S.F. Park Will Provide Panoramic Views of the Bay

John King reports on the Tunnel Tops Park project, a new 14-acre sloping park in the Presidio in San Francisco. The park, designed by the same firm behind the High Line in New York City, will have gathering spaces and child-friendly play areas, in addition to a bluff with a promenade and outlooks. A stretch of land from the bluff will connect the Presidio to the adjacent Crissy Field.

"The park is intended to complete the transformation of the descent from the Main Post and Crissy Field — evoking topography that was altered in the 1930s when the Doyle Drive viaduct was erected to link downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge," says King.

The project’s budget has increased from $51 million to $118 million, and it is now scheduled to open in 2021, three years later than the original 2018 target date. "The reasons for the delay vary. What counts, says the project’s landscape architect, is that the result should show the time was put to good use. Instead of the gaunt viaduct that shadowed the area for generations, or the bare dirt that now covers two vehicle tunnels, there will be a naturalistic environment with coastal shrubs and panoramic views," notes King.