Built in 1897 on land originally contributed by Adolph Sutro, former mayor of San Francisco, the University of California, San Francisco includes the 107-acre Parnassus campus that is home to graduate professionals in dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy, a graduate division for predoctoral and postdoctoral scientists; UCSF Medical Center; UCSF Children’s Hospital; and Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. The Parnassus campus is located above Golden Gate Park in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District.
The UCSF Hospital Replacement Project concerns the future of UCSF Medical Center inpatient facilities. For further information please click here.
The Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve is a 61-acre forest that is part of a larger land parcel UCSF purchased in 1953. It sits on a hill south of UCSF’s Parnassus campus. In 1973, in response to community concerns about campus expansion, the University of California Regents – the University’s governing body – designated 50 acres of Mount Sutro as an open reserve. In the ensuing years, the Regents have consistently reaffirmed their commitment to protecting Mount Sutro from development. In 1976, they expanded the reserve to 58 acres. A resurvey for the 1996 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) expanded the reserve again, this time to 61 acres.
For information about Mount Sutro, including its history, trail maps and maintenance program, please visit Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve.
If you want to volunteer to work on Mount Sutro or seek more information, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Developing housing at Parnassus Campus: In close consultation with the UCSF Community Advisory Group (CAG), UCSF has been working on the campus Housing Master Plan, which calls for the construction of housing units at Parnassus Heights and Mission Bay to help address the campus housing need. Currently, UCSF houses only 14% of the student body, compared to the goal of 40%. Parnassus campus housing plans were generally described in the 1996 UCSF Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), which discussed reverting buildings currently used as offices back to residential use, either through renovation or replacement. In our discussions with neighbors, we have found that an overwhelming majority support UCSF’s development of more housing.
145 Irving Street and 1308-10 Third Avenue
This seismically poor office building was demolished in 2000. The proposal is to use this lot in conjunction with the adjacent lot at 1308-10 Third Avenue to build housing after office uses are relocated and the building is demolished. The current proposal for Third and Irving includes: approximately 40 units (mostly studios, some two-bedrooms), no parking for cars, and ample bicycle parking. This building will be targeted to students and postdoctoral scholars without cars. We expect that building occupants as well as neighbors will take advantage of the convenient City CarShare program, which has placed some cars at our public parking garage next-door.
There have been strong opinions on all sides: some neighbors expressed a desire for plenty of parking spaces, others felt the fewer parking spaces, the better. Some neighbors felt that the proposed building was too large, while others considered it appropriate for the site. In response to neighbors’ concerns about parking in the neighborhood, UCSF has requested that the DPT not issue Residential Parking Permits to these occupants.
374 Parnassus Avenue at Hillway Avenue
This seismically unsound office building located next door to the 8-story Ambulatory Care Center would be demolished and replaced with approximately 40 studio units, no parking spaces for cars, ample bicycle parking, and administrative space for housing support activities. This building will house UCSF hospital medical residents, who have access to the UCSF permit garage next-door.
UCSF has conducted four community meetings, including two community design sessions with the architectural firm of Michael Pyatok Architects, since the summer of 2002 regarding these two proposals. Two neighbors participated alongside UCSF staff and a student representative in the selection of this firm.
UCSF is working towards fulfilling the goal of providing affordable housing for more of our students, postdoctoral scholars and junior faculty. We are striving to balance our needs with the needs of our neighbors, whose concerns we take very seriously. In constructing housing on our campus, we are benefiting the campus and our neighbors by eliminating the need for the residents of these new facilities to commute to and from campus.
The planning process for these projects is currently delayed to allow time for staff and consultants to continue detailed financial analysis and soil/foundation studies.
1400 block of Fifth Avenue and 735 Parnassus
The 1996 LRDP, in addition to discussing office-to-residential conversions, also addressed converting UCSF houses on Fifth Avenue recently occupied by non-UCSF affiliated occupants to family housing for students or faculty. In addition, many of the buildings are in less than good condition, with many needing seismic upgrades, only one meeting ADA code requirements, and none fully up to code.
We met with Fifth Avenue neighbors in September 2002, and received a positive response to the proposal we presented. We revised previous proposals in response to neighbor feedback we received at a community meeting the previous year. We are still working through the financial information, and will keep you posted as we proceed with architect selection. Select this link to view the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for UCSF Parnassus Housing and Childcare.
If you are interested in learning more about the UCSF housing plans, please contact Damon Lew and he will make sure you are notified of related meetings and events.
Proposal for a Kirkham Child Care Center: UCSF is proposing to construct a new UCSF child care center in the vicinity of 24 and 30 Kirkham Street, near Fifth Avenue. This facility would replace the existing Marilyn Reed Lucia Center, which is located at Parnassus and Third Avenue. It is important for UCSF, as an educational institution and a family-friendly employer, to work to accommodate the child care needs of the parents working and studying on our campus.
In May 2001, UCSF Chancellor Michael Bishop appointed a committee to advise him on goals and actions to support the provision of quality affordable child care programs and services to the campus community. Parents responding to a UCSF child care survey indicated that over 550 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers need child care on campus near their work location–many more than can be currently served in the available UCSF campus child care capacity.
The committee recommended that UCSF develop additional high quality, affordable child care options at its major campus locations of Parnassus, Mission Bay and Laurel Heights. The Laurel Heights child care center is expanding this month from its current licensed capacity of 84 children to 108. A new child care center is opening at Mission Bay in January 2005 to care for 50-75 children initially, increasing in capacity to 100 children later that year.
The proposal for Parnassus is to care for 75-100 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at a new Parnassus child care center, which could double the number of children being cared for at the existing Marilyn Reed Lucia Center. The building and yard would be built on the land currently occupied by 24 and 30 Kirkham Street (four units of UCSF faculty housing) and the adjacent 24-space parking lot.
The campus has conducted three meetings with neighbors to discuss this proposal and its potential impacts on the neighborhood. The project is moving forward with the selection of an architect and environmental review. A neighbor of the child care center site and a member of the UCSF Community Advisory Group participated in the selection of the architect in March 2004; the community will be included in the design review process. If you have any questions, or are interested in following the status of this project, please contact Damon Lew, and we will make sure you are notified of related meetings.
Parnassus Services Building: Some UCSF research - including work on cancer, AIDS, immunology, and diabetes - involves the humane and ethical use of animals. (The University is committed to standards of care established by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animals that ensure the safety and comfort of those animals.) Largely because the existing animal care facilities are not seismically safe and cannot economically be made so - and because they are not centralized - the University is building a new facility named the Parnassus Service Building (PSB).
The PSB will be a state-of-the-art animal care facility, located behind Moffit-Long Hospital, at the site of the old utility plant. It will be a five-story building and provide flexible space to accommodate the changing needs of our animal care program. The PSB was included in the final Environmental Impact Report for our 1996 Long Range Development Plan.
Construction began in February 2002 and is expected to be completed in September 2004. Construction hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with no noisy work beginning before 8:00 a.m. If weekend work is required, we will notify neighbors in advance.
For questions about Parnassus Services Building construction, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).