Built Project:
Divisadero Street Parklet

Location:
West side of Divisadero Street, between Hayes and Grove Streets

Opening Date:
March 18, 2010

San Francisco Great Streets Project, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Mojo Café, and many hard working volunteers.

This project would not have been successful without the tireless support of the Great Streets Project and the volunteers they organized to build the Parklet.

Design Details:

A Parklet is a new type of Pavement to Parks Project. Instead of reclaiming a piece of underutilized roadway at an intersection, Parklets repurpose two to three parking stalls along a block as a space for people to relax, drink a cup of coffee, and enjoy the city around them. Parklets do this by building out a platform into the parking lane so that the grade of the sidewalk gets carried out into the parking lane. On the platform, benches, planters, landscaping, bike parking, and café tables and chairs all come together to provide a welcoming new public space.

Riyad Ghannam of rg-architecture and Greg Upwall of Studio Upwall provided design services free of charge to the City. The Divisadero Parklet has three café tables, 10 café chairs, a bench, three bike racks, landscaped planters, solar lighting, and a solar receiving panel. Cable Rail and the planters provide a visually permeable edge along the street.

The Parklet platform was built using a decking product donated free of charge to the City from Bison Innovative Products. The deck is constructed of sustainably harvested hardwood (FSC certified) which is leveled using a system of adjustable pedestals, which themselves are built using 20% post-consumer recycled plastic. The cabling was donated and the planters and landscaping were purchased below cost. The capital to purchase the elements that weren’t donated was provided by a grant from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative.

Mojo café has agreed to provide daily maintenance of the Parklet, although all seating and bike parking is free and open to the public.

See below for an early rendering of the parklet during design development.

image courtesy of Riyad Ghannam, RG-Architecture

Funding:

Grant from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s Neighborhood Market Place Initiative.

Material Donors:

Decking system: Bison Innovative Products
Cabling: Feeney / Cable Rail
Wood and hardware: Beronio Lumber
Planters: Architectural Precast
Landscaping: Flora Grubb Gardens

Photos:

Images courtesy sfbike on Flikr

Media Coverage:

• S.F. plazas, 'parklets' spout, squeeze out cars
  SF Chronicle (2/25/10)
  
  
• Mojo Bicycle Cafe's Remy Nelson and Divisadero's New Parklet
  Bike NOPA (3/18/10)
  
  
• Volunteers Brave Rain to Erect Tiny Parks Throughout City
  SF Weekly (3/12/10)
  
  
• Mojo Parklet In Place (And Rather Popular On This Sunny Day)
  Socketsite (3/15/10)
  
  
• Newsom Christens New Mojo Cafe “Parklet,” Pledges More to Come
  SF StreetsBlog (3/18/10)
  
  
• Parklet in Front of Mojo Cafe is a Community Destination
  SF StreetsBlog (4/26/10)