Harvey Milk Plaza:
Architecture firm Perkins Eastman selected for redesign
The San Francisco office of architecture firm Perkins Eastman has been selected to redesign Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro after a competition that attracted 33 entries.
The firm would recast the neighborhood’s Muni subway station with a tiered amphitheater that at its summit forms a glass portal to the entrance. Tall sculptural candles would be a symbolic reference to the pained march after San Francisco’s first openly gay supervisor was shot and killed at City Hall in 1978.
“Perkins Eastman had a big creative idea that we feel has the potential to have an iconic presence and become a destination,” said Andrea Aiello, president of Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza. The group raised $500,000 to hold the competition and provide seed money for the project, which has an estimated budget of $10 million.
Transformation of the plaza is by no means assured.
The $10 million will need to raised privately, and both Muni and the city’s Department of Public Works first would need to sign off on any changes to the plaza at Castro, 17th and Market streets. It’s also sure to be subjected to more scrutiny as the proposal moves from a conceptual scheme into the public realm.
For instance, the amphitheater-like seating ramps would gain visual drama by rising methodically from Castro Street. But the subway entrance would be relocated to the plaza’s west end — adding to the walking distance of commuters who might be rushing to catch a train.
“That’s a problem” mentioned by residents who looked at the three finalists online, said Aiello, who also is executive director of Castro/ Upper Market Community Benefit District, a property owners association. However, “the Perkins Eastman team has shown an incredible flexibility in terms of refining their concepts and they’re very open to working with the public.”
The other finalists were a team led by Groundworks Office, a landscape architecture firm in Berkeley, and Kuth | Ranieri Architects of San Francisco, working with RHAA Landscape Architects and artist Catherine Wagner.