Naples Green

Location: Naples Street between Rolph Street and Geneva Avenue

Design: Shift Design Studio

Community Partners: Shift Design Studio, the Outer Mission Merchants and Residents Association, the Excelsior Action Group and the San Francisco Clean City Coalition.

Opening Date: November 5, 2010

 

Jane Martin of Shift Design Studio , a San Francisco based design firm, generously offered her time and resources to help design Naples Green. Naples Green was designed to provide neighborhood beautification, new green space, traffic calming improvements and a safe and enjoyable environment for residents to host and accommodate neighborhood events and activities. The work scope included the transformation of approximately 7,500 square feet of concrete and asphalt into new green public open space. At Naples green, landscaped areas with hundreds of new plants and 18 new trees, raised planter beds and pathways all come together to provide an inviting new open space. By removing concrete and asphalt, the Naples Green also provides storm water benefits by allowing rainwater to permeate into the ground instead of flowing into the sewer system.

Naples Green recreates a historical open space that once framed the entry to the Crocker Amazon neighborhood. In 1915, the city built the Naples Piazza to honor the Pan Pacific Exposition. The temporary structure was torn down four years later and has since been an underutilized cement space.

To further the enhancement of the neighborhood, a mural titled ‘A Neighborhood Inspired by History and Champions’ has also being resurrected along the wall of Cordova Market on Naples and Rolph Streets. Designed and painted by Max Ehrman , the mural honors historic building images that include the piazza structure that once stood at Geneva and Naples, the old Amazon Theatre and the Pumphouse, which was home to the first electric cars in San Francisco. Local sports heroes Willie Mays and Jerry Rice flank both sides of the piazza and symbolize the larger than life influence of the SF Giants and SF 49ers. Neighborhood diversity, local sports at Crocker Amazon, and the love of our San Francisco sports teams are portrayed throughout the mural with anime representations.

 

Donations:

Major Donor: The Wells Fargo Foundation

 

Photos:

Image above courtesy of MapJack

Images above by Andres Power

 

Media Coverage:

SAN FRANCISCO STREETSBLOG

• Final Pavement to Parks Plaza Skips Trial, Becomes Semi-Permanent Park (11/8/10)

 

Pavement to Parks is made possible with participation of the following City agencies: