Competition solicited submissions on how to improve beleaguered downtown thoroughfare
A 4-mile-long along San Francisco ’s Market Street , a system of colorful LED banners stretching from the Embarcadero to Civic Center, Hallidie Plaza transformed into a “civic grove,” a dense streetside urban forest.
These are among the winning proposals unveiled at a swanky awards ceremony Wednesday for an international competition announced in April seeking ideas for how to improve The City’s ailing central thoroughfare, which has been plagued in recent years by office and retail vacancies. The competition was co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute San Francisco and the Civic Joy Fund with support from Mayor Daniel Lurie, the co-founder of the latter organization. “There's no single silver bullet that's going to reenvision Market Street, but we hope what you take away from this is that we have an incredible toolkit here,” Natalie Sandoval, executive director of ULI San Francisco, told a group of urban designers, politicians and civic boosters. Whether any of the competition submissions for refreshing Market Street get built remains to be seen, but Lurie told the audience that the competition had brought energy and imagination to bear on the future of The City’s vital central artery. “We have always been, and always will be, a city that invites big ideas, not just from within, but from around the country and around the world. That's what this competition represents,” Lurie said. The six winners, who will split $100,000 of prize money, were selected from 173 submissions. Most entries came from The City, but some came from eight other countries, said Eric Tao, managing partner of L37 Development and an Urban Land Institute San Francisco leader. The range of ideas received was wide, with one proposal calling for turning Market Street into a river. Many of Market Street’s offices and retail establishments emptied in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ushered in an era of increased remote work and a reduced presence of commuting employees. The competition was open for moonshots. “Market Street is clearly not at its best, and at this point, pretty much anything should be on the table to inject some life and activity,” said Supervisor Danny Sauter, who attended Wednesday’s event and whose district borders the north side of the boulevard downtown. The victors were chosen by a star-studded jury that included Jony Ive, the former chief designer at Apple and founder of the LoveFrom design firm in Jackson Square, and Po Bronson, the journalist, bestselling author and venture capitalist who is general partner at SOSV and a managing director of the IndieBio startup program.Ex // Top Stories SFUSD to add first K-8 Mandarin-language school Thanks to an anonymous donation, the district said it has the means to significantly boost access to bilingual education and immersion Dacha, with inspiration from Eastern Europe, creates sense of ‘home’ Its cocktail menu includes cocktails inspired by the region, others closer to California Oakland startup aims to make cement production greener Facing revocation of federal grant, Brimstone presses on • A team from Bionic featuring Marcel Wilson, Linghui Liao, Sarah Moos Thompson was recognized for “Creative Wayfinding and Nighttime Animation” with its “Flying Colors” proposal for a series of programmable LED mesh banners that could project art or messages. • A team from SITELAB urban studio, including Alice An, Laura Crescimano, Alyssa Garcia, Julie Gawendo, Ashutosh Signhal and Lauren Wong, received the “Radical Hospitality and Fast, Inclusive Public Space” award for “The 4 Mile Bench” proposal, an idea that runs counter to recent removals of public benches to deter loitering and such. • A team from Multistudio, Studio-MLA, Systematica, and VibeMap featuring Luca Giaramidaro, Ben Feldmann, Federico Messa, Noah Friedman got the award for “Place-Making and Connected Neighborhoods” for plans that emphasized walkability and enhancing connections to and from four zones from the waterfront to Civic Center, including at Hallidie Plaza, which could get lightwells, water features and plantings. • Christian Lavista of SUR received the award for “Visionary Ecology and Urban Greening” for “The Market Street Forest,” a proposal for dense tree plantings and a pedestrian-focused approach. • A team from SWA Group including Yang Zhang, Ratchu Surajaras, Sergio Lima, William Hynes and Marco Esposito got the “Spatial Innovation and Adaptive Urban Form” award for its “Asymmetry in Balance” proposal, which calls, among other things, for creating an urban park on the sunnier north side of the street and shifting transit and other transportation-related functions to the shadier south side. In addition, starchitect Sir Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners, awarded a prize to Saadi Halil, principal of Sequoia: Biomimicry Education & Advocacy and co-owner of San Francisco’s Hometown Creamery. Foster provided a statement extolling Halil’s “Yelamu Park” vision for a tree-lined central greenspace with landscaping and pedestrian and bicycle routes in the middle of Market Street, an idea that he said evoked Las Ramblas, an apparent reference to Barcelona’s famed street. Yelamu refers to Native American people who historically lived in the San Francisco area. The mayor spoke shortly before the competition results were revealed in a ceremony at One Montgomery Street, the historic structure where the judging and awarding were hosted by building owner Ghazi Shami, CEO of the EMPIRE music company. “So much of my childhood is on Market Street. When I walk in and there's no one there, it breaks my heart. That's demoralizing,” the music mogul said, though he expressed certainty that a revival is around the corner.The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit education and research institute focused on the built environment. The Civic Joy Fund, a branch of the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization the Civic Space Foundation, aims “to revitalize San Francisco by investing and organizing projects that bring joy to the streets,” including through art, music, and cultural activities.
Civic Joy Fund Urban Land Institute San Francisco Jony Ive Po Bronson San Francisco Market Street
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