Transcript The San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center (SFFCC) will

The San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center (SFFCC) will soon open its doors in San Francisco’s downtown,
near the Yerba Buena Center arts community where Mission Hiring hall executive director and SFFCC
co-founder Don Marcos says a significant Filipino presence is lacking. Filipinos have deep roots in the
South of Market, especially in the Yerba Buena area, where immigrants newly-arrived in San Francisco
first settled and where a vibrant Filipino community once thrived. Following the 1977 evictions at the
International Hotel in Manilatown, which served as a catalyst for nationwide tenant rights and
affordable housing movements, a number of International Hotel residents settled in the South of Market.
SAN FRANCISCO FILIPINO
CULTURAL CENTER
101 Fourth Street
Second Floor of the Metreon
Center
● The proposed space will be
4,800 square feet
● Fillon Solis Architects, Inc. has
designed a multi-use, multifunction center
● Open plan space will allow for
rehearsal and dance space,
exhibits, community workshops
and services, traditional and
cutting-edge presentations, as
well as offices for administration
and event booking
● The developers, Westfield
Corporation, will provide the
SFFCC the space start-up funds,
signage, and access to the
space, which will draw the
shopping public
● The Metreon originally opened
in 1999; SFFCC projected to open
in 2010.
CONTACT:
Dennis Marzan
Executive Assistant
SF Filipino Cultural Center
415.252.9701
[email protected]
www.thesffcc.com
The South of Market , much like Manilatown, was considered the heart of San Francisco’s Filipino
community, Its face changed with the construction of the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, as the Filipino population declined but refused to leave entirely.
“A representation of the Filipino contribution of the Filipino arts and culture makes sense especially in
light of all the development in the neighborhood,” says Marcos.
Scheduled to be housed in the Metreon Center, which originally opened in 1999, the SFFCC will occupy
a multi-purpose space measuring 4,800 square feet. The project has engaged the architecture firm
Fillon Solis Architects to create the space design; the design calls for a multi-use, multi-function facility
that can accommodate different types of programs, as well as offices for administration and event
planning.
“It can be an exhibit space one day, a small event space another day, a meeting place for
community workshops, rehearsal space, small performances, official events and cultural
entertainment,” Marcos says.
The space and seating will be easily reconfigurable, again catering to programming needs, which will
include traditional performances, displays and cutting-edge presentations from Filipino American
artists. The new space will also be adjacent to the Metreon’s Action Theatre, which will be made
available to the Center’s needs.
“This will be the place where innovative things happen,” Marcos says. “So we’re also focusing on
current and future Filipino leaders in the arts and other fields. It will provide the space and forum not just
for the Filipino community but also other communities and cultures of the Pacific,”
Marcos is quick to point out the working relationship between SFFCC’s relationship with the Metreon’s
new owners, the Westfield Corporation, Inc. Westfield also owns the neighboring Westfield San
Francisco Centre. He credits the developers for providing the SFFCC with start-up funding, signage and
elevator access to the space, drawing some of the shopping public.
The SFFCC is projected to open in 2010.