For National Arbor Day, Check Out Transamerica Redwood Park

Photos: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline

In honor of National Arbor Day today, we point you to an unusual patch of greenery downtown: Redwood Park at Transamerica Pyramid Center.

This half-acre oasis was one of the city's earliest Privately Owned Public Open Spaces, or POPOS, serving as a much-frequented respite from the frenzied pace of the FiDi.

Office workers on lunch break, dog walkers, tai chi practitioners, shoppers looking to rest their feet and more all take advantage of this grove of greenery. Its bubbling fountain and towering trees offer a bit of sound buffering, too, and during the summers, it's one of the sponsors of People in Plazas, which offers free outdoor concerts here, among other locations downtown and at Civic Center.

We sent numerous emails to the public relations firm for Transamerica Building asking for further details about the park beyond what was online, and despite our repeated stalking, were unable to pry the mystery out of them.

So here's what we do know: According to the Cultural Landscape Foundation's page about the park, it was designed in 1969 by Thomas Galli, and built in 1972 in conjunction with the Transamerica Pyramid. 80 redwoods were initially brought in from the Santa Cruz Mountains and planted; today, 50 remain.

"In addition to the redwoods, the park incorporates boulders, shrubs, and bermed planting beds filled with ferns and flowering plants," the site notes. "It is paved with exposed-aggregate concrete pavers and enclosed by a tall steel fence, with three gated entrances open on weekdays."

A centerpiece of the park is the fountain, designed by Anthony Guzzardo. Jumping frog and lily pad sculptures designed by Richard Clopton were added to the fountain in 1996, reportedly—according to Landscape Voice— as a tribute to Mark Twain's famous short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." The park also features a bronze sculpture of children at play by Glenna Goodacre, installed in 1989, and a bronze plaque honoring Emperor Norton's dogs Bummer and Lazarus.