Showplace Triangle
Showplace Triangle
Iterative design turns pavement into park.
San Francisco’s streets and public rights-of-way make up fully 25% of the city’s land area, more space even than is found in all of the city’s parks. Many of our streets are excessively wide and contain large zones of wasted space, especially at intersections. San Francisco’s new Pavement to Parks program seeks to temporarily reclaim these unused swathes and quickly and inexpensively turn them into new public plazas and parks.
Rebar designed Showplace Triangle to be a neighborhood gathering space. Built entirely of reused or repurposed materials – Recology debris boxes as tree planters, PUC sewer pipe as bollards, DPW granite curb as planting beds, and Italian black granite once used on Market street for public seating – the project demonstrates that ingenuous reuse can also be high style!
Showplace Triangle was created in collaboration with the SF Planning Department, SF PUC, Recology, Flora Grubb Nursery, California College of Arts, Wolfe’s Lunch and Axis Cafe, Artist Ramad, and the skilled and talented workers at the San Francisco Department of Public works.
Date: Fall, 2009
Location: Potrero Hill neighborhood, San Francisco, CA
Related:
New York Times coverage
Babelgum video, New Urbanism ep 12: Pavement to Parks