Dear Friends and Neighbors of the Gene Friend Rec Center,
As you have likely heard by now, Prop A passed in November, and the Health and Recovery General Obligation Bond is a go. We are expecting to have this bond funding for the Gene Friend Rec Center Project in the Rec and Park budget within the next few months.
We are currently working to get a design team on board through an RFP (Request for Proposals). We will also be pursuing what’s called CM/GC contract for this project, whereby the general contractor comes on board to complete constructability review earlier than in the more typical design-bid-build process. We are confident that this will help us to deliver the project as best we can in terms of quality, budget, and timeline.
We are currently building out a detailed project plan and schedule.
We are also working with the San Francisco Arts commission on resolving what to do with the public art work that is on site.
- This includes the tile work above the 6th Street entrance, and the tile faced 3D animals in the playground
- Due to the whole site being redone as part of the renovation, the condition of the pieces, and the huge cost of storing and restoring them on site, we are pursuing the option of “deaccessioning” the pieces (decommissioning / taking out of service)
- We have a significant budget for new public art as part of the renovation and are committed to working with the Arts Commission and the community on helping to shape what that looks like
- There is a process for deaccessioning the current art work. We are planning to engage with the Arts Commission on this by early May.
- If you have any questions or concerns about the existing public art, its condition, or the deaccessioning process, please reach out to the Project Manager at Melinda.Sullivan@sfgov.org or by phone at 628-652-6648, by April 30
We are excited to be moving closer to making this major transformation a reality!
Please stay tuned for updates as we have them. You can also visit the project page of the Rec and Park website for more background on the project: https://sfrecpark.org/1143/Gene-Friend-Recreation-Center-Project. From this page, you can click on “What’s New” to find recent project updates and “Documents & Materials” to find meeting presentations, Commission staff reports, etcetera.
Melinda
