Democrats, beware. You could be impeachingyour own credibility with these secret impeachmenthearings into President Trump’s dealings withUkraine.
Americans inherently distrust any kind of government action that takes place out of public view,whether it’s a city council closed session or a closeddoor congressional hearing.
For years, Democrats have led the charge fortransparency in government, be it foreign policy orinvestigations into police shootings. Now these sameDemocrats are going behind closed doors to get thegoods on Trump.
They can point to Republicans’ private interviewsduring their endless Benghazi investigations as justi
Brown continues on B9
Demsmust open doorsto impeaching Trump
WILLIE’SWORLDBy Willie Brown
San Francisco Chronicle and SFChronicle.com | Sunday, October 27, 2019 | Section B xxxxx
BayArea InsideObituary: Mary Margaret ‘Moo’ Anderson,modern art collector and benefactor B12
New BART General Manager Robert Powers is on listening tour of the embattled commuter system.
And, boy, is he getting an earful.“I was coming in on a Richmond train last
week,” rider Bill Brown told him the otherday. “There was a homeless guy sprawled outon the seat who has s— himself. It was a wonderful odor and it cleared out everybody inthe car,” said Brown, who commutes into SanFrancisco daily from El Cerrito del NorteStation.
“We need cleaner trains and fewer farejumpers,” said another commuter standing inline with Brown at Civic Center Station.
PHIL MATIER
BART riders sound offto new general manager
Matier continues on B11
In Mayor London Breed’s vision, a mobiletrailer sits outside a health facility in San Francisco. Inside the safe injection site on wheels arecase managers and health workers armed withclean syringes, cotton balls and tourniquets.
Users can walk inside with their own heroinor other illegaldrug and injectwith staffers onhand to help ensure they don’toverdose. Theycan ride out theirhigh in the adjacenthealth facility andlearn about drugtreatment servicesthere, too.
A nonprofit created solely to run the trailermanages it and maintains no other assets. Itowns no building. That way, if federal authorities seize the illegal enterprise, all they get are atrailer and drug paraphernalia.
The best part of this sensible idea? Fewer peo
Huge hurdleto bold planfor safe druginjection site
Knight continues on B2
HEATHERKNIGHTOn SanFrancisco
There’s a reason they call it “speed.”It can be smoked, snorted, swallowed or
pushed through a needle into a waiting vein.And as methamphetamine saws its way intothe bloodstream, flooding the brain’s pleasurecenters with dopamine, it induces a rush ofeuphoria, heightened energy and acute alertness.
The high can last for up to 16 hours andoften comes with agitation, hallucinations andparanoia, sometimes causing users to becomeaggressive or violent. Then comes the crash asthe sensation fades, leaving a hole that onlymore meth can fill. For people already sufferingfrom mental illness, the effects can be all themore debilitating.
“In the beginning, everything seems supergood. Things are falling apart, but you don’t seeit right away. It’s a fantasy,” said Isaac Jackson,who struggled with meth for years before getting clean and is now president of the San
Sobering continues on B3
City seekslifeline formeth usersSobering center proposedto offer refuge, treatment
ByDominic Fracassa
To understand whyJeanne Gang is a deeplyimportant architect, notjust a spinner of eyecatching forms, check outher four Bay Area projects.
There’s Mira, the shimmering condominiumtower near the Embarcadero that swirls upwardlike a blunt corkscrew. AtChina Basin, a bayfrontparking lot will be transformed into offices andhousing by a team ofarchitects that Ganghelped assemble.
But the Chicago architect and her firm, StudioGang, also have designeda new campus for California College of the Arts
that will emphasize environmental sustainability.She’s even tackling one ofthe least glamorous building types of all, a government office building forSan Mateo County.
The eclectic mix ofprojects is a timely reminder that architectureshould engage broadercultural needs. It alsoreflects the engaged curiosity of a designer whosework has earned her aspot on the Time 100 anda MacArthur Fellowship,as well as architecturalawards and developercommissions.
“I’m lucky enough towork on projects I’mfascinated by,” Gang, 55,said in a phone interviewthis month. “And I lovemy work, so I’m workingall the time.”
Studio Gang opened anoffice last year in SanFrancisco, a lightfilledspace in Dogpatch that
Architect going farpast twisting towers
Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
Above: Mira, thefirst building ontheWest Coastdesigned byChicago architectJeanne Gang, is a39storyresidential towernear completionat Folsom andSpear streets.
Left: Gang, whoopened an S.F.office in 2018, isworking onseveral other BayArea projects.
By John King
Mira SFGang continues on B10
“The shape hasa lot to do withtrying to besustainable.”Jeanne Gang, architectand founder of Studio Gang
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BAY AREA
now holds six architects.There are 89 staffers inChicago and another 38in New York. But unlikefirms where branchoffices operate withnearautonomy, or whereheadquarters calls theshots, Studio Gangdraws on various staffersas needed.
“Things are prettyfluid,” said SteveWiesenthal, who heads theSan Francisco office. “Wereally do operate as asingle design studio.”
