No new neighbourhood is complete without green space, but many developments have an unfortunate tendency to think a simple stretch of lawn and a couple of flowerbeds will do. Thankfully, it’s an entirely different story at the new waterfront park at China Basin in San Francisco’s new mixed-use district of Mission Rock, just across from the Giants’ Oracle Park.
Explore San Francisco's new waterfront park at China Basin
A waterfront public space on the site of a former parking lot, the new five-acre China Basin Park offers lush green spaces, diverse amenities and dramatic views. It was designed as the beating heart of the new neighbourhood, developed as a public-private partnership between the San Francisco Giants, developers Tishman Speyer, and the Port of San Francisco.
Along with existing Phase 1 buildings by the likes of MVRDV, Henning Larsen, Studio Gang and WORKac, the park showcases the development’s focus on fostering an inclusive community and building resiliently – an innovative approach that earned Scape and its founder Kate Orff the 2023 Obel Award for its Living Breakwaters project. The New York studio has also recently garnered plaudits for transforming the banks of the Mississippi in Memphis into a stunning new public park in collaboration with Studio Gang.
‘The park is a place for people to gather and feel the energy coming from really diverse contexts – from the ballpark on gameday, to the rhythms of daily life from the Mission Rock neighbourhood, to the majesty of the bay horizon beyond to the intimacy of China Basin’s watery edge. The park responds to all of these forces,’ said Orff.
It also connects Mission Rock with the rest of the city, as the San Francisco Bay Trail runs directly through the park, completing a key piece of a 350-mile system. Elevated approximately five feet above ground, the trail functions as a primary line of protection from coastal flooding for the new neighbourhood and its park. The site was also lifted to a resilient elevation by using lightweight fill and is now 10 per cent lighter than it was before.
‘We’ve designed a mosaic of destinations that are in dialogue with this context: sunny open plazas, shady lifted groves, active stadium seating, expansive community lawns, a massive immersive stormwater garden, and a beachfront ecosystem all within a modest five-acre footprint – and all supercharged by the Bay Trail that loops them altogether,’ says Orff.
From the central plaza, visitors can take in the views over the Bay Bridge and downtown skyline, with the baseball stadium providing the perfect backdrop to a statue of Willie McCovey, the Giants first baseman. There’s also a series of raised stadium seats that allow groups to gather and watch the bustle of Oracle Park across McCovey Cove, and a promenade lined with seating and a concrete floor references the patterns created by the tide washing up and down the beach.
The plaza is surrounded by a series of spaces inspired by the unique ecosystems of the Bay Area, and each magnifying a different local landscape. The adjoining Gathering Grove, for example, is sheltered from the wind by sculptural red-trunked Marina strawberry trees which over time will expand to form an undulating canopy. Lit up with catenary lights, the pink plaza is designed to welcome cultural events, classes and fairs.
Another event space is the Great Lawn, framed by Monterey cypress and a variety of oak trees. Sculpted to create the illusion of a natural amphitheatre and undulating green space spilling into the water, it slopes down towards the seafront and Shoreline Sands. By the water, seating and climbing elements made of reclaimed eucalyptus branches emerge from the sand, with an oyster shell strip marking the edge of the area.
Buffering the park’s edge along Pier 48, an 11,000-sq-ft stormwater garden helps treat, store, and convey runoff water from the new neighbourhood. A haven for birds and insects, it’s accessible through a series of elevated boardwalks, from which visitors can admire native plants that can endure intense periods of flooding and drought, such s sticky monkey-flower, giant wildrye and California fuchsia.
The only building in the park, an all-gender public restroom by local studio Min Design, is almost invisible. Tucked away under a lawn near the central plaza, it is located just across from the beach and Bay Trail, to provide a safer experience for all users.
Scape is currently designing the landscape for the Sustainability Commons at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the Hayward Shoreline Master Plan, and the UCSF Parnassus Central Campus landscape.
-
Rivian hits Miami Art Week to release R1S Quad Miami Edition, a new colour and a scentVivid sights and evocative smells are part of Rivian’s quest to humanise its all-electric SUVs
-
Katie Stout installs a stone menagerie across Miami's Design DistrictHorses, frogs and even a mermaid have taken over the avenues of Miami Design District. Discover ‘Gargantua’s Thumb’, a collection of stone seating by designer Katie Stout
-
An analogue room planner kit makes designing your dream home a doddlePlanora, a new room planner option conceived by a team of three Swedish architects, is a beautifully produced, analogue tool to help conceptualise your new space
-
The Stahl House – an icon of mid-century modernism – is for sale in Los AngelesAfter 65 years in the hands of the same family, the home, also known as Case Study House #22, has been listed for $25 million
-
Houston's Ismaili Centre is the most dazzling new building in America. Here's a look insideLondon-based architect Farshid Moussavi designed a new building open to all – and in the process, has created a gleaming new monument
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fountainhead will be opened to the public for the first timeThe home, a defining example of the architect’s vision for American design, has been acquired by the Mississippi Museum of Art, which will open it to the public, giving visitors the chance to experience Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius firsthand
-
Clad in terracotta, these new Williamsburg homes blend loft living and an organic feelThe Williamsburg homes inside 103 Grand Street, designed by Brooklyn-based architects Of Possible, bring together elegant interiors and dramatic outdoor space in a slick, stacked volume
-
This ethereal Miami residence sprouted out of a wild, jungle-like gardenA Miami couple tapped local firm Brillhart Architecture to design them a house that merged Florida vernacular, Paul Rudolph and 'too many plants to count’
-
Tour Cano House, a Los Angeles home like no other, full of colour and quirkCano House is a case study for tranquil city living, cantilevering cleverly over a steep site in LA’s Mount Washington and fusing California modernism with contemporary flair
-
How Maggie’s is redefining cancer care through gardens designed for healing, soothing and liberatingCancer support charity Maggie’s has worked with some of garden design’s most celebrated figures; as it turns 30 next year, advancing upon its goal of ‘30 centres by 30’, we look at the integral role Maggie’s gardens play in nurturing and supporting its users
-
An ocean-facing Montauk house is 'a coming-of-age, a celebration, a lair'A Montauk house on Hither Hills, designed by Hampton architects Oza Sabbeth, is wrapped in timber and connects its residents with the ocean
