Clay Street Pier - Sue Bierman Park - Redesign

Sue Bierman Park is in the heart of San Francisco between the financial district and the Fisherman Wharf district. This redesign of Sue Bierman Park is the culmination of intense site inventory and analysis and dozens of hours of design studies. It was identified that the park's main user groups were tourists, well-off residents, and employees of the nearby high-rise businesses. It was also determined that nearby parks and gardens lacked any neighborhood identity and creating a space that users could take ownership of and speak of was a priority. Other goals included tying the history of the place to the present with art and form and improving connectivity between the numerous streets and interstitial pedestrian spaces nearby. Lastly, the collection and filtering of urban runoff by incorporating a bioswale will help supply cleaner effluent into San Francisco Bay.

The site exists in a landfill, which was once the Yerba Buena Cove (the old name for San Francisco), and this cove was the main port of entry during the California gold rush. In 1850 it was reported that many ships arrived but never left and remained in the port abandoned, derelict, and eventually sunk. Yerba Buena Cove, much of what the financial district and Fishermans Wharf sits on today, is the site of dozens of sunken ships. Sue Bierman Park is home to one of these ships 'The Elizabeth" and prominently represents this with a sunken ship garden and gathering space. Other ship-themed features include the sunken ship adventure park for children, a viewing platform for tourists that represents the prow of a ship, and a "Garden of Masts" representing each ship known to be buried in the landfill of Yerba Buena Cove.

Staying on theme and within the context of 1850, the existing clay street was a well-used dock at the time. One of the design goals was to reimagine this as a pedestrian corridor that resembles the original dock and this provided numerous opportunities to redesign the entrance at the busiest pedestrian corner so it was more open and inviting and two more entry plazas at other ends of the park, each designed with the different user groups in mind.

Incorporating sustainable design into the project was a must. The large swale in the center provides opportunities for native plantings, benefiting local pollinators and cleaning up urban runoff so that the San Francisco Bay can be a cleaner place.