Showplace/Potrero Ped Plaza Visualized

Streetsblog has the scoop. The Planning Department has released the design for one of the next Pavement to Parks plazas, this one on 16th Street, adjacent to Showplace Square and Potrero Hill:


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Streetsblog doesn't give a date for the opening, but according to the Planning Department's website, both the Showplace Square plaza and the one planned for San Jose and Guerrero Avenues are slated for sometime in September.

This plaza will have a very different look than the one at Market and Castro Streets. This plaza is physically bigger than Castro, and so will contain larger landscaping elements. Debris boxes will be filled with soil and planted with fairly large trees, and granite curbs similar to those used for seating at Castro will frame planting beds that break up the space. There will be more greenery at Showplace than we currently see at Castro, which I think will be a welcome oasis in this asphalt-heavy area stuck between two elevated freeways.

One similarity between the two, however, will be the flexible seating that will serve the two restaurant/cafes that abut the plaza. Both cafes are expected to help keep the space active and clean, likely with help from the artists at CCAC nearby.

Rendering of the Plaza from 8th Street

After the Guerrero Park and Showplace Triangle join the Castro space, there will be four such temporary plazas in San Francisco (a one-block stretch of Mason Street in North Beach is now open to people, but that plaza is scheduled to be returned to cars at the end of September when an ongoing traffic study is complete).

The third generation plaza - not yet designed or scheduled - will be installed on a block of Naples Street in the Excelsior.