Groundworks Office was called in to visualize and design a staircase like no other currently in the City of San Francisco. A staircase with more than just it’s obvious function. Teaming up with the San Francisco Park Alliance, SF DPW and a few buddies from Friends of Potrero Hill Rec Center we’ve envisioned a staircase that brings a community together across a 300’ distance and more than 50’ in elevation. The faces of the bay area hills are changing for various political and commercial reasons, but the 22nd Street Staircase doesn’t care about that stuff. This staircase is for a growing, ever-changing community to ensure that neighborly conversations and a connection to nature are available to all native and new.
There are far too many straight staircases or too few that attempt to define a space. Luckily, we’ve got a little help from UCSF and their public improvement fund to transform a muddy path into something a neighborhood can be proud of. The invention here was an idea about prefabrication and our modular tread design. Working closely with Ware Architects and Engineers we looked to create a stable and airy framework for the staircase. Precast treads which sit upon heavily reinforced grade beams cantilever outward to give a sense of floating.
The structural engineering and design limits difficult formwork, on-site pours and disgruntled neighbors. The simple, directed geometry meanders and guides commuters and locals along native plantings of the coastal forests and local bay area flora. Large landings are great for intimate socially distanced meet-ups and extra-wide step treads allow the ascent and descent of all decent people.