Guy Place Mini Park Opens

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A 3,500-square-foot mini park, located on Guy Place near 1st Street in San Francisco, opened today. “It’s always important for our neighborhoods to have access to healthy outdoors spaces, but during the COVID-19 pandemic it’s more necessary than ever for kids, families, and other residents to have accessible, safe outdoor spaces,” said Mayor London Breed in a prepared statement. “This neighborhood has seen a lot of desperately-needed housing in recent years and I’m glad we’re also able to provide more open spaces for the people who live and work in the area.”

The park, which cost $4.5 million to realize, was built by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. It features three defined outdoor spaces, or “rooms,” with different landscapes and grapevines. There are also eight river birch and dogwood trees and a sidewalk bulb-out with a pet fountain (and pet “relief area”).

“I am thrilled to see a brand new park for the SOMA community,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, also in a prepared statement. “This is the result of many years of neighborhood advocacy, and residents here were integral to making this space a reality. I’m excited to continue working with Rec and Park to bring more parks to District 6.”

The park, like many such projects, was long in the making.

4-8 Guy Place, the location of the park, was purchased by the Rincon Hill Community Improvements Fund in 2007. Planning and design started in 2008, followed by additional community outreach in 2014. In the Spring 2017 enough funding was cobbled together to start building. According to Hoodline, construction started in 2018.

The new park includes “Geologic Ghost,” a waterjet-cut steel fence designed by artist Adriane Colburn, who was inspired by the geology and history of Rincon Hill. Colburn used historic maps to reconstruct the topography of the hill, then created a 3-D model to generate the structure of the fence. Its designs were created with attributes of graywacke, a type of sandstone common to the area.

“The Arts Commission is excited to see local artist Adriane Colburn’s beautiful cut steel gates at the threshold of the Guy Place Mini Park in Rincon Hill. Her vision and scholarly rigor–referencing the physical and historical nature of the neighborhood–enriches the downtown location with meditative patterns inviting and the public to enter and enjoy this urban green space,” said the Commission’s Acting Director of Cultural Affairs Rebekah Krell.

For readers who live in SoMa, be sure to check out this new public space. For those who are still sheltering elsewhere, the city produced a video tour: