Meeting by sfgovtv and they may offer Public Comment by calling the published Public Comment phone number. Id like to welcome members of the public and staff who are watching us live on sfgovtv. Mr. Secretary, please call the roll. [laughter]. Thank you, madame chair. Prior to calling roll, i would like to note that julie chang is sitting in as director. With that i will now proceed to call roll. Directors, please respond when i call your name. Chang present. E. Forbes present. M. Hursh present. B. Lipkin present. J. Tumlin present. Vice chair gee present. Chair sesay present. Secretary directors, we have a quorum. Chair sesay and secretary, if i may just a point of clarification, this is a regular meeting, not a special meeting, just a point of clarification for the record. Chair sesay thank you, i appreciate that. Secretary thank you. Directors, the next item, item 3, is communications. Wed like to provide further instructions for the Public Comment process. To provide Public Comment, callers should dial into the published number, 18552826330, and enter access code, 126 729 5295. Then pound and pound again and listen to the meeting. As they wait for Public Comment to be announced, members of the public have up to three minutes to provide comments on each agenda item. I will announce when Public Comment is open on each item, or for the general Public Comment at which time callers should dial star 3 to raise their hand and be added to the queue. This callin number and access code will also stream on the screen during the entire board meeting. When callers dial star 3, they will be added to the queue to speak in the order that they are entered. All callers will remain on mute until their line is open. An automated voice will let callers know when it is their turn to speak. Everyone must account for their time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. It is best to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television or radio. If there are any other communications from the Board Members, please let me know. If none, i will move on to the next item. Hearing none, ill proceed. Directors, item 4, is board of directors new and old business. Chair sesay we have none. Secretary if there are none, i will proceed to call the next item, chair sesay . Chair sesay thank you, mr. Secretary. Secretary directors, item 5 is the executive directors report. Thank you. Good morning, directors. First, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as interim executive director. As we all continue our work to mitigate the impacts of the covid19 pandemic, and as we look to the future envisioning a state interconnected by rail, stable leadership and a Firm Commitment to the vision of the agency is critical. And im honored and excited to temporarily fill that role. My focus will be on advancing the Transbay Program by operating the Salesforce Transit Center in a world class Cost Effective manner, with transit agencies, neighborhood stakeholders. Advancing by collaborating with the San Francisco peninsula rail Program Executive Steering Committee and ensuring all aspects of the tjpa are met. In regards to the covid19 health crisis, were pleased to see that the city and county of San Francisco is moving forward with more activities. Our anchor tenant, has been conducting one of on one tt exercise sessions which is in compliance with the allowable outdoor activities. Were monitoring and adhering to all guidance from the citys Health Officer and were working closely with our transit agencies and tenants to reduce the Community Spread of covid19. Commuters and visitors to the Transit Center are provided the most up to date information about maskwearing and social distancing through multilingual signage, displays, throughout the Transit Center including the park and routine announcements. Enhanced cleaning protocol remain in place. On august 19, we were glad to support the bay area transit agencys press conference and john updike will speak about that more. Our role under the facility. And not to steal too much of his thunder, but im excited to announce weve had positive progress for lease negotiations which contributes to our health for the second floor of the Transit Center. As youre aware, christines tenure as director of communications has come to an end. With her departure back to the city fulltime, were looking to fill the position of communications which is posted on the website. Regarding phase 2. As you know, we are working with the executive Steering Committee to keep the public and our stakeholders updated and educated about phase 2. In order to accomplish this, we are taking a branding and outreach campaign. A communications and Outreach Services was released in july and we received seven proposals under review. Were pleased that the director of communications as well as our prior director of communications will serve on the evaluation panel. We anticipate returning to the board in october or november to recommend a contract for your consideration. Regarding the general Engineering Consultant r. F. P. Released in july, we unfortunately received only one proposal. We will evaluate the proposal and return to the board with the recommendation on whether to proceed or reprocure. It is important to note that there was extensive outreach and virtual proposal meeting held on july 8 was attended by 85 participants. Our research regarding participation confirmed that more than 90 firms exchanged contact information. Most firms were seeking subcontracting opportunities and the majority of consultants expressed interest in the future. We have had Good Progress with the Steering Committee. The review candidates, the Interview Time line and the process. That concludes my report, directors. Be happy to take any questions before having john updike provide his report. Thank you. Chair sesay i dont hear any Board Members. Can you have john proceed, please. Nila sure. Lets have john provide his report. Good morning, all. Thank you, jason. We can move to the next slide. So as mentioned, we were happy to host the press conference providing security, custodial and Logistics Support which i thought was an excellent message across many social media platforms. Then to our operator partners on that effort. Since our last meeting, were continuing our efforts with our contractors and subcontractors. It is very busy within our future tenant space with lots of tenant improvements being done by multiple contractors. So were working hard on logistics. And distancing between the groups and ensuring covid19 health order compliance by everyone to limit the exposure and potential transmission while theyre doing their important work bringing us these improvements. Also keeping our open dialogue with our tenants as they are moving forward with their efforts and also pleased to announce we have a new tenant up on the ac transit bus deck. Pharma box and they bring us to a variety of personal protective equipment as well as General Health goods available for sale to our patrons. So were happy to have them aboard. A sleeklooking vending machines theyve brought forward for us. Well give you a report when we have information back from them. So as mentioned, were continuing our oneonone training sessions. Theyve had some