March 20, 2024
Beginners Mind Temple Renovations Updates
Choku Proudfoot in the BMT Renovation

Choku Proudfoot meets with the team weekly and is one of the few people allowed inside the building. Photo by Eli Brown-Stevenson.

Text by Tova Green. Photos by Choku Proudfoot, City Center Director.

San Francisco Zen Center has embarked on a large, much-needed renovation project at 300 Page Street (City Center). We are very excited and grateful to finally take the steps necessary to care for this precious 100-year-old building. The project includes, among many things, a new Welcome Center, complete bathroom restorations, and adding a new ramp and elevator for broader accessibility. For details about the renovation, see this page.

We will be sharing periodic updates to give you a sense of what’s happening within the walls of 300 Page Street as the renovations progress.

City Center Renovations, Part Three (scroll down for earlier updates)
April 2024

The renovations continue!

 

Working on the new Welcome Center.

Working on the new Welcome Center.

Alex and Laura (Studio Bondi) discussing the chair lift (previously the zendo bathroom and coat room).

The elevator pit in what was the laundry room.

 

City Center Renovations, Part Two
March 2024

The demolition continues with work on the elevator, chair lift, and Abbot’s Suite.

 

Third floor bathroom area.

The elevator will go here.

The former coat closet, which will become the chair lift to access the elevator.

This was the zendo bathroom. The hole is where the chair lift will go.

The front office/bookstore bathrooms.

Third floor walk-through.

Looking into student rooms from inside the third floor bathroom.

The elevator pit in the old laundry room.

Alex (the superintendent) talking with Abbot Mako in front of the Abbot’s suite.

 

City Center Renovations, Part One
February 2024

The contractors, Herrero Builders, and their crews began their work in December 2023, as they prepared the building for demolition and construction.

The photos below depict the following preparations:

 

The moving of a thousand-year-old wooden Buddha to the Buddha Hall…

where it will rest with other statues until the work is completed.

The banisters of the central staircase, carefully wrapped for protection.

The Superintendent of the team, Alex Gwathny.

Three of the people leading the team: Bodie Boyd, Senior Project Manager; Lauren Meier, Project Manager, and Adriana Centeno-Rivas, Project Manager.

The demolition of the basement shop and laundry room to make space for the elevator that will be installed.

The demolition of the basement shop and laundry room.

The demolition of the basement shop and laundry room.

The demolition of one of the upstairs bathrooms. All of the current bathrooms will be replaced.