S.F. rolls out updated redesign for Embarcadero Plaza, with bigger park vision

An updated design for the remake of Embarcadero Plaza into a vibrant and cohesive city park debuted Tuesday evening at a community meeting hosted by San Francisco parks officials.

The meeting took place at Embarcadero Center adjacent to the brick plaza, where the 710-ton Vaillancourt Fountain is being prepared for disassembly even as a lawsuit seeks to keep it in place.

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Read more: S.F. begins work to remove controversial fountain from Embarcadero Plaza

The new park design centers around an oval main lawn that will cover more than an acre, surrounded by a wide walking path that will feature a performance space and outdoor dining area. Off to the side are a new dog play area and fitness center, as well as an existing playground.

The new plan is the result of input gathered from two prior planning meetings, which generated nearly 2,000 written responses. It does not include the popular padel courts currently on site. It also does not include the Vaillancourt Fountain, which has never been a part of the redesign, or the concrete ledges around it that have been magnets for skateboarders.

"We heard about a lot of people wanting a world-class, iconic park, and that's what we are delivering," said Eoanna Goodwin, project manager for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. The agency will build out the 5-acre park in partnership with BXP, owner of the Embarcadero Center. The design will incorporate the adjacent Sue Bierman Park.

The budget, which will mostly be supplied through fundraising, has been increased from $32.5 million to $40 million to account for new cost estimates not included in prior plans. Also included is the $4 million cost to disassemble and remove Vaillancourt Fountain, scheduled to begin next week.

"We want to open this park up to the waterfront after years of physical barriers and visual barriers," Goodwin said, "and to make this an accessible site for all of our park users."

The park is being designed to feature a "neighborhood side" with amenities to benefit residents of the Gateway apartment complex and other housing to the north and east, and a "civic side" to invite foot traffic from the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building to the west and south.

The main entrance will be at the intersection of Market Street and the Embarcadero. The plaza will be oriented toward the waterfront, opposite the old Justin Herman Plaza - which faced inward and away from the Embarcadero Freeway that loomed overhead until its demolition after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

At two prior workshops held in the same space, advocates for Vaillancourt Fountain argued that it should be included in the plan and stay in place as the park is built around it.

But the city determined that the half-century-old sculpture, which contains lead and asbestos, had deteriorated to the point that it posed a safety hazard and should be removed, at least temporarily. The group Friends of the Plaza filed a lawsuit in February arguing that the city had inappropriately bypassed the California Environmental Quality Act, but its request for an injunction to halt the removal was denied by a Superior Court judge earlier this month.

That issue is with the California Court of Appeal, and Jen Kwart, spokesperson for city attorney David Chiu, attended the meeting Tuesday to answer questions about the court case.

"The trial court thoroughly reviewed the evidence and determined that the city relied on substantial evidence to determine that the fountain is a hazard and has to be removed," Kwart said.

Fountain advocates were at the meeting taking notes but declined to comment, while awaiting the appeal ruling that could stay the removal of the fountain. Attorneys for both sides have submitted written arguments, and a ruling may be issued without further oral arguments as soon as Friday.

Meanwhile, work to prepare the sculpture and its fountain apparatus for removal has been underway this week, with heavy equipment on site to label the pieces of the structure and remove grout. The sculpture has been stripped of some of its surrounding structures and stands exposed behind a tall construction fence.

Tuesday night's community meeting may not be the last, as another round of surveys was conducted. Officials provided storyboards where visitors could place green stickers on aspects they liked and red stickers on those they didn't like.

After examining the site map, twin sisters Philippa and Sarah Colborne, who emigrated from England and moved to the Gateway Apartments on the Embarcadero in 2009, said they had been impressed with the democratic process at all three community meetings. Being British, they said, they were inclined neither to throw around compliments nor to complain - though Philippa suggested the dog park might be too close to the children's playground.

"On the whole we would describe it as pretty good," said Philippa. "We like it."

Another Gateway resident, Alec Bash, was more generous in his assessment. "I think it is a tremendous step forward from what we have now," said Bash, a former city planner. "The fountain is out of place, out of context without the freeway behind it, and now out of time. It is an obstacle in the way of creating a grand park that can be enjoyed for generations."

The new park has not yet been named. Fundraising is ongoing and includes the Downtown S.F. Partnership, the S.F. Downtown Development Corp. and the San Francisco Office of Economic & Workforce Development. Rec and Park hopes to begin work in late 2026 or early 2027.

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