After ten years of public outreach and community planning, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is moving forward with a new park in Rincon Hill: Guy Place Park at 4-8 Guy Place, near the development site for the new Transbay Terminal and the foot of the Bay Bridge.

Rec and Park will issue a request for bids to construct the mini-park by the end of the summer, with full construction expected to take one year. 

Surrounded by a mix of older buildings and newer residential high-rises, the area is one of a few undeveloped properties in the Rincon Hill district. The property was acquired in 2007 using funding from the Rincon Hill Community Improvements Fund, collected through fees on new developments in the district. 

Rec and Park noted that the city arborist has deemed existing trees on the property hazardous to pedestrians, and they will be removed. However, eight new trees will be planted in the park, along with three “living columns” of California grapevines to separate the space into three distinct areas.

The site’s existing slope will be leveled out, and if funding allows, a sitting area at the rear of the park could include a granite “weeping wall.” 

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district includes the new park, helped secure an additional $60,000 in funding to improve access to the site with a new pedestrian bulb-out. 

“We must build complete neighborhoods while building housing,” Kim said today in a statement. “I am proud that years of community advocacy made this new park a reality."

Initial community outreach and design first occurred in 2008, and further public input was gathered in 2014 before the San Francisco Arts Commission approved a final design plan.

SFAC also led the solicitation of a new art installation for the park—a water-cut steel fence designed by Adrian Colburn—designed to reflect the neighborhood’s historic and current geology. 

To find out more about the plans for Guy Park Place, attend the community open house on August 2nd, 6-8pm at 375 Beale Street.