reductions in classes, of course, due to the air quality. But were doing everything we can to help our tenant who otherwise is not able to operate, at least keep some of their contractors and trainers active and keep those Client Communications going that will foster success when they do return to indoor fitness. Were also prepared to move forward with activation and programming as soon as shelterinplace restrictions allow. To date, we have not seen a relaxation of those restrictions to allow us to do anything beyond what were doing currently in the park. As you see here, were working on our exploratory work. Modest program. Important in that it has discovered clear paths to utility connections. We have some concerns that perhaps they would not be as accessible. This will bring dividends, bringing in a food and vendor kiosk on the plaza level, that will reduce risks and create certainties of the utility paths. Well see a return on that investment, i can assure you going forward. More on that once the report is in from nova construction, which we should have in the next meeting. Lastly, talking about the park in general. Were beginning to prepare for this transition. Well talk about that when we come up to the item for Landscape Maintenance. As you can see here, several cubic yards of mulch were brought in to approve the ground cover, improve the health of the plants. Weve also done trimming activity to address issues that security was having and overgrowth issues. So were pleased to see that. Were also working closely with our various contractors to ensure we have a plan forward once the ash stops falling, to properly remove that from the plants and ensure their health through this latest crisis were facing. Hopefully, we will not have the locusts appear next month. Lets hope ash is the last crisis we have. So now lets move to retail leasing. So this is a little deeper dive, if you will, into the exploratory work going on in the pad site. Its a very confined space, so it is taking us a while. Operating carefully and following osha regulations and ensure were finding variances from asbuilt, so this has been a fruitful venture. As mentioned, stealing my thunder, suite 232, we have a letter of intent, were negotiating a Lease Agreement. When we have that lease ready, well be able to divulge that tenant that fits in very nicely with the health scene of the second level of our facility and were excited to be welcoming the board. Lease negotiations going fairly well, so im feeling pretty good in the next meeting or two, we should have a Lease Agreement to announce to you. And heres a little more detailed look at our occupancy status. This is something that, if this format works, well probably use this as a base for future discussions so you can see particularly where we stand today. This also reflects changes in Square Footage following more accurate measurements, updating things from a few years ago when it was a food court concept. We may have more dividing walls. So these base numbers will be what you will see consistently going forward. So we did apologies, it took me three months to get the details straight and every square foot accounted for accurately. Now we have it. Were at 83. 4 current occupancy. Thats slightly different than the number last week, not because there is a change, but because the math is corrected and is more accurate. These numbers will change as we see tenancy change and well provide suite by suite updates as we secure new tenants. You can see the available spaces we have there. Now to the work of the individual suites. Making really Good Progress. First one up here is verizons space. You can see the sign is up. Finishes are happening inside the space. Theyre still on track for a late october or early november opening. Precise date has not yet been set, but were very close. Were making very Good Progress. Were looking over final signage on windows for approval. Love to be at that detail level. Its very encouraging. Another one that is moving along nicely is Kaiser Permanente space. They are still setting the public opening date as november 17th. Thats consistent with what you saw last time. These pictures, ill show you how we moved from framing to drywall and working on finishes within the space, so this, too, is moving along quite nicely. Looking at the other spaces, a little better defined scheduling now for you so you can see the beginning of what we would anticipate for opening. This is also reflective of our ongoing conversations with particularly the restaurant and cafe operators concerned about opening a little too early. So we have tried to finetune the delivers of the spaces to match the economy and the foot traffic will be returning to this area. So, therefore, you can see these q12021 opening slates. Happy lemon, pokey, spring fertility which is across the hall from our offices. And the second which is delivered later, but opening occurs for charlies and dim baos and tycoon kitchen. Then we have the openings in q2. If youve been by the facility, particularly on that end of the space, you may see the site that eddie ricks has out front. Were moving forward with the potential opening of that before the Permanent Location opens. So were discussing those logistics to make Good Progress with abc for Liquor License approvals. We have other things to button up with the department of Public Health and other regulatory agencies, but were very encouraged that could be open sooner than later. And then the precursor to many of these locations is having the gender neutral project completed. I think the last picture you might have seen was framing. As you can see, were looking like its moving along nicely. It is good work, remaining on schedule. That concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Chair sesay thank you. For the presentation. Any comments or questions from fellow Board Members for the director . If there are no other questions or no questions or comments on the update, you do have the Quarterly Financial reports provided to you by our chief Financial Officer and shes available to answer any questions should there be any. Now we can see the screen. I couldnt see. It doesnt appear that anyone does. That concludes items under my report. Chair sesay thank you. Secretary are there any members of the public that wish to provide a comment on this item . Seeing none, i will move on to the next item. Directors oh, we have sorry i thought i saw a hand raised. Directors, item 6 is construction closeout update and we have dennis to present this item. Good morning, directors. Dennis truchon. Im going to provide todays brief phase one construction update for you today. Normally, you would see our director of all phase one construction activities, but hes been pulled away on other duties, because as a public works employee, he still has the San Francisco general project to wrap up and hes in arbitration today. So ill be providing the update for phase one. A few slides familiar to you. The first one here is the pie chart that we refer to show as our closeout of the trade packages of our 49. We have 37 closed out as of today. One is right on the fringe. May even be a final change order signed in the next day or two. Leaving the 11 that we have referenced for a while now. A couple of those are working their way through dispute resolution hearings. We do have a hearing next week with our r. S. C. , johnson controls, which is a low voltage scope that will have a hearing a couple days next week. So some of those are working through various disputes, but there are claims and lawsuit elements part of those 11 that will be discussed later today in the closed session. And also our contractor does have still two items left on his field condition reports, or punch list. So he has not achieved final acceptance yet. Theyre still pushing to get the last two which are lowvoltage type items and then ultimately d. B. I. Inspection required to closeout. So theyre still on the clock as of today to close out the contract. So as we track our construction, cont contingesi contingesies. This is our new budget, to reflect the new balances to the contingencies where the construction now shows the 17. 