“…city officials are pursuing a major makeover [for Hallidie Plaza] that calls for turning a portion of the sunken plaza into a small reservoir and topping it with a street-level deck.”
∙ Ideas for Hallidie Plaza include reservoir [SFGate]
∙ Image: Hallidie plaza by telmo32 [flickr.com]
A cistern to hold all the urine?
Finally! The city will actually use the water from the creek that hits Powell BART instead of just pumping it to the sewers. This idea is long long overdue.
I was honestly surprised at the sensibleness of this proposal and hope funding can be found.
I was just in Melbourne and surrounding areas. They’re in a 10+ year drought with regular water restrictions. It seemed like everyone had a 20,000 gallon water tank connected to their roof drains, which I was told can provide enough water for a year if you’re frugal.
I can’t wait to get my hands on some Hallidie Plaza water…crispy~
This idea seems too sensible for SF. It has my full support.
I’ve often wondered how the plans for Hallidie Plaza evolved. I can see how it might have seemed like a good idea in 1975 or whatever… with the tourist info place it appears intended as a sort of showcase or meeting place. Now it’s just a deep well you have to climb out of to get to the cable cars (evading panhandlers en route). I would love to see some contemporary renderings showing how they imagined people would use the space.
Keep in mind that architecture cannot solve ALL of society’s social problems, including pan handlers, homeless, drug dealers, etc..
Yes, the design of the plaza is very 70’s and very dated..but new and fresh remodeling alone will not solve the problem
Just like malignant cancer or parasites, by removing bums and drug dealers, SF’s problems will vanish. SF property values will rise and taxes from those properties will rise accordingly.