Relevance

The need for public open space in urban places like San Francisco's South of Market are is not new. SoMa, as a light industrial / warehouse district, has always been home to thousands of workers as well as residents who could have benefited from such spaces. The area was not, however, planned with open space in mind, and existing public spaces are limited in number, size, and accessibility. Now the need for open space is even greater. But this is not only an issue of infrastructure; the lack of places in which the community can come together and thrive is a detriment to the neighborhood. The future health of this diverse urban fabric depends, in large measure, on finding creative ways to alleviate this need.

Prototypical Design

Public Architecture's Open Space Strategy proposes to reconfigure Folsom and Howard as two-way streets, while still accommodating intensive traffic. At the heart of the plan is a proposal to make Folsom more pedestrian-oriented, with generous sidewalks creating new spaces for a variety of outdoor activities and urban amenities. These generous sidewalks, or Sidewalk Plazas, would be installed incrementally, programmed with diverse public amenities, keyed to the particular conditions of SoMa’s varying uses. It makes for a responsive, rather than prescriptive, urban plan. Prototypical in nature, the Sidewalk Plazas in particular are designed as a tool that can be adapted and deployed to meet the needs of countless communities facing similar issues.

In San Francisco, this open space proposal quickly earned support from the San Francisco Planning Department, Redevelopment Agency, and Transportation Authority. Elements of the plan have already been incorporated by the Planning Department in a masterplan for a new development elsewhere in the city.

Through the city's Community Matching Grant program, money has been secured towards the construction of the first built prototype. This first built installation, Brainwash Plaza, is slated to be constructed in front of Brainwash Cafe and Laundromat in late 2008. Additional money for construction has been secured from Brainwash, Inc., which will serve as the project steward, and two private foundations. CMG Landscape Architecture, a San Francisco-based design firm and a member of Public Architecture's 1% Program, is collaborating with the design of the project as part of their pro bono service.

New: Brainwash Plaza was recently honored by San Francisco Magazine with a "Best of the Bay" award for bringing forth an idea for creating community-supporting open space out of bare concrete.

Comprehensive Advocacy

 As part of the overall advocacy efforts of this project, Public Architecture teamed up with the San Francisco-based arts collective REBAR in association with the Trust for Public Land to host “Park(ing) Day 2007.” Park(ing) Day, which was pioneered by REBAR, is a day-long global event centered in San Francisco, where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into ‘Park(ing) Spaces.’ It is very similar in thought to the Sidewalk Plazas, and thus, this is a natural partnership. In addition to helping to coordinate the overall event, Public Architecture constructed a full scale mockup of its vision for Folsom Street. Park(ing) Day 2007 was held on Friday, September 21. Visit www.parkingday.org for more information and additional images.

A publication and website profiling creative transformations of the streetscape, both temporary and permanent is forthcoming.