6 with 5 million in the cng contingency and 47. 5 now showing in the Program Reserve. With some anticipated continued use, the forecasted use of a couple of million on various construction in cmgc will be continuing to whittle away as we continue to work through about 70 change order requests. That were working through that are not in dispute as we finalize those out of the thousands that we have filtered through, so were in a very good spot. Almost near the end as we get to focus on really just those disputes, claims and lawsuits in the very near future. And then to complete it, the budget status, there is no changes to the bottom line number for the phase one package at 2. 259. No anticipated changes at this point at all either. This new slide does reflect some of the budget changes that were reflected a couple of months ago where improvements are their own bucket and the Program Reserve funding at 47. 5 million. That gives you a snapshot of where phase one construction is at this point and that completes my report for today. And wonder if there is any questions from the board . Thank you very much. Chair sesay Board Members, any questions for dennis . Thank you so much, dennis. Hearing none, mr. Secretary, do we have members of the public wishing to comment on this item . I think youre on mute. Secretary sorry about that. There are no members of the public that wish to provide a comment at this time. I will now proceed to call your next item. Directors, item 7 is the citizens advisory update and we have our Citizens Advisory Committee chair who will address you on that item. Good morning, directors. Can everybody hear me . Chair sesay yes. Great. We had a productive Citizens Advisory Committee tuesday evening. There was all around supportive comments for the interim director Nila Gonzales. We appreciate the level of consistency and familiarity with comprehensive issues that she brings. The cac members appreciate the staff report from john updike, as well as the closeout update by dennis. Looks like things are wrapping up nicely and well under control. There were positive supportive comments of the facility plans that identified areas of the park that may be showing preliminary signs of wear from the visitor usage. Sounds like that is under control. A number of the members are regular visitors to the Transit Center rooftop park and we appreciate updates on final facility projects such as the restroom facilities. The cac acknowledging the plans in progress while working with current tenants, given these Unusual Health and safety issues. Its great that weve got progress with a few merchants, especially in the health care field. Johns team put Significant Research and problemsolving analysis into updating the wayfinding resources. And cac members shared International Personal observations that john acknowledged when it comes to wayfinding topics. There were a number of questions about the phase 2 plans that steve addressed after his comments. The cac comments involved around understanding the clear path forward, including Steering Committee, topics, time lines, contractors and subcontractors, costs, political champions and General Program manager, project director topics. We just want to be in the loop to understand the path forward. There was also a restatement of the need to continue nurturing political and regional champion support. We want to avoid this project becoming bogged down as time goes by. We still are excited about the significant support and movement of this summer. Thanks again to all of you Board Members for your support and things you did behind the scenes to keep this moving forward. We want to make sure that the project continues and we want to look forward to key updates on the dtx dynamics, similar to what we received for phase one. Lastly, because there are significant connections with Regional Transit authorities that tie into the Transit Center, we invite communications and presentations at our upcoming meetings from regional transportation authorities such as caltrain. Were aware these times are having an effect on ridership and revenues throughout the state. And wed love to have updates on those dynamics as it affects our partners, so to speak. And this actually concludes my cac report. Chair sesay thank you for that presentation. Do we have comments or questions . My fellow Board Members . If we dont, hearing none, mr. Secretary, do we have members of the public wishing to speak on this item . Secretary yes. It looks as if we have one member of the public. I will have our moderator add that person to the queue and let him know he has three minutes to speak to this item. Moderator, can you let the member of the public into the queue, please . Theyre unmuted now. Good morning, directors. This is roland, very briefly. I think it is unfortunate that the significance of the dtx being moved to plan barrier 2050 period one was not communicated. Its almighty. It took effort by the entire region to get it there and i think this needs to be communicated to the cac in a strong manner because its moving forward, thank you. Secretary i think that concludes Public Comment. I will go ahead and call the next item, directors. Directors, item 8 is Public Comment. An opportunity for members of the public to address the authority on matters that are not on todays calendar. Members of the public that wish to provide Public Comment under this item, please dial 18552826330 and access code, 126 729 5295. Then pound and pound again. And then star 3 to be added to the queue to speak under this item. The system will prompt you when it is your turn to speak to draw your question, press to withdraw your question, press star 3 again. Seeing none, i will proceed to call the next item, directors. Directors, item 9 is approving the minutes of the august 18, 2020 meeting. Chair sesay thank you, mr. Secretary. Do we have questions, comments or edits . Ill move approval. Hursh. Chair sesay thank you. I have a motion and a second. Secretary i will now take roll call vote. Chair sesay thank you. Sorry, are there any members of the public that wish to provide a comment on this item . If not, i will then take a roll call vote. Director chang aye. E. Forbes aye. M. Hursh aye. B. Lipkin yes. J. Tumlin aye. Vice chair gee aye. Chair sesay aye. Secretary the ayes have it. Thank you. I will now proceed to call your next item, directors. Chair sesay thank you. Secretary directors, item 10 is approving an amendment to the employment agreement with Nila Gonzales for the position of interim executive director effective september 1, 2020. Good morning, deborah miller. You have before you this morning a proposed amendment to Nila Gonzaless Employment Contract to reflect her appointment from chief of staff and board secretary to the position of interim executive director. It reflects a change in the description of her civil responsibilities as well as a change in her compensation. The form of agreement is in front of you, both her existing contract as well as the proposed amendment and includes all of the details, but as required by government code 54953c3 i will note for the record that the proposed compensation this local Agency Executive would be revised to 124. 