies to the room. We are used to metaphorical heat in this room, but not quite as literal as it is today. I do want to introduce amory rogers who wants to speak about the organizational changes related to historic renovation. Good afternoon, commissioners im the director of city wide policy, which is the longrange to pit division. I know you are aware, but i wanted to take an opportunity to share probably with the folks in the audience that we have been integrating the preservation history staff with policy staff throughout the department. Within citywide, we already did have specialists on topics such as housing, transportation, equity and sustainability, and now we are very pleased to have a Historic Preservation staff at our disposal. So what i also like to take an opportunity to encourage you to consider all of our staff as staff of this commission, and utilize them when you have preservation topics that may cross over and interact with some of those other topics under the Planning Departments purview. With that, were very excited to be working more visibly before the commission, and i will be introducing the second item on your regular agenda. Thank you. Are there any questions that commissioners have . Welcome, we look forward to working with you. Item two, review of past events and announcements. Is there an update on the Planning Commission . Apologies, it is august, it is quite. No reports. That will place us under commission matters, item three, president s report and announcements. No report. Item four, consideration of adoption dropped minutes of june 19th, 2019, in the regular hearing for august 7th, 2019. We will open this up for Public Comment. Would any member of the public like to comment on the draft minutes from the Architectural Review Committee or the Historic PreservationCommission Hearings seeing none, close Public Comment. Move to approve. Second. Thank you. On that motion to adopt the minutes for june 19th, 2019, and august 7th, 2019. [roll call] so moved. That motion passes unanimously 5 0. Item five is commission comments and questions. Okay. Seeing none, we can move onto your consent calendar. The matter listed here under constitutes a consent calendar and considered to be retained by the Historic Preservation commission and maybe acted upon bicycle roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of this item unless a member of the commissioner public or staff should request it to be removed. Item six, 1,000 market street, this is a permit to alter. I have no speaker cards. I need to ask for a refusal. Arg was a consultant that did the assessment on the cornice, so if someone could motion. Is that a motion or a removal i so moved. Second. Thank you, on the recusal of Commission President hyland. [roll call] so moved, commissioners. You are hereby recused. You probably dont have to leave unless the item comes off the consent calendar. We will take Public Comment at this time. Is anyone interested in removing this from a consent calendar . From the consent calendar . I move that we keep it on the consent calendar. Second. Is that a motion to approve . Yes. Thank you. On that motion to approve item six under the consent calendar. [roll call] so moved. That motion passes unanimously 4 0. That will places under your regular calendar for item seven, the George Washington high school murals, this is for your review and comment. Good afternoon, commissioners shannon ferguson, Planning Department staff. Im here to present an update regarding the George Washington high School Landmark designation as you will recall, Washington High School is significant for association as it was built largely using Public Works Administration funds. Is also architecturally significant as it embodies the characteristics of the modern style and represents the work of a master architect and exhibits higher i artistic values with its murals by some artists which were all part of the federal art project. As a reminder, the landmark designation report was prepared by the Historic Preservation consulting and donna graves with coordination provided by San Francisco heritage, and funded by the Preservation Fund committee. Could you slow down a little bit . They added George Washington high school to the landmark designation work program on august 17th, 2016. They initiated designation on august 8th, and october 18th , 2017 and recommended landmark designation on december 6th, 2018. The legislation is currently with the board of supervisors. As part of our staff work, we made three presentations to the school board about landmark designation. Those presentations took place on september 28th, 2015, october 23rd, 2017, and march 6th, 2018. The final staff presentation was on alterations to the building, and generally the city does not regulate the School District. I did reach out to the school board about this hearing and they were unable to attend. If you have any questions about the landmark designation, i would be happy to answer them. Thank you. As part of our staff presentation, they there will be another presentation. There will be another presentation. I have some slides here of the murals. Let me just bring it up. So victor on a toff did 13 separate murals and an additional three banners that are also done in fresco. Two very large murals on either side of the entry stairs and two large murals in the upper hall, and six murals in out cloves that open off the main hall. This is the largest one on the righthand side of the stairs that picks the french and indian war and George Washington early life as a surveyor. This is opposite it showing the coming of the american revolution, including riots, the boston tea party, the boston massacre, port working class men raising the flag of the new republic, and washington taking communion of the army. The next two show events of the revolution beginning with the battle of trenton, ending this one, iltv did not show Washington Crossing the delaware , that famous a very unrealistic painting, and instead showed two enlisting men taking surrender of a mercenary. Opposite it is his version of the valley forge. Did not show washington praying in the snow, instead he showed washington in his office and his officers dressed in spotless winter clothing, talking to enlisted men dressed in rags. On the ceiling above those two murals is a moon, what you said at the time was his depiction of war. In the alcove on the opposite side of the upper hall we have peace, we have washington eating his officers farewell, including lafayette, indicate indicating the importance of foreign assistance during the revolution. Opposite this one we have washington as president , mediating between hamilton and jefferson over how to implement the new constitution, which is on the table in front of them. The ceiling of this alcove presents the sun and rainbow, which iltv said was his depiction of peace. So these two opposite alcoves show war and peace. This is the banner that introduces the alcove showing peace, and if you can read it, i cant read it from here myself, but i will let you read it. The third alcove Shows Washington bidding farewell to his mother, who was dying of cancer, he was reluctant to leave her, but she said it was important he accept the responsibilities of the presidency, and that is what is depicted in this mural. On the opposite wall, we have washington agitating for