A plan to create a permanent home for the City College of San Francisco’s campus in Chinatown has provoked a bitter fight, with critics opposing the plan for a 16-story building on the grounds that it would loom over the historic area — and obstruct views from a nearby Hilton Hotel.

"Right from the time it was unveiled as one of the options, it has generated a lot of energy and a lot of heat, some good, some bad,” says City College’s chancellor, Philip R. Day Jr. In response to the opposition — led by the Hilton — Day says, supporters of the community college’s Chinatown campus have “dug in their heels a little bit.”