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Twenty-five teams responded to a request for qualifications to design 10 acres of new parkland in the Presidio which will connect the Presidio’s Main Post with Crissy Field, the Presidio Gateway project, and the Presidio Trust has just announced the finalists.

The Gateway project also includes three acres of newly designed parklands adjacent to the Crissy Field Center, including facilities and grounds for youth programs.

The final five teams, their pitches, and examples of their work (which includes the High Line in New York, Tongva Park in Santa Monica, and Waller Creek in Austin):

  1. CMG Landscape Architecture (San Francisco)
  2. James Corner Field Operations (New York)
  3. OLIN (Philadelphia/Los Angeles)
  4. SNØHETTA (Oslo/New York /San Francisco)
  5. West 8 Team (Rotterdam/Brussels/New York)

Each of the teams will be awarded a $25,000 stipend to develop its proposal over the next two months and their designs will be presented to the public in the fall. And speaking of the public, the Presidio Trust will launch an open “ideas competition” next month and is inviting the public to meet the five design teams at a forum on May 6.

8 thoughts on “Five Teams Competing To Design A New Gateway To The Presidio”
  1. Will they have an exhaustive multi-year review process, then reject all the applicants? Sounds familiar.

  2. The Presidio is jammed with expensive parking meters so nobody ever goes — which from what I can tell is pretty much what they want — emptiness.
    The design should be a windswept empty space with a giant parking meter inserted in the middle: “Welcome to the park that isn’t one.”

  3. I’m confused by what the trust is trying to accomplish, however, I’m encouraged that they have resisted certain temptations to overly commercialize the space. I have no issue with this taking forever so long as they get it right. But sooner the better.

  4. Somewhere in the park service there is an old army guy hanging on who giggles to himself every time he thinks of all of the hippies and the yuppies and the techies and their sloth and their money and their hapless ways in San Francisco and how they can’t do a damn thing about the huge former military base complete with 18 hole golf course and an airfield plopped right in one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate in North America.

  5. Am I missing something or does the proposal for James Corner Field Operations have a typo in the opening sentence of their statement of interest?
    “It is with great pleasure that I submit to you our expression of interest to prepare an exceptionally creative for the New Gateway to the Presidio.”
    Exceptionally creative what? Tough start for these guys.

  6. “The Presidio is jammed with expensive parking meters so nobody ever goes — which from what I can tell is pretty much what they want — emptiness.”
    Its definitely not empty. Its just not a 3 ring circus like GGB, which is fantastic. I hope they make some attempt at keeping the Presidio more rustic. It has vastly changed over the past 10 yrs in terms of accessibility, which i guess is good. But they have torn down a lot of trees and gotten rid of single track running and hiking trails in favor of wide gravelly and paved paths. As a trail runner, i dont like that, but apparently i dont own the presidio.
    Also theres free parking ALL OVER the presidio. not sure where you are referring to with the meters comment.

  7. There are meters on the parking by the warming hut. When sports basement moves to its new location opposite East Beach, it will have for-pay parking. East Beach parking will remain free but since it is across the street from sports basement it will likely be saturated by people driving to SB events.

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