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Board of Appeals upholds Ortega Branch demolition permit despite preservation objections
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Appeals voted 3‑2 on Aug. 5 to uphold the library’s demolition permit for the Ortega branch, rejecting an appeal by preservationists who said the building and its designers merit deeper historic review.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals on Aug. 5 upheld a demolition permit that will allow the San Francisco Public Library to tear down the Ortega branch and build a new 9,300‑square‑foot facility, concluding the city’s environmental and planning reviews were sufficient.
The appeal was filed by retired Planning Department senior planner Inge Horton, who said newly surfaced research shows the Ortega branch could be a contributor to a group of mid‑century libraries designed by Appleton and Wolford. “The blatant disregard of preservation issues by the San Francisco Public Library … is appalling,” Horton told commissioners, urging them to require a fuller historic and environmental reevaluation.
City Librarian Luis Herrera and other city…
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