88 per hour, which would translate to annual salary of 259,743 over the course of a full year. The form and approach of the amendment to the employment agreement is consistent with both the form and approach that the board took in 2016 when it elevated an existing employee then Program Manager to the position of interim executive director. The form has also been approved by the tjpa employment council. As to the amount of compensation, its less than the outgoing executive director and its within the scope of the tjpas current budget. Happy to answer any questions if you have any. Chair sesay thank you. Any questions, comments from my fellow Board Members on this item . Just thank nila for taking on this difficult assignment. Im happy to move the item. Second, gee. Chair sesay thank you. We have a motion and a second. And do we have members from the public wishing to speak on this item before we do roll call . Mr. Secretary . Secretary seeing none, i will take a roll call vote. Director chang . Aye. E. Forbes aye. M. Hursh aye. B. Lipkin aye. J. Tumlin aye. Vice chair gee aye. Chair sesay aye. Secretary the ayes have it. I will now proceed to call your next item, directors. Item 11, authorizing the interim executive director to execute a General Service agreement for Landscape Maintenance services for salesforce park with gachina Landscape Management for an amount not to exceed 911,297 for a threeyear term. John will present the item. Thank you, donald. This item seeks your approval of a General Services agreement for Landscape Maintenance services with gachina Landscape Management to maintain salesforce park. As stated, the initial threeyear term has not to exceed amount of 911,297 and the contract has two oneyear options for renewal at fixed pricing. Following the issuance of the request for proposals in april of this year, tjpa received six proposals prior to the published june 22nd due date. A Selection Committee was then formed, composed of myself, a representative of the east cut cbd and the chief sustainability officer at the city of San Francisco. We were facilitated by ed sung of the staff. I want to give a shoutout to ed for his assistance helping the newbie through the process. The committee scored the written proposals and invited the top three scoring firms to the interview phase. Attachment c in the Package Details the scoring of each phase. Based on the reviews, the Committee Recommended the award of the contract to gachina Landscape Management. Gachina Landscape Managements experienced resources, their environmentally sustained approach, competitive pricing and green roof certification were all determining factors in the recommendation. Fiscally, the contract before you would have a fiscal year 2021 impact of 116,989 less than budgeted. Per the l. O. U. , cbd will be responsible for 79. 81 of the contracted amount. To actively engage the salesforce Park Committee in the process, beyond the appointment of a representative to the reviewing panel, we discussed some of the key terms of the landscaping specifications with the committee before negotiating the contract with gachina and then advised them of the recommendations, which was well received by the committee. So award of the contract at this time will facilitate a proper handoff from our current Maintenance Services provider and the original installer of the landscaping with wire and hester, whose obligations terminate in mid october of this year. Happy to address any questions you may have. Chair sesay thank you, mr. Updike for the presentation. Do i have any questions from my fellow Board Members for mr. Updike . Thank for the presentation. I just want to better understand. From the memo, when i was reading it, there one divergence in the proposal of the number of hours that we were seeing for the contracted amount. I dont have that page up, but i think it was somewhere in the 1500 or so to over 4,000. I know the winning the proposal that youre recommending is in the higher end of the range, not the highest. What is driving the difference in terms of in my simple world there is a certain amount of landscaping to do, so why were the proposals so different in terms of the hours involved . Its a really good question because it was a wide range of hours allocated to the task. The tasks were clearly outlined. I think what some of the vendors did not recognize is the diversity of the species. And as a result, those proposals that were closer to that 1500hour mark, we felt, the Committee Review felt it missed the mark on the detail that is needed, again, because weve got so many different zones within this five acres. And so what we did look at to ensure that this particular proposal was the most competitive, was balancing in a chart between the hours allocated and costs. And when we looked at the gachina proposal, we got a bigger bang for the buck in terms of the number of hours, the actual costs per hour was more competitive than other proposals. So we felt it was in the sweet spot between that almost 5,000hour proposal, which was over a half Million Dollars in cost to the tjpa and the lesser amount of hours which is still on an hourly basis fairly expensive for us. Hopefully, that addresses your question. Yes, thank you. Chair sesay thank you. Any additional questions . Hearing none, mr. Secretary, can you see if we have any members of the public wishing to speak on this item . And then well entertain a motion. Secretary seeing no members of the public that wish to provide a comment, moderator, can you confirm . That is correct. I do not see any. Secretary you may proceed, sara sesay. Move for approval. Chair sesay i have a motion. B. Lipkin second. Secretary i will now proceed to take a roll call vote. Director chang . Aye. E. Forbes aye. M. Hursh aye. B. Lipkin aye. J. Tumlin aye. Vice chair gee aye. Chair sesay aye. Secretary the ayes have it. Chair sesay thank you. Secretary i will now proceed to call your next item. Directors, item 12 is presentation by the lower case productions and applied wayfinding on the wayfinding gap analysis and Improvement Plan for the Salesforce Transit Center. Ill do a brief introduction. So first i want to thank our team for making the transition easy for me. I inherited this project when it was well along. Pleased to provide this final report and thank you to the board of directors and the mtc for the funding that was made made