By Thomas K. Pendergast

Sitting next to the original home stadium of the San Francisco 49ers, Kezar Pavilion has had the likes of basketball great Bill Russell and the San Francisco Bay Bombers roller derby team pass through its doors.

The pavilion has not changed much since it opened in 1926, but major renovations are coming in the next few years.

On March 12, city officials from the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the Department of Public Works (DPW) unveiled plans to create a neighborhood recreation center there, which would also double as a disaster response facility.

The total cost is estimated at $137 million, with $70 million of that coming from the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) bond passed by voters in 2020.

The Disaster Response Facility component of the ESER bond will fund the renovation, adding emergency capacity to the City’s existing infrastructure and using the City’s spaces to meet disaster response needs. The renovated facility will provide emergency shelter space after big earthquakes, wildfire smoke and extreme heat events, according to Alexis Ward, project manager for Rec. and Park’s Capital Division.

Ward said Kezar was selected because it is a large, indoor public space that the City already owns, and it is flexible because it can be used for a lot of different purposes. A police station is adjacent to the pavilion and there is a fire station nearby.

The building also needs upgrading to be seismically safe.

The gymnasium will get new basketball courts, providing an opportunity for two full-size courts at the same time using retractable bleachers to maximize floor space.

The ramps going down to the floor space and the support columns blocking sight lines will be removed, with the gym floor lowered about four-to-six feet and a new basement alignment.

ADA accessibility will be improved with entrances aligned on the first floor and connection levels between the gym and the new annex, with elevators built in.

The building will be all-electric with solar panels and a back-up generator.

Air filtration and cooling will be improved to be ready in response to wildfire smoke and extreme heat events.

Green building codes will be implemented to achieve LEED certification and the number of restrooms will be increased.

From the outside, however, perhaps the most noticeable change will be a new annex adjacent to the gym.

Jennifer Dameron, the project architect with DPW, said the new design “relates and really respects the historic architecture of the pavilion and how it’s connected to the existing building through this vertical circulation core. Even though we’ve added a lot of square footage to what the annex currently has, the bulk of this annex really isn’t felt because a lot of it is located in the basement and even below the plaza level.”

The new annex will serve as the headquarters for Rangers stationed at Golden Gate Park and house upgraded locker rooms while connecting to a historic tunnel which used to provide access to athletes going into Kezar Stadium.

It will also provide multipurpose rooms and community space.

The small, rear parking lot immediately north of the annex building will be converted into a plaza and connected to the access road coming off of Stanyan Street.

Trees will either line the drop-off zone that will define the edge of the plaza to provide shade for bench seating, with the main seating at the center of the plaza between raised planters; or the trees will be near the drop off zone, giving more flexibility for seating options.

Lizzy Hirsch, a landscape architect with DPW, pointed out that right now the only public access point to the pavilion is directly off of Stanyan Street. Thus, the plaza and drop off zones will provide a more pleasing alternative.

“Our new idea is that you can circulate and connect to all the parts,” Hirsh said. “This new western plaza really is the nexus that allows you to move to Golden Gate Park from the parking lot to Kezar and it’s a true opportunity to connect the dots,”

Right now, the rear parking lot is for city vehicles. They will get a new home in the paid parking area adjacent to the south side of the pavilion area.

“The idea is that all the City vehicles, the Ranger vehicles, would actually queue up on the first aisle of the parking lot. It would be reserved for City and Ranger vehicles only,” said Dan Mauer, the renovation project manager for Rec. and Park.

“The rest of the parking lot will remain intact as it currently is, once the striping’s done.”

Personal vehicles for staff will have to either use paid parking in that lot or park somewhere else.