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Commission backs landmark recommendation for 447 Battery with narrower character-defining features
Summary
After owner opposition and extended deliberation, the Commission voted 5–1 to recommend landmarking the Jones Thierbach Coffee Company building at 447 Battery Street but removed the listing of the building’s 3‑story height and rectangular footprint as a character-defining feature.
The Historic Preservation Commission recommended that the Board of Supervisors consider landmark designation for 447 Battery Street (the Jones Thierbach Coffee Company building), while modifying the draft ordinance to remove the 3‑story height and roughly rectangular footprint from the list of character‑defining features. Planning staff outlined the building’s 1907 origins, association with San Francisco’s coffee industry and surviving heavy‑timber interior construction, and recommended designation notwithstanding past alterations such as 1960s stucco removal.
Property ownership, represented by Justin Zucker of Rubin and Junius, opposed the designation and described a long-running proposal for a 200‑foot hotel that would preserve the façade and add a compatible vertical addition; ownership warned that a designation that emphasized volume or footprint as character‑defining could undermine the economic viability of proposed projects. San Francisco Heritage’s Catherine Petrin and other preservation advocates testified in support of designation and preservation of masonry and heavy‑timber features.
Commission deliberations addressed integrity, the effect of prior alterations, the scope of character‑defining features, and the separate legal track of the project EIR and entitlement review. After discussion, Commissioner Black moved (seconded by Commissioner Johns) to forward a recommendation to landmark the property but to amend the ordinance to delete the 3‑story height/rectangular footprint character feature and to include findings discussed in deliberations. The motion passed 5–1 (Commissioner Nagas Warren dissenting). The Commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for its final decision.
Next steps: Staff will transmit the amended findings and revised list of character‑defining features to the Board of Supervisors; the Board may take up the ordinance even if the Commission’s recommendation is modified or opposed.
