Collections off to the best possible advantage and great public spaces and we have a really exciting search and on the last day, of our last tour of duty, traveling around we were in oslow and we met with craig and his partner and at the end of that day, we knew and there was. We knew in no Uncertain Terms that this was the firm that we wanted to work with and i can only say that as i welcome craig up to the podium the last three thought and it actually does, this is followed by a creative phase, and the creative phase is really the fun part, and then there is the pass that will move along. Somehow this is a case of construction. And we will deliver this child. Happily, at the end of this, there is the miracle of birth, when the doors open and there is hopefully plenty of hugs and smiles when our guests enter the new sf moment and as of this great day, the building will mature slowly at first and will experience many challenges in its life alongside the days of joy and celebration whil
Entering dao into here, the next couple of years, to culminate will be the most exhilarating and exciting into the entire history of this museum. And i could not be more exciting about this and i think that the board and the staff and the Community Shares that great excitement. At the forefront of all of this work and we could not have asked for a better leader at this time is chunk shwabb the chair and i would like to pass it now to john. Good afternoon, good morning, everybody. What an incredible pleasure for me to be see this modern art building over here, we are going to surround that with a little bit of a veil and that will be a permanent structure right there. So we always want to take the new ideas in. Dont we . And it is really a thrill to be here for this Ground Breaking, and it was a twinkle in our eyes a few years ago and i think to have this moment come and now we got to build something that is for sure. We cant leave this hall here or we would be embarrassed to say the le
Problem and they can stay here for long. Why is there an exception to great for see you all here, i am the director and it is a profound pleasure to welcome you all to this Ground Breaking this morning. We are thrilled that you could join us, this is a defining moment in our history and it is great to have you with us. And i have to say before i begin, that the first person to arrive this morning, for the Ground Breaking was one of our trustees, brooks walker. And books arrival reminded me that 20 years ago, almost exactly, this was in another Ground Breaking on exactly this site. And we are here 20 years later and we are expanding upon that remarkable step that the museum took in 1995. We moved here to third street from the vaness location and from the city hall location. And we were immediately pioneers in this neighborhood. Obviously the south of market neighborhood was not what it is today. And very quickly pioneers became anchors. And that is quickly became a Gathering Place for a
love anonymous gifts. one of these days i will try to do that myself. but, this is incredible time for our city, but it is one that i think that this is another example why we take the opportunity to celebrate and to thank the people who have led this effort to do so and to just have everyone appreciate life in san francisco is very special. and this is one of the reasons why. thank you very much. maus plause [ applause ] thank you, mayor lee, i would just like to second chuck s remarks earlier that the support that we received from the city, from the mayor on down, has been nothing short of extraordinary, i have to say that it is probably unprecedented in the history of san francisco that we have had, universal unanimous support from staoet and to all of our processes and everything that we asked for it has all happened and it is credit to you and your amazing team. you know, about three years ago, we formed chuck and i together formed a committee of our board and staff.
don back and that this what ises partly in honor of that. well i want to also express the city s official thank you to doris and don and fisher, collection and the fisher family for your wonderful contribution for our city. and it is with that recognition that we do this ground breaking, plus a big huge thanks for the new fire station as well. but, as i will look forward to speaking to the graduating class at lowell high school this afternoon, i am going to talk about this because it is part of what we do in san francisco. it is for our youth, but it is also future looking, and it is about what we all do for our great city and that is what i feel about the fisher family, that you have contributed to our city. and you know, culturally, based tourism is now at about 2 billion dollars of income for the city. and it employs almost 20,000 people and this is what our city does, it celebrates culture and that is what draws so many people to this, and now i think, supervisor kim was