Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc.

National Historical Landmark, 1996 - 98 Renovation

SFMI Scope of Services

Programming

• Events Uses Consulting

• Sound and Video Systems

• Broadcast Media Systems

Production & Presentation Systems Design

• Structured Cabling

• Audio Visual Systems

• Sound Systems

• Video Display Systems

• Video Distribution Systems

• Control and Data Systems

• Broadcast Television Systems

• Event Power Systems

• Event Rigging Systems

• Security/Surveillance Systems

Acoustics

• Sound Isolation

• Room Acoustics

• HVAC Noise & Vibration

Architects

Heller Manus Architects, Finger & Moy Architects & Komorous - Towey Architects, a Joint Venture

Project Description

Tenant improvements to a 514,000 square foot National Landmark in conformance with historical preservation guidelines of the Secretary of the Interior. 

The Project included seven legislative public meeting rooms, each including a new sound system, visual display system, and broadcast television and radio support systems, including video and audio pool feeds. Four of the legislative meeting rooms are equipped for gavel-to-gavel multi-camera live television coverage for distribution on Citywatch Channel 54.  Challenges to be overcome included finding a means to enable live television coverage, audio-visual support, supervisor electronic voting, audio reinforcement and image magnification for supervisors and staff when neither the walls nor the ceiling of the chamber could be touched and the only place to host equipment was what is essentially a coat closet connected to the chamber by a double door opening. SFMI laid out nearly 200 conduits so that they would fit through the door openings and yet still be able to route to the required end points. To bring all this voting-viewing-request-to-be-recognized-microphone-and-audio-playback-speaker into a package that would have minimum impact on the historic furniture, SFMI worked with maufacturers to create an entirely new class of integrated A/V touchscreen panels that have now become the standard means of addressing this requirement in government chambers. A total of seven product innovations grew from SFMI's designs for this entirely unique project, including a alternative facilitaton means for recalling supervisors and their staff for quorums, includng those who may be either visually or audibly impaired. The touchscreen panels also enable the multiple different bodies who share the hearing rooms of San Francisco City Hall to operate with different rules of the body, with the panels dynically updating for the bodies and members in session at any given time.

For the formal press conference room SFMI also designed systems to support written and broadcast media, live Citywatch coverage, and to function as the County Emergency Media Information Center.

The Project also included three major public assembly spaces, totaling over 25,000 square feet of architecturally and historically significant space for which SFMI designed a combination of concealed and themed sound and audio-visual systems which are intended to support a variety of Civic events, including live entertainment with simultaneous live television broadcast coverage.

To view an article about the popularity and current usage of these public spaces for a variety of events, click here.

The broadcasting facilities include two television control rooms and a television technical operations center which supports live meeting broadcast and recording for Citywatch, pool operations for guest broadcasters, and Channel 54 automated 24 hour playback operations. To comply with historical preservation requirements, the sound and video support facilities are located on the Ground Floor and connected to the public spaces on upper floors by optical fiber circuits.

The extensive designed Security/Surveillance Systems are discretely integrated into the historical fabric, and connected to a site command center staffed by the County Sheriff.

Project Cost

Total: $297 million

SFMI portion: $10 million