San Francisco to Remake Embarcadero Plaza Into 5-Acre Park

Mayor London Breed wants to turn a concrete Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco into a 5-acre park in front of the Ferry Building, with the help of BXP and local businesses.

The mayor will introduce legislation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to approve a public-private partnership that allows for private fundraising to remake the 1.2-acre plaza at Market Street and The Embarcadero, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The city would work with the landlord BXP of the adjacent Embarcadero Center to turn the paved plaza into a verdant paradise for an estimated cost of $25 million.

“Working together, we are going to reimagine what Embarcadero Plaza will be in the future,” Breed told a crowd gathered at the spot for an official announcement.

Plans call for ripping out the brick-and-concrete plaza at the end of Market Street and linking it with Sue Bierman Park to create a nearly 5-acre glade. The plan would create a retail corridor with an event stage on the edge of Four Embarcadero, plus a promenade closer to the Embarcadero.

The Embarcadero Plaza, created in 1972, once served as a buffer between the old Embarcadero Freeway and the historic Ferry Building. It became obsolete with the demolition of the freeway after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

Its brutalistic Vaillancourt Fountain, designed to drown out noise from the double-decker roadway, now sits silent.

The partnership, approved last month by the city Recreation and Park Commission, includes the Rec and Park Department, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Boston-based BXP and the Downtown SF Partnership, a community benefit district.

BXP, formerly known as Boston Properties, is the biggest commercial landlord in San Francisco. It owns Embarcadero Center, which includes four office towers with ground-floor retail, behind the plaza.

BXP will provide the first $2.5 million for the preliminary renderings drawn up by HOK, which designed Oracle Park, and to fund a project manager through the Rec and Park Department.

If the board approves the plan, BXP and the Downtown SF Partnership funded by local businesses would commit another $10 million.

The park project does not yet have a budget, but the city is expected to contribute $15 million or more in public funds.

The park’s completion is at least three years away and could cost more than the preliminary estimate of $25 million, according to Kat Anderson, president of the Recreation and Park Commission. The plaza belongs to Rec and Park, as does Sue Bierman Park.

The mayor did not call for demolition of the controversial fountain, but none of the four park renderings she presented featured it in the plan.

“We want to get this project going and make Embarcadero Plaza amazing,” Breed declared. “This is exactly what we need to do to make downtown better.”

— Dana Bartholomew