Now $1 million richer, JCC of S.F. is hoping to avoid landmark status

Not that anything could burst the bubble of getting a $1 million grant from the state, but the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco is on pins and needles these days.

A municipal advisory board will meet Wednesday, Aug. 16 to decide if the center's 68-year-old building should be deemed a city landmark.

JCC officials are hoping it avoids landmark status, a designation that would preclude them from tearing down the Spanish-style facility at 3200 California St. and building a $50.1 million new one.

"It's a wonderful old building, but the community is deserving of a state-of-the-art facility," said state Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-S.F.), who helped the JCC secure $1 million from the state to go toward the new project.

"We need a facility that can serve the needs of the community, and this one is just out of date...Frankly, it's falling apart."

Shelley, the assembly majority leader, said he was glad to help the JCC get a small piece of the state's 2000-01 budget.

"It was good lobbying by the community, and I did my part in getting it through the legislature to the governor."

The money will come from the coffers of the state's Department of Parks and Recreation.

Shelley said the money was approved because the JCC offers "valuable programming" for so many people, Jews and non-Jews alike. Approximately 3,000 people use the JCC every day; about 25 percent of them are using the facility's health club. The numbers are expected to increase after a new facility is built.

Nate Levine, the JCC's executive director, was happy to get the grant. But much of his attention recently has been on the upcoming landmark status hearing. A handful of landmark advocates and architects will be pleading their case to the nine-member landmark advisory board, which will make a recommendation to San Francisco's Planning Department.

However, Levine isn't overly nervous. The staff of the landmarks board has already written a report recommending that the JCC does not meet the criteria as a landmark, he said, adding, "I strongly support that report."

Lucia Bogatay, a San Francisco architect and former landmarks board member, said things look bleak for the preservationist camp.

The city Planning Department under Mayor Willie Brown has been reluctant to idle new construction projects by designating buildings as landmarks, she said.

She said the JCC architect, Arthur Brown, designed several other notable buildings, such as Congregation Emanu-El and City Hall.

"They're trying to downplay it by saying [the JCC] is an insignificant building, not one of his better projects," Bogatay added, saying Brown also had a hand in designing the San Francisco Art Institute, designated as a landmark.

"If justice is done, this building [the JCC] will be designated, too."

JCC officials, meanwhile, hope to have a new facility completed by the end of 2003. The wrecking ball is scheduled to begin wiping out the old building in September 2001.

Levine said $54.25 million has so far been raised through private donations. The total project, including moving costs and setting up an endowment, will be $70 million.

Levine reported that the JCC has received 19 pledges of $1 million or more. The center is also awaiting the release of the environmental impact report. Once it comes out, hearings will be scheduled for the public to respond.

For now, though, the JCC's focus is on raising more money and avoiding landmark status.

"The bottom line is that preserving the building would jeopardize the future of the institution," Levine said. "The people and the programs that serve them are more important than the building itself."

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