creation of a national university, something he referred to in one of his final addresses to congress, and that he also provided for in his will , but it never happened. The upper hall this is the ceiling over those last two, showing liberty placing new flags in the firmament, just as we have new stars in the flag on a blueblack blue background. The upper hall includes the two murals that have been the subject of the greatest controversy, depicting slavery and the deaths and dispossession of native americans. This is iltvs depiction of washington at his mount vernon plantation, and here he put enslaved africanamericans in the center, reminding everyone that washington was dependent upon slave labour, even though he subscribed to the notion that all men are created equal. The opposite mural was based on iltvs discovery arnautoffs discovery. This is my shameless selfpromotion. I might add that the newspapers have said repeatedly that he was a communist, but he actually didnt join the party until 19308, so at the time he painted these murals, his politics were clearly on the left, but he was not yet a formal communist. Im happy to take any questions you may have. Very informative. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Are there any questions for staff before we go to Public Comment . If i could ask miss ferguson, i just wanted to ask you one question. Can you just clarify for the Commission One more time, it is my understanding that the school board initially voted to remove the murals, and now, can you give me the status of what is happening now . I have a copy of the resolution if you would like me to read it. They voted to cover them up. They voted to cover them up, and now . Originally it was to destroy them by painting them. This is as of august 13th, okay. Thank you. Why dont you go ahead and open this up to Public Comments. We have three speaker cards. Thank you so much, commissioners. My name is woody and i am the new Vice President of advocacy and programs at San Francisco heritage. Thank you for having me today. For heritage today, on this matter, what we really want to bring forward, mike mueller, our president and c. E. O. , he was part of the original Reflection Group that made the initial recommendation to the school board, so we have been part of this project from pretty early on. What we really dont want is the destruction of the murals, and we would like to offer some, which i sent earlier to the commission, some different Technical Solutions that consensus, perhaps a remediated process might bring about in opposition to painting over the murals, so we provided this p. D. F. Of Different Solutions that were used with different public artworks around the world , and the most important thing is recently the school board came up with a resolution to obscure or screen or hide parts of the murals. The most important thing about any kind of acted like that, for us, is the reversibility of that action. We dont want any kind of permanent, damaging, solution here. Everybody might want these screened at some point, but we want to make sure people in the future have a say in what they see. That is about as far as we want to present today on this matter, but if you have any questions, i can try to answer them, although it is my first week, so i may not have the answers. Thank you. Thank you. Richard . Very much involved in this process. I went to George Washington, and to be honest with you, i dont even remember the murals, although i went in that entrance every day, i have other memories of going to high school there, but the principles let me give tours there for the last year and they are just really great, you know, they should be interpreted heritage did a lot of work in presenting alternatives and using them as a teaching tool, one proposal is to use technology, 3d animation to put glass over the murals, and theres a lot of alternatives. This is in the first time. We had this same controversy in the late sixties and early seventies, and the response was that there was a response mural painted in the hall next door which are in storage now because they are doing major renovations at George Washington , but they promised they are not going to touch the murals. Theres other artwork in the building there, there are some murals up in the library, and theres a freeze in the football field, so George Washington is really fortunate that timothy fluker had all these architects and all these artists to paint all these murals, and it was just the right time. Abraham Lincoln School was painted. It was a year later, and they have no murals. So this is a fine example of w. P. A. Artwork and it really needs to be shown off and explained, so i hope that everybody can come to a solution where we respect everybodys values and people get to see them. If they have to be covered up some time, they did this in washington, d. C. There were some offensive urals in the g. S. A. They put a shower curtain and covered it up. It is and then when they give tours, they can open it up for the people, and i think we could do this with the two most offensive murals because they are sort of separate. There are, you know, alternatives for heritage. I hope you will have a chance to read this. Thank you for having the hearing thank you. Good afternoon. I am the Vice President of the George WashingtonHigh School Alumni association. First, i want to say i am in big favor of making George Washington landmark status building. I also want to bring to your attention that our efforts to preserve the murals as they are is our position. This controversy is now being observed nationally and internationally. I have been interviewed in europe, russia, i have been quoted in numerous foreign papers, all the major newspapers in the country, particularly art critics, the new york editorial board, they are really going to shame San Francisco if they continue with this nonsense about covering these murals. Locally, from former mayor willie brown, and others, reverend brown, matt gonzalez, alice walker, when chan, i can only tell you theres others. They will eventually come out to tell this city or the board that anything less then leaving them alone will be something not acceptable. We would consider some other things, but they need to go back to square zero. A second vote that they did on august 13th was a response from their unanimous vote to whitewash. That tsunami started an incredible set of energy from the National Coalition against censorship, and numerous other organizations that have come out to support this. The former n. E. A. Executive director for barack obama was appalled that this even happened , and when the short notice to have an open house on august 1st, i sent an email because the School District supposedly told people there was going to be a two hour window to see these murals because there was an outcry, and real briefly, it turns out that thats how important he feels and supporting our cause. Im sorry, i dont want to take any more time. If you have anymore questions, i would be more than happy. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak . I would just like to mention that i spoke to the board twice and used my one minute of Public Comment both times most recently to remind them of their obligations under ceqa. I have given them written comments reminding them of their obligations under ceqa, and all the bo