Walter Haas Park
San Francisco, CA
The Friends of Walter Haas Park received a grant to solicit community input for the eventual renovation of their neighborhood park, and they selected 450 Architects to lead the community process. Located along Diamond Heights Boulevard in San Francisco, this four-acre park serves the neighborhoods of Diamond Heights and Glen Park. We worked directly with residents to find solutions to their wide range of concerns, responding with a series of different spaces for a variety of uses. Residents wanted to preserve views, so we maintained the downhill views of the city and the trees on the uphill side of the park. Parents were concerned about the ability to supervise both infants in the toddler play area and older children in the bigger playground, so we arranged the two playgrounds such that both could be seen from one place, while still allowing children of different ages to play separately. We found space for neighbors with dogs and those without. We addressed people’s safety concerns with spaces that are easy to survey, yet comfortable to occupy. The design provides improved playground facilities and an open amphitheater, enhances views of downtown San Francisco, and creates a safe, comfortable city park that everyone in the neighborhood can enjoy.
450 architects worked for the community and with the city in one of the first successful community-based design projects for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Friends of Walter Haas Park, our client, sought assistance in working through the bureaucracy involved in improving their park. This public-private partnership was among precedent-setting success stories that led to the proposal, and passage, of a local bond issue underwriting more such collaborations.
We realized this site's potential with an affordable design the neighborhood could respect and maintain. Our design included developing safe and clearly separated facilities for pre-K tots, young children, and teens. Parents now have a comfortable place from which to supervise infants in the toddler play area and older children in their own nearby playground. A newly created amphitheater, popular with teens and adults, provides a spectator bowl for the park's basketball court.
Our design also took advantage of the site topography by shaving back an overgrown hill and removing an unsightly, graffiti-marked concrete retaining wall. Addressing concerns about user safety and sightlines into and across the park, we made it comfortable to occupy and made park activities easy for neighbors and passing police to see. Newly opened sightlines also offer beautiful downtown views.
450 architects' design process is based on consensus-building. By empowering neighbors to speak their mind, we identified a wide range of very specific concerns and interests. The design team responded with a series of different spaces and places within the park for both active and contemplative uses—a large open playing field, toddler and school-aged children's play areas, and an ever-popular basketball court. We incorporated a new handicapped-access pathway as well as a non-fenced dog run.
This process led to the selection of a landscape architect with whom the design team worked to maintain existing trees on the park's uphill side, which add beauty as well as a windbreak, and to supplement the existing landscape with new native plantings. We also ensured the inclusion of a charming planted labyrinth that was highly favored by the community.
