Bayview Gateway: Built by the Community, for the Community

Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association (BHNA) and San Francisco Public Works

Brian Jencek, HOK, Lead Landscape Architect
Andrea Alfonso, San Francisco Public Works, Lead Landscape Architect
Yong Uk Kim, HOK, Senior Landscape Designer

This project transforms a long-overlooked southeast gateway of San Francisco into a vibrant, community-driven landmark in Bayview-Hunters Point. Historically on the wrong side of equity, this working-class neighborhood has lacked investment and recognition. By securing land and funding, the project reclaims underutilized space, fostering environmental and social justice.Through collaborative design, the project unites residents, the city, and the design team to create a welcoming open space that honors Bayview as a gateway to the city. A defining feature is the mosaic letters—a tapestry of donated pottery and ceramics, carefully broken and arranged by local artisans, volunteers, and seniors. Some pieces bear maker stamps from former Bayview pottery companies, embedding community heritage into the design. More than an open space, Bayview Gateway is a collective celebration of ecology, history, culture, and identity—built by the community, for the community.

Project Context and Background
The design team was approached by the City of San Francisco Public Works and community to provide pro-bono planning, design and community visioning services in partnership with the Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association (BHNA) with the goal of developing new community open space for the Bayview neighborhood. The historically underserved Bayview neighborhood has one of the most diverse populations in San Francisco. The community has historically faced many inequities, including substandard housing, declining infrastructure and significant fragmentation of neighborhood streets and communities due to municipal infrastructure, transit lines, and landfills that cut through Bayview to support the city’s growth.

Unlike the much wealthier but similarly positioned Presidio neighborhood at the north entrance, Bayview sits at the city’s southern edge, yet lacks the monumental, welcoming parklands found in the Presidio marking the entrance to San Francisco. And yet Bayview has its less known landmarks too, the iconic Bayview Hill overlooks the neighborhood and is dotted with endemic flora and fauna as well as massive and historic rock outcrops. The project was born from the idea of creating a new gateway that would mark the entrance to the city from the southeast but also showcase the rich cultural and ecological history of Bayview Hill and the surrounding neighborhood.

A Community-Led Vision for Open Space
The project was rooted in a community-based approach to rethinking public space. Together with the BHNA and city, the design team worked side by side with community leaders on a public visioning process and design effort to develop a unified vision for the neighborhood that could be translated to a new gateway open space.

The design team and neighborhood residents collectively brainstormed the elements that truly defined the Bayview, the uses they envisioned, and the character they sought for their community. From those sessions the team distilled this direct feedback into three main goals, or the “kit of parts” for their community parks:  that they 1) allow for expression and participation, 2) incorporate the endemic ecology and natural environment, and 3) express local history and culture. This process ultimately led to the design of the pilot gateway open space (located at the intersection of Meade Ave. and 3rd Street) along with drafting design guidelines to shape future park spaces in the neighborhood as well.

The design featured native plantings and colorful monument letters came together to welcome visitors to the reclaimed green space. A set of 10-foot-high letters made of cast-in-place concrete and overlaid with mosaics spell out the words “BAYVIEW.” The planting palette, which features a majority of California native species alongside productive trees, honors the community vision of a place that allows for participation and interaction while celebrating the local ecology and expressing cultural history.
Next, the design team worked with BHNA to secure funding opportunities, including the Community Challenge Grant’s Third Street Corridor Grant. In preparation for the grant, the design team provided visuals, writing and project budget planning. Grant awards were successful, and construction of the pilot project began.

An Innovative Community-owned Construction Process
As part of the neighborhood Juneteenth celebrations, community members and volunteers from the design team helped to install the mosaics on the BAYVIEW letters. Local nonprofit Public Glass guided the design of the mosaics, which pull from the community-developed design guidelines and visually references the Ohlone, Chinese, Hispanic and African American traditions that make up Bayview’s cultural heritage. Materials were sourced from household ceramics and heirlooms donated by neighborhood residents. In this way, the letters also serve as a time capsule: neighbors can see their personal contribution to the getaway project, and some of the elders at the local senior center who helped sort the tiles recognized pieces from local business that once operated in Bayview, allowing the letters to showcase this important history.

The gateway project was officially unveiled at a ribbon cutting with elected officials, the community, design team and city staff. The space has since been well loved and maintained by the community as they continue to care for the space. Neighborhood volunteers and the design team still come together on regular workdays and community events.