Did you know that San Francisco is the first city to have a park within a 10-minute walking distance from each home? That’s pretty impressive when you think about it. Our first virtual event was an insightful success with attendees tuning in from NYC, London, and Mexico City! Talk about a turnout!
GBD’s virtual screening of William H Whyte’s “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” was the perfect movie to kick off one of many educational events to be held by the GBD this year.
Many may have thought this 1980 classic sociology film might be considered outdated, but it is as inspiring today as it was back then. Whyte’s grainy but informative film not only gave way to looking at urban spaces and their use, but it also gave us a fun nostalgic evening to chat about how things once were and how we would like our city to use space for sitting and simply enjoying the landscape of San Francisco.
The chat line was filled with comments about how things were back then compared to how things are now. “ Wow, this is when people looked forward rather than down!” was one comment.
Attendees also expressed interest as to how nice it would be to close more streets to allow more freedom for pedestrians to gather in settings such as outdoor dining, and sitting space for individuals to simply enjoy the scenery of the city. A few comments included a need for more street closures. One attendee commented, “YES...Promenade culture!” in regards to the transformation of the Embarcadero after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Another participant liked the moderator’s suggestion that San Francisco develop pedestrian streets in our “city of neighborhoods” by saying that they “should be accessible to ALL and a network of them so you could navigate the entire city SAFELY without a car”.
Whyte’s classic movie still remains relevant to today’s public space issues, and one could say that although we may not have made as much progress as we’d like, there are individuals activating space with purpose and integrity to allow citizens near and far to enjoy the rich beautiful heritage of San Francisco. Our panel of speakers brought great insight and inspiration to how we can allow the public to gather and enjoy a bright sunny spot to call their own for a minute or two.
Thank you to our moderator, Kat Sawyer; GBD Green Space Advocate. The panel discussion remained lively, informative, and uplifting.
Our esteemed panelists included: Robin Abad Ocubillo Director of Shared Spaces for the City and County of San Francisco. Marcy Coburn, Senior Director, Creative and Marketing at Brookfield Properties. Patricia Fonseca, Associate Principal in AECOM’s (Crane Cove Park) and Jason Kelly Johnson, co-founding Design Principal, FutureForms.
One interesting observation was that each panelist had expertise in one unique perspective for making better use of public space. Each one pointed out that in order to activate a space, they must first think of how it could be inclusive to the immediate neighborhood and welcoming to visitors. This shows that they want the space to be utilized rather than just created from an outside source. Here’s a highlight from each panelist.
“The principle of diversity equity and inclusion is so pivotal to creating any open space or park. Which is first and foremost about improving The Human Condition and The Human Experience….”
“(Yes) food! Food obviously is… We love food and one of the things that I’ve really seen in terms of engaging people around food is making sure that it’s really accessible. So number one thing I would say was that this principle of diversity equity and inclusion is so pivotal to any food event. Like it can’t be too precious. It can’t be too expensive. It needs to be rooted in culture and in the actual people who are going to (attend) and who you want to attend?”
“There is no conflict with the history of the site (Crane Cove Park). So what I love the most about the park is, you know, that reimagining of what it was like and all the activity and all the workers and the sounds and so you can almost like we imagined that and the park is not pretentious in any way. So it really feels like it’s part of the neighborhood and its part of the history”
When moderator, Kat Sawyer asked Jason Kelly Johnson, “How can we make this space vibrant (GBD New Lot, Gears Parcel at 23rd between Indiana and Iowa Street)?”, ears perked up and the new space in question had the spotlight.
“I would advocate that it have a short term, medium-term and long-term idea behind it that it does not get just looked at as a kind of isolated place that we think of it as a part of a wider network as a kind of corridor that will start to engage again and again... So but in terms of this space, I think we should try out some experiments.
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Whyte points out that under-utilized space is the biggest problem in public spaces, and sociability is the mark of success in urban planning. In the end, we all really want what Whyte illustrates in his work; people want to gather and be together in bright, beautiful, creative, inspiring spaces.
We look forward to hosting you at our next event and keeping the conversation going.
Meet the Panelists
Moderator
Greening Urban Watershed Program Manager at the Watershed Project and has served as Green Space Advocate for the Green Benefit District since 2016.
Panelists
Co-founder and Design Principal, FUTUREFORMS; Associate Professor, California College of the Arts. FUTUREFORMS explores the intersections of art and design with public space, performance, advanced fabrication technologies, robotics, and responsive building systems. Jason also serves on the GBD Board.
Senior Director, Creative & Marketing, Pier 70 at Brookfield Properties; former CEO, CUESA & Ferry Plaza Farmers Market; former Executive Director, The Food Craft Institute and the Eat Real Festival.
Associate Principal, Landscape Architecture, AECOM with an emphasis on climate resiliency, biodiversity and zero waste goals. Projects include Crane Cove Park, Treasure Island Community Development, Ocean Beach Master Plan, Islais Creek Mobility Adaptation Strategies.
Senior Planner at the San Francisco Planning Department; Director of San Francisco’s Shared Spaces program; Project Manager for the Central Waterfront-Dogpatch Public Realm Plan; Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts; Producer and Curator of the SF Urban Film Fest.