this venture possible. At this point the implementation, this really is a template that is shovel ready to move forward. Happy to ask wayfinding to take you through the program. Gentlemen . Take it away. This is dan ryder. Can you hear me . Secretary yes. Im the owner of lower case productions. Joining me is agent bell, as john mentioned, representing applied wayfinding. After this brief introduction, i will turn the show over to adrian to walk through the physical signage portion of the report. And then i will return to discuss the kioskbased digital wayfinding application. And then we will, together, complete our presentation with cost estimates and a time line for implementation. So if we could move to the next slide, please. Thank you. There are two main focus areas in this study to improve signage in wayfinding at the Transit Center. One was physical wayfinding signage and two was the digital application found on the kioskbased monitors primarily situated in the grand hall. And in order to research and discover what we did about these two areas, we went to a number of key steps, including conducting an initial assessment, which involved site audit, user and operator interviews, surveys that we track users while they tried their hand at the digital application. We followed them as they made way through the center, going from point a to point b. We then recorded our findings in the gap analysis report, which is the title of this project. After that we developed an Improvement Plan that recommended appropriate responses to the findings, as well as class 3 estimates on fixes. And finally, we brought everything together in a signage plan proposal that further details our recommendations along with the signage inventory and offered a set of estimates. Im going to turn the presentation over to adrian at this point and ill return in a while to discuss digital wayfinding. Adrian, take it away. Thank you, dan. Thank you, everybody, for giving us the time today to present this to you. As mentioned, im going to run you through the Information Planning and the physical sign element of both the analysis we did. So slide 3, please. So the background as dan explained was a variety of could you move that one slide as i mentioned, were going to run through really Design Concepts for the physical signage improvement were looking at proposals for the digital system including the kiosk and management system, and the preliminary plans and budget estimates for program improvements. We were focused on transit customer journeys and the reason for that is that is the core function of the building. And also because these people are often unfamiliar with the city and time limited, which makes them highly susceptible to any wayfinding system. We acknowledge the fact as we all recover from covid, improving the Customer Experience of transit customers will be all the more important in the future. Key findings from our review, which as i mentioned included a lot of engagement work concluded that the [inaudible] creates physical challenges to people, for instance, mistaking the bus deck for the plaza, can mean several minutes of confusion. This service as complexity and process steps. The design of the existing wayfinding overemphasizes esthetics and expense and the feature pilot elements are injectable to change. And that the digital which is an essential element of the design intent of the building have not been really successful. Theyre effectively unseen in our observation and the user interface is poorly designed and lacks accessibility. So, the key point of the way we approach this was to look really at three areas. One was the underlying logic of the wayfinding system. The Concept Design for adapted or new physical signs. Then proposals for Digital Systems including software, hardware and associated applications. Next slide, please. Im going to start with the information plan. The underlying logic of any wayfinding information plan. The plan describes the objectives, structures and rules. Assigns screens and other wayfinding tools. An example is found in the wayfinding standard, and describes the system of transit information to the whole bay area. There is limited evidence of a plan at the Transit Center and it does not use the m. T. C. Standard. This creates the problems experienced by visitors and limits the potential for the existing system to be expanded to future trains like caltrain. As seen here, different stages of the transfer journey. This zoning provides the framework for what types of information are required where. This is just an enlargement of that analysis process, which shows how a sequence of zones can be connected together to provide better information better idea about what information should be required where. For instance, the building is the first point to be on the outside of the building. Then to highly specific information like locating a particular service in that zone. The information plan also considers points to locate into motion intuitively. This shows design, so people typically take, mapped [inaudible] street, additional cross lines, and wayfinding decisions are made and information may be needed. In combination with the decisions that allows them to so its progressively disclosed to the user. Its the way that the information for the decision is provided to any point. This simplifies information design and ensures a logical sequence of systems. The current wayfinding point results in pylons that is complex attracts and other points where the visitor is left unsupported. Next slide, please. Again, a detail of that process here that shows how design lines and resulting decision points dont necessarily align with where i expect your experience would tell you that existing signs are located. In some instances, this only creates a minor inconvenience, but other instances, visitors have expressed they missed a direction that was important to them and they were unable to successfully continue their journey or faced significant delay. The information plan itself suggests fundamental problems to the existing wayfinding system that cannot be fixed by design changes to the sign contents or limited editions alone. Adaptation and use of infrastructure is possible and in some instances provides a wayfinding system that addresses current problems and scaleable for caltrain will, in our view require investment. We have suggested a phased plan. The intention is that the plan will create investment that will provide value to the each accepted phase. For the first phase, a Rapid Response and complaints right now, using materials, the existing signs. And phase one would develop the longer term plan as well. Phase 2 is a more substantive upgrade of existing signs. This would involve upgrades that would replace some signs, reengineer. Phase 3, is a new wayfinding system from phase 2 and allow you to scaleup for the use of caltrain without reworking the system yet again. Were going to show you a few consents, from the design process we undertook. The first example is the sort of iconic pylons used around the site. We found these are difficult to understand. That was supported by visitors and operators we spoke to. Very difficult for visitors and quite difficult for you to maintain and update. That