Mission Bay Bayfront Park

Bayfront Park is a new 5.5-acre park along the easternmost edge of Mission Bay, envisioned as a vibrant public space that celebrates the rich history of the evolving eastern waterfront. With its palette of rugged and reclaimed materials, Bayfront Park reconnects present-day Mission Bay to its maritime history.

Surfacedesign facilitated community meetings to understand the neighborhood’s goals, which resulted in a vision for a park that is simultaneously iconic and active, and prioritizes flexible spaces, access to the water, robust plantings and natural elements.

New opportunities to access the water, capitalizing on the park’s expansive bay and city views, have been incorporated through a series of stepped terraces, immersive overlooks and a steel observation deck that cantilevers over the water’s edge.

Bayfront Park celebrates material re-use and authenticity. The project is the largest recipient of the Oakland Museum of California’s Bay Bridge Steel Program, originated in response to interest from Bay Area artists and creative communities to make the bridge’s steel available for public use, preserving the material as a major landmark and historic icon via public projects throughout the State. Steel elements from the now-demolished eastern span of the bridge are incorporated throughout the park as sculptural features: vertical steel elements animate the 16th Street Plaza and act as supports for a pair of shade structures, repurposed beams are used as informal seating elements along the waterfront and in the plaza and as part of the observation deck.

Rip rap is used throughout the park to bring the rugged waterfront language into the site through a series of terraces and along the edge of exuberant bioretention gardens. In an innovative treatment of a common material for waterfront infrastructure, rip rap was also sliced and installed as pavers at a series of overlooks along the Bay Trail. Fragments of a historic seawall found at nearby Pierpont Lane were saved from being off-hauled and have now become informal seating along the waterfront.

The planting approach at Bayfront Park is a reflection of the gradient of site conditions from the developed urban edge to the marine edge of the bay. The design team established a series of plant communities ranging from coastal scrub along the bay to an upland coastal prairie palette, to bioretention gardens that manage stormwater runoff and address potential flooding and sea level rise. This mix of native and adapted planting supports habitat and showcases seasonal change.

Bayfront Park’s design is intentionally flexible, creating many possibilities for group gathering, recreation, and tranquility along the waterfront, with its various walking and biking trails.

At the site of one of the last pieces of the waterfront in Mission Bay, Bayfront Park is a democratic, iconic new public space that represents the dynamism and optimism of San Francisco.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Status: Completed 2024

Project Type: Public Waterfront Park

Collaborators: Lotus Water, GHD

Photography: Marion Brenner

Renderings: Surfacedesign

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