Not that long ago, San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood was a mostly industrial area known for factories, warehouses, and shipyards. Today it's one of the city's fastest-growing residential communities, with developments by world-famous architects. Our work at Warm Water Cove creates waterfront access for this new community and extends the popular Bay Trail. Aesthetically, the design is sympathetic to the area's industrial legacy, but functionally it restores the bay ecosystem and creates a more robust ecology for the future.
Developed with input from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), our plan brings people closer to the Bay, with an accessible path, a gabion seat wall and steps leading down to the water, and a steel truss pedestrian bridge that crosses a small inlet. By reintroducing flood-resistant plants that are historically found along the waterfront, the new landscape will help restore the tidal ecosystem. The vision for the project is to create a space that blends the industrial nature of the past with the natural landscape, making something that almost feels like it has always been there.
The new path is an extension to the San Francisco Bay Trail, a 350-mile accessible trail for people who job, bike, skate, and use wheelchairs. This new section moves the Metropolitan Transportation Commission closer to its goal of a 500-mile system connecting 47 cities. With this project, the Dogpatch neighborhood and the San Francisco Bay Area will continue to grow and progress, providing an important connection between the community and the landscape.