All three offices areengaged in the MissionRock project, where theSan Francisco Giants anddeveloper Tishman Speyer will start site workthis winter to turn theteam’s parking lot atChina Basin into a compact realm of housingtowers, office buildingsand public space.
Gang conceived thecenterpiece of the 10.5acre first phase, a 23story residential towerwith floors stacked casually like books on theirside. She also drew upthe list of potential architects that the developerused to decide who tohire. Beside Studio Gangthere is Workac of NewYork, MVRDV from theNetherlands and Henning Larsen of Denmark.Another New York firm,Scape, is landscape architect for the 5acrewaterside park.
It’s an ongoing collaboration of people whoshared walking tours ofSan Francisco and fashioned a set of sharedprinciples — “make podiums into ‘mesas’ thatenliven their surroundings” is one — beforedesign work started.
“The outcome hasbeen really satisfying butI must admit, there was adeep pit in my stomach,”when Gang proposed theongoing backandforth,said Carl Shannon, managing director of Tishman Speyer’s San Francisco office. “There aresome great firms outthere that would notcollaborate (well) thisway.”
The egalitarian approach by five firms —four of which are led bywomen — is one that theparticipants savor.
“There’s been a genuine philosophy of radicalsharing, and that’s liberating,” said Kate Orff, thefounder of Scape and,like Gang, the recipientof a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “genius grant.” “It’s theanti‘master planner’master plan.”
The project for SanMateo County, in its ownway, is equally adventurous.
It’s an administrationbuilding coupled with aremake of the county’sgovernment campus onthe edge of downtownRedwood City. Four stories of offices — shapedfrom above like an angled elongated doughnut— will sit atop six sculpted columns rising 32 feetto clear room for a freestanding, glassenclosedBoard of Supervisors’chamber and a groundfloor plaza that flows intosurrounding spaces.
The project, whichbreaks ground in December, is designed to generate as much energy onsite as the county needsto operate the building.As for the upper floors,which overlap one another, they’re laid out in partto reduce heat gain bydeflecting direct sunlightduring the day.
“The shape has a lot todo with trying to be sustainable — we’ve beenworking on the conceptof solar carving in all ourbuildings,” including
Mission Rock’s offkiltertower, Gang said.“Tweaking and pinchingcan help optimize itsperformance.”
Another aspect of theproject that attractedGang is the idea of usingarchitecture to showcaselocal government — tomake it enticing to citizens who might bedrawn to a new gathering space in RedwoodCity’s temperate climate.Or to potential hireswho, in Silicon Valley,have no shortage of employment options aroundthem.
“I like that San Mateois thinking about how, ina democracy, you canmake the best workerswant to join governmentrather than a tech firm,”Gang said. “We want tohonor that.”
That approach resonates with county officials, who selected thefirm after a competitionthat began with 18 contenders.
“The creativity fromStudio Gang fit with thevision of the county supervisors,” said AdamEly, director of the coun
ty’s Project DevelopmentUnit. “We want to be ableto attract and retainhighquality employeesand let them feel they’reworking in a highquality environment.”
What materializes inSanMateo won’t attractthe attention generatedby Aqua, Chicago’s enthralling 89story clifflike concrete slab from2009 that put Gang onthe architectural map. OrMira, with its tightlytwisted metal form thatGang likens to “migrating bays.”
The county buildingfits within what the firmcalls “actionable idealism” — efforts that takein everything from smallpublic and culturalbuildings to researchefforts on how innercitypolice stations might berecast from symbols ofofficial power by addingsuch community servicesas health facilities andbasketball courts.
Then there’s the expansion of the CaliforniaCollege of the Arts,which should begin construction next spring.
Studio Gang has fashioned a project that, aswith SanMateo, aims tobe carbonneutral. But italso will pull all of theschool’s craft spaces andindustrial labs together.The classroom structures around them willbe built of structuraltimber.
“Firms like Jeanne’sare few and far between,” said David Meckel, director of campusplanning for the college.“She’s got these developer projects that are soinventive, and then thesemore public projectswhere they’re asking,‘how do we do somethingthat matters.’ ”
Gang puts it anotherway.
“I ammotivated by thethrill of discovery, so Ilike thinking about difficult and complex issues,”she said this month. “Butthen I don’t just want tothink about them. I wantto do something.”
John King is The SanFrancisco Chronicle’surban design critic. Email:[email protected]: @johnkingsfchron
Architect goes beyond twisting towers
Tishman Speyer
Studio Gang
Studio Gang
Top: A rendering of the proposed first phase of the Mission Rock project, in development by TishmanSpeyer and the San Francisco Giants, with a residential tower designed by Studio Gang (right). Middle: Arendering of the expansion being designed by Studio Gang for the California College of the Arts in SanFrancisco set to begin construction in 2020. Above: A rendering of the sustainable energy administrationbuilding for San Mateo County in downtown Redwood City scheduled to start construction in December.
Gang from page B1
Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
Mira, the headturning residential tower created by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, rises in San Francisco.
“There’s been agenuine philosophy of radicalsharing, and that’sliberating.”Kate Orff, founder of Scape