San Francisco’s mythical beauty begins with its physical qualities, the overlay of geography and geometry, the soft rolling California hills encrusted with the map of grids and buildings. This woven quilt of landscape and lines is the way the site of the city is occupied.

The grid is the tried and tested device for the democratic division of land, its most poignant tool and graphic symbol. This framework can absorb endless and continuous changes in program and use within its overall unifying structure.

When we first saw the project site projecting into India Basin, we were struck by its similarity to the site of the city itself projecting into the San Francisco Bay.

Our proposal is this democratic infrastructure, a landscape of logic, a topography of reason allowing endless contours of choice and change.

The confluence of landscape and grid produce a rich set of conditions, an array of opportunities for programs and means to inhabit the park. This new park-scape, a micro-scale San Francisco, has all the richness and diversity of the city, compacted in a single spot on the bay.  The entire landscape is a playground of activities for all ages and demographics. It serves the neighborhood, the district, the city and visitors.

Nature city at India Basin is a parallel to the city of San Francisco itself, a condensed semblance, living and changing alike. 

It is a shadow city without walls where all the life of the insides can now happen in the freedom of nature.

Project done with SWA Group Landscape Architects