Naturally better: San Francisco's Randall Museum gets a worthy upgrade

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SFGate
August 27, 2018

IN THE NEWS: August 27, 2018

Naturally better: San Francisco’s Randall Museum gets a worthy upgrade

San Francisco, CA: Equity Community Builders, on behalf of the Randall Museum Friends, worked seamlessly alongside the City’s museum and project management staff to help manage the design, permitting and construction of a broad range of building improvements to the recently renovated Randall Museum, which opened in February.

In John King’s article in SFGATE, he shares his thoughts about how this renovation of the Randall Museum successfully addresses the key elements of civic architecture.

King elaborates on some of these keys aspects, such as retaining the museum’s mission through its new interior design. And he credits the success of the renovation to the vision of the collaboration of architects Pfau Long and Kuth Ranieri. “With projects like this,” says Peter Pfau, “you want to find the highest and best use for all the spaces and functions.”

King also cites the importance of broad private and public engagement in the funding of such civic projects. The Friends of the Randall, a non-profit support organization, worked closely with Recreation & Parks Department leadership to obtain a highly competitive State grant, then leveraged the grant through its own successful capital campaign.  Hiring ECB to augment the project team was another of the Friends’ contribution to the success of the renovation.

Mitchell Shapson, the Friends’ Board President during the renovation, applauded ECB’s contribution.

“As a seasoned project manager, ECB was critical to the success of the renovation.  ECB’s wisdom and experience helped guide the design and permitting of the project and directly solved several critical construction challenges.”

Ben Golvin, ECB’s Principal for the project, expressed his appreciation for the collaborative culture set by the Friends and the City.  “It was an honor to contribute ECB’s development management expertise to ensuring that this wonderful civic institution, the Randall Museum, can continue serving the public’s love of learning. “

For two decades ECB has demonstrated its commitment to responsibly developing buildings and creating great places that contribute to the vitality of neighborhoods and help strengthen communities. We aim to provide affordable housing at all points on the income spectrum; to employ adaptive re-uses of historic structures; and to develop centers for non-profit innovation.

Read the article.