The New Commonwealth Club (For Now)
We got a sneak peek of the Commonwealth Club's temporary HQ space at 555 Post, above, which is the former home of the S.F. Press Club. The first two events at the 15k SF space have already sold out: on Tuesday William Ury, co-founder of Harvard University’s program on negotiation, spoke, and last night S.F. Giants manager Bruce Bochy and CEO Larry Baer took the stage. The club--the largest and oldest public affairs forum in the US--says its lease was up at 595 Market so it had to find a temporary home while its permanent one gets built.
Its future home at 110 Embarcadero just successfully completed the planning approval process with the city. Construction is expected to start any day now and wrap up in mid-2016. Above, Commonwealth CEO Gloria Duffy interviewing former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta at its former space in October. An upgraded home was desperately needed; the club has the longest-running radio broadcast in the US and Gloria did voice-over work in a storage closet with foam baffling pasted up on the walls. The future 19k SF club will be LEED Gold or Platinum and includes a third-story addition.