represents an immediate opportunity for improvement. Our suggestion is that in phase 1, we would remove the embossed lettering and reclad those with a structural board and vinyl, so you have a clearer information system. That would be a temporary improvement. In phase 2, the top section of the existing signs would be removed and would be replaced with the permanent construction as illustrated here. This is a construction much more direct and easy to understand and more clearly follows the m. T. C. s regional direction. The next example im showing you here is exit signage above the doors. This is important because of the footprint of the building that covers several streets and the need to connect essentially between different transit modes. The current arrangement has been temporary addressed, but the overall impact is quite confusing and rather messy. Our proposal then is to cover those holes with vinyl panels and in phase 2, replace them entirely with illuminated sign boxes. Next slide. The third and final example im going to show you is just transit planning information. This is at the bus deck. Currently its a little difficult to find. We experienced. And that information is very critical to the information plan. Next slide, please. We proposed to much greater interest in those areas to create information hub similar to the transit information displayed at m. T. A. Across the region. That would be done using graphics and in phase 2, we would [inaudible] for that. Next slide. We also created an information plan of the preliminary locations of all of these. Where possible in phase one weve attempted to reuse or make compromise to limit the addition of the new signs or new infrastructure, but in phase 2, we have opted for an information plan place that would replace existing signs. Also, the proper place for the Digital Information in the transit information environment for customers. Next slide, please. Im going to hand it back to dan who is going to talk you through the wayfinding application, the digital element. Thank you, adrian. So beyond the fact that most users arent even aware there is an app living behind the ad placement on the kiosk monitors, our initial onsite assessment of the tool revealed two things. One, that there are so many fundamental flaws in the interactive experience. In the information architecture which is how the application is built. And the way the data is visualized and repurposed. That making incremental updates to the current is not going to fix the problem. The application needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. The second thing we found, even after you rebuilt the application from the ground up, that in itself would not adequately solve the problem. The am caig is part of a application is a part of a larger ecosystem of hardware, software and work flow elements that all requires attention in parallel with development of the application. Next slide, please. So in summary im sorry. In summary, there are two things. One, we need to rebuild the application from scratch. And, two, we need to redesign research rather, design and develop solutions for these other supportive associated needs and elements. Im going to give you an illustration of what im talking about to help put this in better context. Over on the left is a picture of one of our kiosks in the main floor. On it, is the monitor and inside that monitor is the application that weve been tasked with reviewing. On the right, we see this grey area showing these five areas that we feel are really important to get a handle on in order to make the full package successful. So lets take a quick look at each of these areas, starting with the first one, content management network. So content and transit data coming into the center and also frankly on the main departure arrival big screen is all managed by a third party, that also manages placements appearing on the kiosks screens. Our recommendation is to consider options for bringing Data Management inhouse for quicker response to user issues with the tool to achieve better Response Time on communication alerts. And really to respond quicker to need for fixes in the software glitches. If we move up to the top of this graphic, the monitors and Digital Media players, monitors is a big issue as well. The current problem with the monitors are low pixel resolution devices. These were optimized for placement for large illustrations. They work great at a distance. The problem is when you look at them when you look at data that is put on the monitors up close, its really hard to see. You dont get the fine detail that you need to see maps, to look at small transit information, to look at floor plan graphics. Its just not there. So consider replacing these devices with very High Resolution and very bright i say bright because these monitors need to are used external to the grand hall. Right paired with the monitors are Digital Media players, small boxes, that feed the content directly to the monitors. That content comes from a third party. These Media Players have to work with monitors and if we replace the monitors, which we need to do, were going to have to replace half of those Media Players as well. So consider the status quo and upgrading both monitors and Media Players accordingly. Third category to the right is transit data dashboard. So the interactive wayfinding application is going to require regularly updated data from transit operators. Its going to be requiring live map data, including traffic conditions and things of that sort. And also up to date internal Transit Center floor plans, because we want to make sure that users, if they need to get from point a and point b and there is a retail chain, they need to know what is happening on the floor. So a facility of this sort of a public facility utilizing and sharing information of this sort typically has a backup house control system that is plugged into the cms, the application, that aggregates information and filters it and redeploys it smartly to the application. And this tool is recommended for this project as well. The fourth category is mobile. Why mobile . Well, viewers of public Space Software systems increasingly expect that they should be able to download these apps to their mobile device. You know, you dont necessarily want to have to go to an interactive tool on site in order to get from point a to point b when you can get the information on your way there, because youre going to be rushing when you get there. Another thing to keep in mind, due to the pandemic, people are going to be much more reluctant to touch screens and interact with touch. So we need to do everything to protect our users and give them the best experience and quickest access to the information they need. One last point about the mobile app, it brings up a template as an option to consider what a regional trip planner might be like, because it will be utilizing this type of information. So that becomes an added concept to consider for the future. The last item is digital wayfinding and Navigation Services for people with disabilities. The current tool has an option where you can click a button and the control interface moves down toward the floor for people who are confined to wheelchairs. Not only is it