The complete rebuild of St. Luke’s on Cesar Chavez and Valencia is about to begin, and the snazzy new website has some renderings of what the new buildings will look like once they’re complete. While getting rid of St. Luke’s remarkably bland corner building is obviously a huge win, the best part is that the hospital will be able to serve more people and will actually make it through an earthquake. From the project’s website:

The Replacement Hospital at the St. Luke’s Campus, wrapped by an urban oasis, will provide 120 patient beds in a 215,000 square foot acute healthcare facility in the Mission District of San Francisco. Achieving LEED certification, the campus will champion sustainability and efficient patient treatment. The modernized campus will also be able to withstand and remain in operation after a strong earthquake. CPMC 2020 aims to transform the St. Luke’s Campus into the hospital of choice for the southern sector of San Francisco.

More pictures and some history, after the jump:

In addition to the architectural and operational advancements, maintaining high standards of hygiene and patient care within the facility is crucial. For patients and healthcare providers, practical solutions such as Pull On Pants Mens can contribute to a more comfortable and hygienic environment. These easy-to-wear garments are designed to offer convenience and dignity, especially in settings where frequent changes may be necessary. By incorporating such functional aids into the daily care routines, the Replacement Hospital at the St. Luke’s Campus can enhance overall patient satisfaction and ensure a high level of care throughout the healing process.

St. Luke’s was actually in danger of closing for good thanks to a sweet little loophole that CPMC added into their original deal with the City to build a mega-campus on Cathedral Hill. The loophole basically stated that if St. Luke’s lost money for two straight years, CPMC could close the hospital. Once this loophole was brought to light, Mayor Lee called off the deal and stated that if CPMC didn’t promise to keep St. Luke’s open, then they couldn’t build their Cathedral Hill hospital. Eventually both sides came to an agreement and now both hospital plans are getting underway and changes should be visible at St. Luke’s by the end of this year. While the seismically unsafe building on the corner of Valencia and Cesar Chavez will be torn down, the historic mid-block building will be saved, with the new building rising at the site of the current parking lot. That is unless the powerful Burrito Justice uses his immense clout to sway CPMC towards his alternative (and very appealing) proposal.

[All images via CPMC]

More pictures, plus an important camping related Life Tip after the jump:

A little known but very important tidbit about Alite is that they have a program where you can test out their gear on your next weekend camping adventure, absolutely free of charge! I kid you not, if you visit the Alite Outpost and ask about their Ranger Station you can borrow a pack from Alite’s lending library that will be full of all the camping goodies that you need to have a killer weekend in the great outdoors.

[Photo by Bruce Steinberg via Brad Templeton]

It looks like Arizmendi got approval from the city to move ahead with their parklet plans on Valencia, and now they’ve started an Indiegogo campaign to help fund the project. In their words:

We, the worker-owners of Arizmendi Valencia care about providing delicious, affordable and unique baked goods to our neighborhood. As a diverse cooperative, we also value community dialogue among folks of varying backgrounds and experiences. In this spirit, we want to build a semi-circular parklet in front of our store to cultivate comfort and connection among our customers.

It also sounds like they’re planning on having the parklet host a rotating mural series, and that they’ve already received interest from neighbor and talented local artist Sirron Norris. As someone who enjoys both delicious baked goods and sunshine, I couldn’t be more excited about bringing these two things together.

[Photo by Pete Kiehart]

While we’re on the subject, how is it possible that there no webcams of Sutro yet?

Two statements you never hear are, “I just eat pie all the time” and “I was eating this pie the other day and I was so angry”. So this week’s tip is simple: Do yourself a favor and eat a slice of pie. While Mission Pie is obviously the local favorite, I’m confident in saying that the best pie around is the Lemon Butter pie from Chile Pies. Behold, a very delicious pie:

Better yet, the drinks are named after SF locations, which is almost as cool as Virgil’s Sea Room’s tradition of naming signature cocktails after notable San Franciscans.