Plazas and Parklets. Night markets and makers. Prototyping and innovation. If you\u2019ve walked around San Francisco recently, you\u2019ve felt it. San Francisco is experiencing a public space revolution.<\/p>\n
Since 2008, SF Planning, SF Public Works, OEWD and the SFMTA have created dozens of new public spaces with local community groups, small businesses and neighborhood residents. With the Mayor\u2019s 2014 SF Plaza Program, San Franciscans now, more than ever, can utilize best practices and guidance from experts in making public spaces successful. Along with the print\u00a0Public Space Stewardship Guide document, this website begins to fill that need. It provides community organizations and City decision makers with models, case studies and ready-to-use tools for funding, programming and maintaining a successful public space.<\/p>\n
In a city, public space is everywhere. It\u2019s where we gather and find amusement, as well as rest, learn, and express ourselves. Our basic public space archetypes \u2013 streets, plazas, and parks \u2013 are found throughout time and exist in all cities and cultures. But, public spaces are not static.\u00a0 <\/span>They evolve and respond to the dynamism of city life. We must therefore design them to adapt to and support the communities they serve.<\/p>\n San Francisco is a leader in the development of unique public spaces. In the past decade, new methods and policies for creating the city\u2019s \u201coutdoor living rooms\u201d have begun to flourish. We see this in the range of community partnerships and public spaces emerging across the city. The following are just four public space programs the City of San Francisco and its community partners have created and implemented since 2008.<\/p>\n As a result of more interest in pedestrian safety, pedestrian and bicycle access, and public life, San Francisco has had opportunities to rethink how streets \u2013 the majority of the city\u2019s public space \u2013 function. One response can be seen in the city\u2019s parklets – small public spaces designed in the parking zone adjacent to sidewalks with high volumes of pedestrian traffic. Parklets were inspired by the San Francisco-based art and design collective Rebar in 2005. In their initial installation, Rebar put coins in a downtown parking meter not to park a car, but to create a temporary, miniature park from sod, a tree, and a bench. Today, more than 55 parklets have been installed throughout San Francisco\u2019s neighborhoods through the Pavement to Parks<\/a>\u00a0(P2P) program. Typically sponsored by local businesses or Community Benefit Districts<\/a> (CBDs), parklets re-purpose one to three parking spots, creating new public spaces for people to rest, eat, and enjoy the city\u2019s social life (check out the map\u00a0on the Pavement to Parks website<\/a>). San Francisco\u2019s parklets have inspired dozens of cities globally to replace car parking with people spaces and have been shown to benefit local businesses.<\/p>\n In a dense city like San Francisco, opportunities for new public space can seem limited. However, many opportunity sites are hidden in plain view.\u00a0 <\/span>Both the San Francisco P2P\u00a0program and the Mayor\u2019s SF Plaza Program<\/a> are breathing new life into San Francisco\u2019s streets, plazas and public spaces.<\/p>\n Since 2008, the San Francisco P2P program has created temporary, pilot plazas out of \u201cexcess asphalt,\u201d dead-end streets, over-designed intersections, and other unused right-of-way. P2P provides a framework to re-imagine excess rights-of-way through pilot plazas, such as Jane Warner Plaza, Annie Street Plaza, and San Jose-Guerrero Plaza. Through the P2P framework, plazas typically begin with an experimental phase using week-long and low-cost \u201cdemonstration\u201d closures in unused portions of the street. Successful experiments are then temporarily closed for a year or more. Based on community feedback throughout the pilot phase, a number of plazas are now transitioning to permanent status and capital upgrades. New plaza locations are also being discussed for the future.<\/p>\n In 2014, the Mayor\u2019s SF Plaza program created a streamlined process for community members to activate public spaces \u2013 not just in the street right-of-way, but also in aging plazas and brand new public spaces. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) partnered with the Real Estate Department, SF Planning, and Public Works to launch the program. Under the new program, community groups can more easily create, maintain and activate community spaces with art and music events, farmers\u2019 markets, movie nights, local food and more. The Mayor\u2019s SF Plaza Program provides a long-term \u201chome\u201d for successful pilot plazas and other projects created through Pavement to Parks, Invest in Neighborhoods, and development projects. By supporting community stewardship of neighborhood open space,\u00a0 <\/span>the program leverages grassroots and community ties to create more innovative, sustainable and livable plazas.<\/p>\n In the fall of 2013, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Civic Innovation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the San Francisco Planning Department partnered to create The Living Innovation Zone (LIZ) Program<\/a>. The program seeks to invigorate San Francisco\u2019s streets by creating \u201cLiving Innovation Zones\u201d – venues for innovation, connection and play in public outdoor places.<\/p>\n The LIZ program streamlines innovation, art and design in San Francisco public spaces. The program provides real-world settings for inventors and artists to test new ideas, evaluate next generation technologies, and engage the public about urban challenges. In doing so, LIZ aims to steer San Francisco\u2019s tech and creative communities toward sustainable community development, efficient government and a better quality of life for all San Franciscans.<\/p>\n The first LIZ , a temporary installation on Market Street, is composed of two elements: (1) a pair of large parabolic \u201cwhispering dishes\u201d which amplify a person\u2019s voice, making it audible to the person sitting in the opposite dish 50 feet away, and (2) a \u201csinging bench\u201d that plays music when people complete a circuit by touching the bench\u2019s armrests. The LIZ program website states that over 20,000 pedestrians pass by the installation every day. Initial anecdotal reports from nearby businesses (such as the MOMA Store, The Coffee Bean and Bluestem Brasserie) indicate that the installation has become an important neighborhood \u201cicon\u201d and has increased foot traffic in the area.<\/p>\n The Market Street Prototyping Festival<\/a> could be considered the most recent development in San Francisco\u2019s public space revolution. The Festival engaged residents, designers, and community organizations in coming up with great ideas for Market Street to inform long range plans as part of the Better Market Street capital improvements project. For three days in April 2015, Market Street was transformed into a platform for 50 design teams to showcase exceptional ideas for improving San Francisco\u2019s main thoroughfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" San Francisco\u2019s Public Space Revolution Plazas and Parklets. Night markets and makers. Prototyping and innovation. 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PLAZAS<\/h3>\n
LIVING INNOVATION ZONES<\/h3>\n
URBAN PROTOTYPING<\/h3>\n