incompletely implemented, but there is much more to the disabled community than those with wheelchairs, including those with hearing and vision loss and cognitive impairment. Our final recommendation is have a research study, what is the full extent of what we can do to bring this tool to the use of more people in the disabled community . Unless there are any questions. Im going to turn over to adrian and hell discuss cost estimates. Thank you, dan. If we could just move to it slide 23, please. Thank you very much. So, we provide an outline estimate of mentioned based on the preliminary plan and visual designs. So this is sort of a plusminus 25 assessment of costs at this stage. Weve looked at physical signage. Digital information as well as the potential contingency associated with developing those to the next stage. I think its important to remember that phase one were anticipating something that could be introduced in a year. So a rapid turnaround. Phase 2 may take longer, obviously, its a larger investment. And we understand of course that may take more than two years to budget, but it is it is in our estimation possible physically within about two years. The costs are laid out there for you. I wont go through them in detail. But just to comment that phase 1 includes Detailed Design of all physical elements we have shown as visual concepts. The physical adjustments. Addition of static, temporary transit information display to replace diagrams on digital kiosks while theyre upgraded. Phase 2 proposals would be the physical elements for replacement of the signs as permanent items. Reengineering replacement of signs. Identity signage on the exterior of the facility. And also the potential of a mobile app development. I think at that point ill leave it. And back to you, john, to manage questions. Happy to take any. Thank you. Thank you so much. So all of us are available for questions if you have them, members. Chair sesay thank you for the presentation. Do i have any questions from my fellow Board Members . And thank you. That was very thorough and detailed. Question. M. Hursh jeff, did you have a question . J. Tumlin i do. Yeah, let me dive in. So thank you, adrian and daniel for the presentation. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. In my global practice i use the transbay Transit Center as the best example in the world of failed interagency coordination and deeply anticustomer wayfinding. We do not have a wayfinding system at the transit centre, we have a facility inventory of agency terms. If im a customer and i know that i need to get to alameda or sunol, there is nothing there to help me find my destination. So i have a couple of questions. Ill go through all of them because theyre related. One question is, can we please eliminate or at least diminish the use of agency logos as our primary wayfinding structure . I love the walter lan dow worm, but nobody knows what that means. And instead of having there be a worm and a little green circle with fog in the middle of it, can the sign simply say buses to San Francisco and buses to north bay . Secondly, the k1 panels are really useless. And yet theyre very expensive investment and seem to offer a lot of flexibility. I would love thoughts on how to make them useful in the shortterm, instead of counterproductive. Even putting up just some static maps of how the system works and explanation how the system works would be very helpful in the short run. And then most of my questions are about wayfinding details, like a standard for numbering exists so that the entire journey train can be explained with google maps. And you know thoughtfully integrated. Ill stop there and hear your response. Thanks. Ill take this first. I know there was a question about the sure. So if i may, through you, chair, thank you for the question. Yeah, i would agree, we have ourselves used the problems as an example of design over in other instances. Our view generally on Transit System wayfinding is that they are often driven by operator identity for historical reasons. And thats not in line with the clientele. The new riders we need to draw into the system dont understand any of that jargon. So i think you see from the Concept Design i went through quickly, we are suggesting simple messaging to buses to explain the difference between the bus deck and the bus which is incredibly important. And we did encounter people who would spend 20 minutes lost in the building, which is a remarkable amount of time. So i would totally agree with the comments. They are in line with what we suggested. I will mention as well we have also suggested reinstating some static system maps and building facility maps in the building because thats the sort of thing that people look for, its reliable and visual and increasing online information. Dan, any other thoughts . Before you reply, the idea of bus deck versus bus plaza is nonintuitive. There is a place where buses to the east bay depart from. And there is a different place where buses to San Francisco and the north bay depart from. And then there is a street where buses to the peninsula depart from. And then there is a block away, regional rail, that is not mentioned in any of the wayfinding. Yep. J. Tumlin so, again, rather than focusing on the facility and arbitrary agency terms, to focus on the information that the customer needs. I would agree. Sorry. When i say differentiate, i dont mean repeat the name. I mean in a way that the customer appreciates. So thank you for that clarification. Yeah, i would just add to your comments, jeffrey, in the shortterm to rebuild to do something with the kiosks at this point while development is under way, lets say within the first year, what i can say is besides putting physical maps or digital static maps in place with the current application that is broken is one option at this point. It will take approximately a year to develop something that is consistent with the needs of the station right now. So a series of static images that we could replace the current application with. Other than that, im not sure im concerned about advertising and how that is incorporated into this mix, which is something that as well. My turn now. First, im glad i yielded to jeff, because he was much more articulate than i will be. Thank you for the report. Thank you to staff for getting it here. It validates what weve been saying before the grand opening. Couple of questions. Well, a comment first. I appreciate the focus, but i also [inaudible] the use of the facility. The more we can drive business through our [inaudible] what are included with it. The wayfinding for transit makes great points about the buses in the city, to north bay versus the east bay. Is this work in the scope . Can we just say go . Or does this need to be bid out . Who is paying for it . And last, probably least important and probably not possible, i dont want to start a witch hunt, but we got it so wrong, is there somebody we can go after for errors and omissions . It seems like such a world class facility with so much attention paid to it. I dont want to start an investigation, but if there is someone we should hold responsible, we should at least try to thank you. Maybe i can talk to one part of that, because i think a little