San Francisco, California
history continued
While the design’s unusual pie-shaped blocks were an idea of Schultze, Church developed the overall concept for the landscaping of each individually designed and graded garden courtyard, the different street types, open spaces such as Juan Bautista Circle, the Meadow and recreation area, and the stabilization of the steep slope on the southern edge of the site. As part of the second phase, Church would also complete the landscape design for the three clusters of high-rise apartment buildings, additional low-rise blocks, maintenance structures, shopping center, and administration building.
The geometric and partially axial site plan of Parkmerced breaks with the traditional San Francisco street grid.
The Beaux Arts plan is anchored by the heavily wooded, three-acre, oval park, Juan Bautista Circle. All major and minor streets radiate from this center and are intersected by a ring of connector streets. Landscaped traffic circles serve as traffic calming devices and, to the west of the main circle, a large open space called the Meadow serves as front yard for four thirteen-story high residential towers.
Courtesy Aaron Goodman
Church repeated plant materials throughout Parkmerced providing a visual unity of appearance. However, each unit courtyard was individually graded and landscaped in response to topographic and climatic conditions using a minimal selection of Mediterranean and native plants. Microclimatic conditions supported the selected palette of plantings and canopy trees, which have since reached maturity.
Boston City Hall Plaza
Boston, Massachusetts
Estates Drive Reservoir
Oakland, California
Heritage Plaza
Heritage Park
Fort Worth,
Texas
Kaiser Roof Garden
Kaiser Center
Oakland,
California
Lake Elizabeth
Allegheny Commons
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Manhattan Square Park
Rochester, New York
Mill Creek Canyon
Earthworks
Kent, Washington
Miller Garden
Columbus, Indiana
El Monte
Hato Rey, Puerto Rico
Pacific Science
Center Courtyard
Seattle, Washington
Parkmerced
San Francisco, California
Peavey Plaza
Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis,
Minnesota
American Society of Landscape Architects’ Indiana, Pennsylvania/Delaware, Minnesota, Northern California, Texas, Upstate New York, and Washington Chapters • Astorino • Charles Butt • Design Within Reach • Topher Delaney • Sandy Donnell & Justin Faggioli • Fathom • Tom Fox • Hillman Foundation • Indianapolis Museum of Art • Lorraine Osmundson • Richard T. Murphy • National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Northeast, Southwest, and Western Offices- with funds from the Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation of New York, Dodge Jones Foundation Intervention Fund, and Eastern Massachusetts Preservation Fund • James Richards • Seibert & Rice • Diana & Bruce Shuman • Ann Stack • SWA Group • TBG Partners • Michal and Jeffrey William Tincup • Unilock Inc. • The Woltz Charitable Trust