Historic beach in San Francisco’s Golden Gate enhanced to serve the public
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationSan Francisco, California United States
ClientGolden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Size6.2 acres

China Beach acts as an amphitheater to take in the drama of the San Francisco Golden Gate: the ebb and flow of the wildlife, currents, tides, winds, fog, sun, surf, and marine traffic. Ultimately, this larger landscape and the landscape features of a refreshed beach terrace will be the defining experience for the visitor to China Beach. We are striving to produce a design that builds on the spirit of the site and creates excitement, wonder, and access for visitors, but that is also implementable, long-term, and highly functional.

Open spaces such as China Beach are where the special aspects of the Bay Area region are to be stored, treasured, and enhanced for the public to enjoy. Our approach will weave together community goals, history, culture, recreational and functional programs, tourism, transportation, accessibility and open space into a cohesive landscape experience unique to China Beach.

Related Projects

Guiyang Hot Springs

Guiyang Hot Springs, located in Guiyang City, China, brings together the rhythm of the Nanming River, and surrounding trails and trees to create a new urban ‘living room’ in the interstitial space created by new development and roadway infrastructure. Nestled into a mountainous site, the master planning addressed elevation changes of up to 100 meters and the e...

The Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza

Harvey Milk Plaza is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro Neighborhood, and hosts one of the city’s busiest transit hubs. The plaza has been the site of countless gatherings and protests, including a candlelight vigil the night of Harvey’s untimely death and the White Night riots, which were sparked by the leniency of the sentence handed down to his ...

Ricardo Lara Park

Ricardo Lara Park is a vibrant city park and a case study in landscape infrastructure.  It demonstrates how a small investment and creative thinking about landscape can transform the very infrastructure that has long divided and isolated a community into an amenity that unites it, offering much-needed environmental and recreational benefits.

Here, more ...

Portsmouth Square

Portsmouth Square is the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown: the main civic park for all community festivals and events as well as an important day-to-day outdoor living room for the community. Centered in the densest community in the United States west of the Hudson River, the park plays a critical role in the health and well-being of the local residents, ove...

Golden Shoal Riverfront Park

Located along Chongqing’s Jialing River, this new linear public park offered unique challenges: a 30-meter annual river fluctuation, steep topography, and low-impact maintenance of a continuous riparian corridor. Adjacent new urban development, with attendant needs for green space, called for a flexible and resilient approach to the park’s landscape and infras...

Sanshan Hillside Park

The Pearl River Delta has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past four decades, evolving from farmland to a global manufacturing and technology powerhouse. Amid the frenetic pulse of this sprawling megalopolis of 86 million people, Sanshan Hillside Park stands as a mountaintop oasis.

Envisioned as New Town’s Central Park, the design embr...

Tulsa Riverfront Park

SWA directed conceptual studies for incorporating a landmark residential estate, a multi-family housing complex and a creek corridor into the adjacent Arkansas River waterfront of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently acquired by a local community foundation, the total 64-acre area features sweeping lawns and a historic home that provides much-needed space for the city’s ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Square Water Quality Demonstration Park

The City of Conway received local and federal grants to create a water quality demonstration park in a flood-prone, one-block area of its downtown to educate the public about Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI) methods and how they can enhance water quality. The project transformed a remediated brownfield site, ...