Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Parks

Former Trash-Strewn Lot Becomes An “Off-Ramp Park”

By Michael Rhodes | Apr 14, 2010 | 15 Comments

Sixth and Brannan Park. Photos: Michael Rhodes San Franciscans don’t often spend their days contriving ways to spend more time near freeway off-ramps, especially when proximity to freeways can be a risk to your health, but the city’s newest park along the I-280 exit at Sixth and Brannan Streets may make you think twice about […]

Bay Area Cities Rediscover the Creeks Under Their Streets

By Matt Baume | Apr 9, 2010 | 11 Comments

One of the proposed designs for Center Street in Berkeley, by Ecocity Builders (Editor’s note: This is Part 1 in a 3-part series on the Bay Area watershed) The proposal to convert Center Street in Berkeley from an asphalt thoroughfare to a park-like promenade — revealing a long-hidden underground creek — is the latest twist […]

A Vision For Transforming San Francisco’s “Unaccepted Streets”

By Matthew Roth | Sep 24, 2009 | 7 Comments

A proposed design for an unaccepted street, from Local Code, courtesy Nicholas de Monchaux Throughout San Francisco’s history, from the early street grid to the more recent expansion of freeways, slivers of land that don’t fit into the master plans of architects and designers have been cast aside, lumped into a category the Department of […]

UC Planners Envision “Bay Line” Park on the Old Bay Bridge Span

By Matthew Roth | Sep 9, 2009 | 38 Comments

Images: Rael Fratello Architects When Joshua David formed Friends of the High Line in 1999 and started raising money to transform abandoned train tracks in mid-Manhattan into an elevated urban park, more than a few people thought him nuts. With the opening of the High Line in June and the warm reception it has received […]

San Francisco’s Two Newest Trial Plazas Nearly Complete

By Michael Rhodes | Sep 8, 2009 | 11 Comments

San Jose/Guerrero plaza. Photo: Michael Rhodes San Francisco’s two newest Pavement to Parks trial plazas are both on track to open by Thursday, with only the finishing touches remaining. Jane Martin, who helped about 40 neighbors plant trees and shrubs in the planter beds at the San Jose/Guerrero plaza this Sunday, said the space has […]

Poof! San Francisco’s Mason Street Has Become a Temporary Park

By Matthew Roth | Aug 3, 2009 | 10 Comments

Cross sections of tree stumps for seating on Mason Street. Photo: SurfaceWork A coalition of community volunteers, pro-bono landscape architects and personnel from several city agencies this weekend swooped in to North Beach to transform the roadway of Mason Street between Columbus Avenue and Lombard Street into a temporary park in conjunction with the two-month […]

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