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Commission recommends landmarking Bernard Zakheim's Tollan Hall frescoes and urges UCSF to keep murals together on campus
Summary
The commission unanimously recommended landmark designation for Bernard Zakheim's 1936–38 Tollan Hall fresco cycle, urged that the murals remain together on the Parnassus campus (in situ preferred) and asked UCSF and the EIR authors to analyze alternatives and stronger mitigation to preserve the murals and keep them publicly accessible.
The Historic Preservation Commission recommended that the Board of Supervisors designate Bernard Zakheim's "History of Medicine in California" fresco cycle as a city landmark and asked UCSF to prioritize keeping the murals together on the Parnassus campus, preferably in their original location.
Planning staff presented the mural cycle's significance as a rare New Deal‑era fresco installation, its association with the Federal Art Project and artist Bernard Zakheim, and conservation work performed in the 1960s–1970s. Staff said the murals are generally in good condition aside from localized water damage and described character‑defining features and the period of significance (1936–1938). The department recommended forwarding a landmarking recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.
UCSF's Senior Associate Vice Chancellor Brian Newman described the university's 30‑year Parnassus Heights plan, seismic and functional deficits at UC Hall, and an ongoing effort to identify qualified art‑conservation teams and contractors to evaluate means and methods to remove, conserve and—if feasible—relocate or reinstall the murals. Newman said UCSF was not committing to removal but had issued an RFP and expected proposals that will quantify risks and costs (proposals due Sept. 11 on UCSF's timeline).
Members of the Zakheim family, the Biddy Mason descendant, San Francisco Heritage and other community advocates urged the commission to require options that keep the mural cycle intact and on campus rather than allow indefinite storage or digital mitigation only. Several speakers emphasized the murals' unique public‑history value and objected to plans that would remove them without a guaranteed public reinstallation.
Commissioners framed their discussion around the murals as the highest‑priority cultural resource on the Parnassus campus. They unanimously approved a motion recommending landmark designation and added a recommendation that the murals be kept together on the Parnassus campus (with an expressed preference for retaining them in situ where feasible). The commission also asked planning staff to prepare comments for UCSF's draft environmental impact report requesting that the EIR evaluate alternatives and mitigation that would preserve the murals together and consider updated historic evaluations for UC Hall.
