Buchanan Mall - Project Update

Things have been moving fast during the initial design phase of the Buchanan Mall park activation. To kick it off, we went on a site visit with Green Streets, Citizen Film, the Trust for Public Land and SF Rec & Park. Tyrone Mullins, from Green Streets, led us all through the five blocks of Buchanan Mall park. He and other members of the Green Streets team told us about the history of the neighborhood, often stopping to tell us personal stories from those who grew up next to the park.

Tyrone talked a bit about Buchanan Mall's transformation for a vibrant place for community gatherings to a no-mans land of sorts. Today many community members don't feel safe walking through the park and actively avoid it. There was also lots of discussion about Green Streets' dreams of what the mall could be, including potential installations like planters, markers and other elements to support the community in making the park a vibrant hub of activity again.

After the site tour, we went back to the design studio at SPS to do our first group sketch session.

The project is off to a great start, with kudos to the Trust for Public Land in shepherding the process along and SF Rec and Park for their support from the city perspective. Citizen Film and Green Streets have been working hard to form a Design Task Force, made up of a diverse cross-section of community members and we're super excited to get more members of the community involved to help push the Buchanan Mall activation design to the next level. We'll post more about the Task Force in action soon. In the mean time, be sure to check out the Green Streets blog here and stay tuned for more updates!