FACES Bayview Childcare Center

FACES Bayview

Patricia Algara, Lead Landscape Architect
Sutter Wehmeier, Lead Landscape Architect

FACES Bayview is more than a childcare center – it’s a community anchor in  San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point neighborhood. It serves children ages  0-5, offers extended-day and camp programs through sixth grade, and provides  family support services grounded in community, justice, and growth. Bayview’s  history is both vibrant and burdened. Once a center of Black life shaped by the  Great Migration and WWII shipbuilding, the neighborhood later endured  systemic neglect, industrial dumping, and environmental contamination,  including a nearby Superfund site. Residents have faced toxic soil, polluted air,  and elevated rates of asthma and other illnesses. Here, environmental  sustainability is inseparable from environmental health. For the children of color  and low-income families FACES serves, access to safe, biodiverse outdoor  space is both a developmental necessity and justice. This project transforms  the existing play yard into a nature-based playscape that restores ecological  function while prioritizing children’s health and community well-being. 

Located in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point, FACES Bayview is the  organization’s largest site, serving children ages 0-5, extended-day and camp  programs through 6th grade, and providing essential family support services.  Rooted in community, justice, and growth, it primarily serves young children of  color from low-income families navigating structural inequities. Bayview’s  environmental history is layered and adverse. Once a thriving center of Black  life shaped by the Great Migration and WWII shipbuilding, the neighborhood later endured industrial dumping and systemic neglect. A former landfill  became a federal superfund site. Soil and air contamination from lead,  mercury, radioactive compounds, and other pollutants have had lasting health  impacts, contributing to elevated rates of asthma and other illnesses. Here,  environmental sustainability cannot be separated from environmental health.  

The FACES Bayview nature playscape reimagines the childcare play yard as  restorative infrastructure, offering a biodiverse, health-forward environment for  children growing up in an environmentally-challenged community. The project  began with protection. Soil testing guided strategies like clean soil importation,  raised planting systems, and phytoremediation to stabilize contaminants.  Vegetative buffers and layered canopy planting reduce dust and improve  localized air quality. Increased shade will lower surface temperatures and  mitigate heat-related exposure risks. 

The project’s material choices have all prioritized precaution and safety. All play  elements have used untreated, non-toxic materials. Permeable surfaces and  engineered wood fiber have replaced previously impervious areas, improving  stormwater infiltration and limiting pollutant runoff. The design not only avoids  introducing toxins – it actively reduces exposure pathways. Within this  protective framework, biodiversity became the organizing principle. Native and  climate-adapted plant communities were chosen to support pollinators and  birds while offering seasonal variation in texture and color. Edible gardens  connect children to food systems and cultural traditions. Logs, habitats  features, rain gardens, and bioswales make ecological processes visible,  transforming the yard into a living classroom. Topographic variation – small  hills, boulders, and balance logs – encourages healthy risk-taking and motor  development. Rather than relying on static equipment. The design offers loose  natural materials and evolving systems. Children can dig, climb, observe  insects, and watch seeds disperse. The landscape becomes both classroom  and co-teacher.  

Though modest in scale, the new nature playscape functions as a micro restoration site within an urban patchwork of environmental stressors.  Increased canopy and plant diversity will improve soil vitality, reduce airborne  dust, capture stormwater, and create habitat stepping stones for urban wildlife.  The site models how childcare landscapes in environmentally impacted  communities can serve both as nature havens and ecological infrastructure.  The long-term impacts are ecological and intergenerational. Daily contact with  a biodiverse environment supports sensory integration, emotional regulation,  cognitive growth, an environmental stewardship. For families, the playscape  becomes visible proof that investment in environmental health is both possible  and deserved. The FACES Bayview nature playscape integrates remediation,  habitat creation and early childhood development into one cohesive system. By  transforming and ordinary play yard into a regenerative landscape, the project positions ecological design as protective infrastructure. Play becomes  restoration and biodiversity becomes care.