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Michael Yarne: I think we are lucky that we're in an era
when cities appreciate the value of historic buildings. This was the site of where many
of the survivors of the great earthquake and fire actually gathered, and this building
is one of the only buildings in the downtown that survived, primarily because it was filled
with U.S. currency and the planners of the bank had put a lot of water under the site,
and so they were able to fight off the fires. So historically, it's a very important site
for the city because it's credited with saving the city and allowing the city to rebuild.
Subsequent to that, this area went through a decline in the '50s, '60s, and '70s.
Bry Sarte: This project was right at that moment of change
where city decided to embrace a more comprehensive agenda for a lot of building projects.
Michael Yarne: Frankly, we've developed sophisticated public
finance tools to allow private individuals to take the initiative, because as we know,
right now in particular, government doesn't have a lot of cash on hand.
Patrick McNerney: One of the key facilities we had was to create
a nonprofit organization that would be the -- effectively the developer and then ultimately
the manager of the plaza.
Daniel Hurtado: Friends of Mint Plaza, which is a great organization
is providing programming, events on the plaza, such as the summer concerts, the weekly farmer's
market.
Kurtis Wu: The Mint Plaza farmer's market has about eight
to ten vendors, ranging from local, organic produce all around California. You know, if
you're working and you need to come out for a lunch break. It's also a great environment
just to get away from your -- the stressful work environment. You want to come out, be
surrounded by fresh food, be in a green environment, and just, you know, grab a coffee, grab a
peach, you know, get a lunch, and it's all healthy, and it's just a good experience.
Female Speaker: It's easy for us. When I am working over here
I like it.
Jared Blumenfeld: This is a place that the people that live
and work here, and at all different incomes in this particular neighborhood, now get to
enjoy. This isn't just for wealthy people. This is generally a lot of single residency
occupancy hotels, low income people get to enjoy this, walk through it, and really benefit
from a great urban space.
Scott Cataffa: We had several public meetings where we invited
people to come and give their ideas for the place. We explained the opportunities and
constraints of the site, and we took their ideas and developed several schemes that we
then re-presented to them and had them vote on. It felt really successful public process.
It really integrated with people's desires for the place.
Rosey Jencks: We point to it as an example to show that
this is highly compatible with urbanism and urban design in areas that are hardscaped
and dense. This is very close to buildings and there's actually an infiltration gallery
here. So it really proves in concept what we're trying to make happen throughout the
rest of the city.
Willett Moss: We needed to negotiate a three-foot change
in grade from one end of the site to the other, and meet all of the doorways down the site.
The storm water generally now flows over land to this slot drain that runs the entire length
of the plaza. Underneath this zone is an infiltration bed. It allows all of this water to be detained,
and then percolate back into the ground water.
Bry Sarte: We've calculated and observed that we can
infiltrate as much as half a million gallons of storm water back into the ground water
right underneath our feet here, which is remarkable for a project that historically had zero infiltration.
There wasn't a tree on the street.
Joseph Chait: Just the idea of having some kind of greenery
down here is -- it's just nice. It's soothing.
Nick Elsner: As soon as Martin Building and Friends of
Mint Plaza came to me, I knew all the proper people to get together right away to make
this work.
Bry Sarte: This kind of really interesting, exciting
project that builds economic value and regenerates public space is something that a lot of cities,
a lot of mayors, a lot of planning directors are really interested in seeing implemented,
because they meet so many overlapping goals.
Rosey Jencks: I love that it is a highly urban environment
that has a green infrastructure. And it's sort of not very obvious to people, and I
think that that's something that is really exciting to point out when you come here:
that it's not only a lovely place to be, but it's also highly functional and showing a
great example of what can happen in a city.
Nick Elsner: Just working with everybody as a cohesive
unit, it just made it run very smoothly and it was a pleasure to, you know, pleasure to
see it come to a beautiful plaza like this.
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