of that is out of my scope. Just to say as partners, our discussion with staff and operators, we certainly acknowledge that this isnt just a transit facility, that its a mixed use development. And the idea of building directories and maps to explain the other authority in the building is certainly part of what we considered and recommended. John, perhaps you can talk to the other . I may defer the last question to my executive director. But with respect to implementation, as we noted, there is no identified funding source, but were excited about the scope and completion of this project. We do have specifications here that allow us to move pretty smoothly to an implementation of that phase one work. Given the scope of the project, yes, it would probably require a procurement process. But funding first. We will be as ready as we can be when eget the green we get the green light to go in terms of initiating a procurement process. So readiness is what we get from this. I think maybe to add to that, john, in terms of readiness, we also have a partnership established with m. T. C. , who is very invested in helping us get this funded and implemented. We realize this is a time where no one has any extra money and it also says we need to have done, because when the economy comes back and the people come back, they can navigate easily. So we will have it ready and continue to work with m. T. C. And anyone else we might be able to coordinate or partner with to get funds for that. I actually had an idea ill run by john after as we were going to a presentation on who we might seek for additional sponsorship on in implementing more wayfinding. And again, my last question. I mentioned this was designed 10 years ago, but is there anybody we can hold accountable . Want to get back to us on that . I can tell you what i know from being here. Well, i can tell you what i can tell you is, i am familiar with the staff or i should say the Program Management staff that worked. From what i understand, worked with m. T. C. , but obviously not to m. T. C. Satisfaction, not the staff that is working with us now, to implement the signage that was there which obviously needs improvement. Ill be frank and share that i, myself, who have been here since before and saw the plans, and sometimes wonder where im at and im a native san franciscan that knows the city all the way around. Its a huge facility that needs additional signage. We will definitely take a look if there is anyone to hold accountable and if we can draw on some other monies to help support the effort. Perhaps if that is possible, thank you. A couple of questions. I dont know if i can follow jeff and mike on this, but just in terms of mtcs involvement. Have we shared the product that adrian has put together with them at this point . And did they have any reaction to and desire to continue their partnership with us in moving it forward . Yes, director. M. T. C. Has been a valuable partner with me on this project. Worked closely on the product that you have now reviewed. We find it in alignment with the overall bay Areawide Program at m. T. C. Is promoting. And ive been engaged with those discussions with a larger group. I think we have 88 on the last zoom call that was hosted. So lots of involvement from sacramento and bay area. So, yes, its in sync with their plans. And were continuing that conversation. I guess my second question was, almost the question for jeff and maybe i just missed it between the presentation and your comments, but i like what you were saying about helping passengers navigate to their destinations. And i know that some of the signs for the mockups that adrian presented, still was very agency focused. To me, that feels like there is still work to reconcile in terms of like, we cant because i agree, jeff, with what youre saying. If were going to move in that direction the details if you will. So i guess leave it to put you on the spot, but if you have a couple extra hours in your day to help with figuring some of that out or having a staff member figure out, your team perhaps that youve been working on this kind of stuff, but maybe thats another avenue to making sure we get it right. Because i want to go down the implementation route with things that we see as probably not quite up to what were actually looking for and getting too far ahead of ourselves with it. Im certainly happy to help on the next steps. Im sure that director hursh would be as well. Between the two of us if we can corral the other general managers and use our staffs to think about how do we focus on our customers and not just protect our turf . I would like to say, can we abolish the use of agency logos in the wayfinding system and instead pretend like we have one regional seamless Mobility System that happens to be operated by 20odd different operators. That the customer doesnt need to know about. They need to know where theyre going. How to get a ticket. They dont necessarily care which one of us is the operator and what our 1974 logo is. One point on that, if i may. I think just to explain why we retained operator logo, because we have in other instances lobbied for exactly the same thing as consultant. You go to user focused approach. What we had been aware of and wanted to emphasize was the value of regional consistency and the m. T. C. Standard which obviously this is a strategic [inaudible] still use operator logos and while there isnt yet a sort of Regional Transit identity agreed, that is something that we were aware that to fit in with the regional standard, that is something that perhaps is a concession that may need to be made to m. T. C. Standards, but certainly from a wayfinding consultant perspective, i agree that operator logos are somewhat acis inistic at best, well constrained. I would suggest going straight to a dutch or japanese standard and bypassing the standard which i think is a good effort rather than a global standard effort. This comment about us helping. Transit trivia for 400. Ac transit manages the regional sign program for mtc. Before my time, i wouldnt have done it, but we hired a contractor. We have staff that are very knowledgeable of the m. T. C. Process and were happy to collaborate and move this as fast as possible. Sorry to interrupt. Chair sesay i see director chang. Thank you. I really appreciate the whole item and all of the fantastic comments from the other directors. I wanted to suggest that we do continue to engage, if weve been doing so, the Disability Community and the c. A. C. , and just continue to keep public involvement and engagement in line as far as the user perspective. And to be able to budget for that as well, so we can go together to seek funding. So in our capacity as a transportation authority, i also wanted to offer our help to seek grants or other opportunities to help fund this very, very important, really critical work, ultimately. So im glad were discussing this today. Thank you. Chair sesay thank you. So it looks like any of my fellow Board Members have questions, but it looks like director gonzalez, you have offers on the table and at some point would it looks like there is enough interest it may make sense to come back and keep us all informed about
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