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Rec & Park staff outline $200,000 immediate needs and $5 million retrofit for Mothers' Building murals
Summary
Rec & Park staff presented a structural assessment of the Mothers' Building at the zoo, estimating immediate stabilization at roughly $200,000 and a long-term seismic retrofit and mural conservation at about $5 million (2015 dollars); staff and advocates said they will seek emergency stabilization funds and grants and present to the Rec & Park Commission.
Stacy Bradley, deputy director of planning at the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, told the Historic Preservation Commission on March 2 that a conditions assessment by ARG identified immediate, short-term and long-term actions needed to conserve the Mothers' Building and its WPA-era murals.
"The immediate is really to stop the the degradation of the building, and protect what's there right now," Bradley said, summarizing the assessment’s first priority and an estimated immediate cost of "about $200,000." She added the zoo has provided some in-kind help — cleaning gutters and removing vegetation — but that further funds will be needed to stabilize the building.
Bradley said the assessment’s long-term scenario — described in 2015 dollars — estimates about $5,000,000 for seismic retrofitting and mural conservation. She noted a core technical challenge: how to retrofit the building seismically without damaging interior murals that sit on an interior wall abutting the exterior.
Public commenters and local preservation advocates backed the department’s push for funding. Richard Rothman of Friends of the Mothers' Building described the murals and their WPA-era artists and urged adaptive reuse as an educational center; Desiree Smith, deputy director of San Francisco Heritage, said her organization would partner with the department and announced that the Historic Preservation Fund Committee had provided funding for a New Deal-era historic context statement and three landmark nominations.
Department staff said immediate next steps include presenting the assessment to the full Recreation and Park Commission to seek emergency or stabilization funds in the department’s budget cycle and pursuing grant opportunities. "We've divided it into kind of immediate, short term, and longer term needs," a department representative said, noting the assessment should make the project more competitive for grant funding.
The Historic Preservation Commission did not adopt a formal direction at the hearing but commissioners urged department staff to publicize the project, pursue donors and appear before the Rec & Park Commission to request stabilization funding.
If the department secures emergency funds and stabilizes the building, it intends to pursue the longer-term seismic retrofit and mural conservation work.
